Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad
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This Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad features a medley of chopped veggies, juicy chicken, and corkscrew pasta packed with flavor and covered in a sweet Italian dressing. The PERFECT dish to bring to a potluck, picnic, or a quick weeknight dinner for the family!
Pasta Salad is perfect as a light meal or side dish. For a few more tasty pasta salads check out Taco Pasta Salad, Caprese Pasta Salad, and Creamy Asparagus Pasta Salad is always a hit!
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Table of Contents
Why We Love Chicken Pasta Salad
We love pasta at our house. You can usually find some kind of pasta on our dinner plates at least once a week in some variety or another. I love that you could mix almost anything with pasta and it would be delicious.
It can be enjoyed as a main dish or sans the meat and serve as a side dish. This pasta salad is perfect for picnics, potlucks, parties, or everyday eating—-like lunch! Enjoy!
What Goes In Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad
(full printable recipe at the end of this post)
Pasta salad is a great last-minute “throw it together” kind of dish because most of the ingredients are stocked kitchen staples. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own creamy chicken pasta salad.
- Rotini pasta – Spiraled pasta holds the sauce and toppings the best, but any medium-size pasta will work.
- Sweet Italian dressing – choose whatever brand you prefer, or make your own dressing!
- Mayonnaise – I love the olive oil mayo but any kind will work
- Lemon juice – use fresh-squeezed for best flavor
- Mustard – traditional yellow mustard
- Cucumber – A standard or English cucumber will work
- Tomatoes – Any tomatoes will work, but I like cherry tomatoes
- Cheddar cheese – shredded or cubed
- Celery – chopped
- Black olives – sliced, not whole
- Green onions – also known as scallions
- Cooked chicken – Rotisserie chicken works great here, as well as any other kind of leftover cooked or grilled chicken. You could also use turkey or any plant-based meat alternative of choice. Keep in mind you could leave the chicken out completely for more of a side dish salad
- Salt and pepper – to add flavor
- Paprika – optional for extra flavor
- Parsley – optional for garnish
How To Make Chicken Pasta Salad
Everyone should have at least one great pasta salad recipe in their back pocket to throw together any time they need a quick and easy side dish. Prepping this easy pasta salad with chicken comes together in no time.
Follow these simple instructions and see for yourself!
Cook: First, bring a large pot of water to a boil and heavily salt the water and stir in the pasta. Cook pasta one minute past al dente. Once fully cooked, rinse the pasta with cold water, and set aside.
Chop: While pasta is cooking, chop vegetables and shred chicken.
Mix: Using a large bowl combine the warm pasta with veggies, chicken, and dressing. Mix until well combined and serve room at room temperature or chilled.
Serve the perfect pasta salad every time when you learn the 10 mistakes to avoid when making pasta salad.
Pasta Salad Tips
- Don’t skimp on the salt: Cook your pasta in heavily salted water. Pasta for a cool pasta salad should be well-seasoned while it cooks, use 4 tablespoons of salt per 4 quarts of water.
- Cook just past al dente: Allow the pasta to cook a little beyond al dente so that the pasta stays soft when it cools. Let the pasta cook for an extra minute than what you normally would for al dente.
- Run under cold water: Running the cooked pasta under cold water immediately after cooking will stop it from cooking any longer once you’ve removed it from the heat.
- Dress warm pasta: The dressing will coat the pasta better if placed over warm pasta, rather than cold.
How Long will Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad Keep?
The best thing about any pasta salad recipe is that it is a great make-ahead recipe. If you’re a planner / over preparer like me then you’ll love being able to make this chicken pasta salad recipe a day or two in advance to keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.
To Refrigerate: In order to properly preserve the freshness of your homemade chicken pasta salad, store it in an airtight container or cover the serving bowl with plastic wrap. Once sealed, place in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
Depending on what you put in the pasta salad, some ingredients may start to go bad faster than others, so just keep an eye out if you start to see any browning or spoiling of any ingredients when serving leftovers.
To Freeze: Unfortunately, you can’t really freeze the prepared pasta salad as a whole. The various condiments will not freeze and thaw well when all combined. You can prep and freeze the cooked pasta, chopped vegetables, and meat. To do this you will mix together all the dry ingredients and store in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator for 1-2 months.
Once ready to serve, let the pasta salad mixture thaw for several hours or overnight, and prep your sauce mixture, and mix into the dry ingredients.
More Easy Summer Side Dishes
Chinese Slaw – A delicious change from the classic slaw.
Grilled Corn and Zucchini Salad – A fresh summer side that pairs well with anything off the grill.
Bean Salad – Quick to make, packed with flavor, and travels well making it perfect for potlucks!
BLT Red Potato Salad – A simple crowd-pleasing side dish for any size gathering.
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Originally posted in January 2013. UPDATED March 2021. We spiffed up this post with more info and better pictures! No changes to the original recipe.
Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad
This Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad can be enjoyed as a main dish or sans the meat and serve as a side dish. It's perfect for picnics, potlucks, parties, or everyday eating.
Ingredients
- 1 pound rotini pasta
- 1 cup sweet Italian dressing (I prefer Marzetti)
- 1/2 cup real mayonnaise
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 2 cups cucumber, chopped
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded or cubed
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped
- 1 cup sliced black olives
- 1 bunch green onions, sliced
- 2 cups cooked chicken or turkey (shredded)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- sprinkle with paprika, optional
- parsley (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Heavily salt the water and stir in the pasta. Cook one minute past al dente. Rinse with cold water, and set aside.
- While pasta is cooking, chop vegetables and shred the chicken.
- In a large bowl, combine cooled pasta with all other ingredients, and stir until well combined.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 446Total Fat: 29gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 727mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 3gSugar: 5gProtein: 20g
Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients used.
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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I’m the same way… I tend to eat at weird hours when I’m at home. This looks pretty darn good though!
What a great looking salad – I’ve never heard of Skroodle salad, but I think I like it!
Such a fabulous pasta salad Cheryl!
sounds wonderful, cheryl!
i love any kind of pasta salad!
Why do you call it skroodle salad? I love the name, it’s cute! 😉
Skroodle pasta is another name for rotini pasta 😉
Cheryl,
This looks delicious and not the typical pasta salad. My husband (who gets bored with food easily) would love for me to try this recipe.
Love pasta salads! I tend to skip lunch too, which leads to never-ending snacking!!
I find it harder to remember to eat lunch (or eat a good lunch) now that I work from home too. You’d think it would be the opposite! Pasta salad is always a good option though! 🙂
Love the name of this salad…”skroodle”! It sounds delicious, too – I’ve always liked the Marzetti salad dressings.
Looks like dinner to me! Great recipe Cheryl. 🙂
I usually eat a Lean Cuisine or a PB&J. Looks good!
Mmm, yummy salad!
Six tabelspoons of lemon juice sounds like a lot … it that correct? Also do you use fresh or bottled lemon?
Yes, 6 Tablespoons of lemon juice is correct – it’s going into a whole pound of cooked pasta with 2 cups of meat and a few cups of vegetables – so it’s not really that much at all. You can use real, from the bottle of Real Lemon. Enjoy!
I try to eat lunch every day which is either leftovers or sandwhich (usually chicken salad)
Deeeelicious!
I love the name Cheryl! What a fun, easy pasta salad.
Both my grand-daughters love pasta. They’d enjoy this salad and the fun name.
That salad looks wonderful! I have not tried that dressing yet! Your recipe looks simple and tasty – right up my alley! Thanks for sharing!
Pasta salads eaten right out of the container, while standing in the fridge (close!) do not count! That is why , pasta salads are one of my favorite. That, and you get to say, “I had salad for dinner, lunch, and breakfast!” You sound so amazingly fit and devoted to your diet.
This recipe sounds so good…can hardly wait to make it. We eat pasta at least once a week also and it will be wonderful having a new recipe. So easy! Thank you Cheryl!
I don’t always eat a proper meal when I’m alone either unless I’ve prepared something ahead of time that I can easily grab.
This looks really good, Cheryl! I am SO guilty of skipping lunch ( and many meals) every day because I am so busy. Will have to try this!
Thanks so much, Claire
Love the name of this salad! Looks great too!
I have a really hard time remembering to eat lunch when I am working too! Great idea to make a big pasta salad to have on hand for lunches.
any recipe with the word “pasta” in it, is always a winner!
I’m hungry now!
There are few blogs for men where you could find something as delicious as this recipe. Of course, a big slice of meat is also great, but you can’t eat it everyday. I’ll give this salad a try with a few basil leaves. Thank you for these creative ideas Cheryl.
Yum, I’m such a sucker for pasta salad. I do each lunch every day, but lately I seem to be scrambling & picking…not good. I’ve been trying to make a big pot of soup to last me through lunches, pasta salad is another great idea!
I’ve never seen that dressing, will look for it. This looks great Cheryl!