Pasta salad with chicken, delicious way to prepare pasta and get a healthy, well-balanced and nutritious meal. Let’s prepare it together with our food blog Hana’s Recipes!
Pasta salad with chicken: Why?
There are plenty of reasons why pasta salad with chicken is often made these days. Not only does it bring plenty of health benefits but it is also a perfect idea for meal prepping. Let’s take a look at some more advantages, proving that pasta salad should be part of your diet:
- This recipe includes a diverse range of ingredients, namely chicken, pasta, corn, pineapple, eggs, leeks and mayonnaise, giving the salad a great mix of flavours as well as colours. What is even better is that you do not necessarily need to stick to mentioned food items. You may simply omit, add or replace, based on what you are currently craving.
- Generally, the salad includes a few easy steps, mainly cooking the pasta, grilling the chicken, chopping the remaining ingredients and mixing everything together. The overall preparation should not take more than half an hour, which provides an ideally quick, yet still well-balanced lunch or dinner. That’s due to the protein from chicken pieces, carbohydrates from pasta and vitamins and minerals from added vegetables or possibly fruit.
- Pasta salad with chicken can be prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator until consumed. This allows all the flavours to meld together over time and create even more delicious pasta salad version. It can be therefore made for last-minute gatherings and visitors without any unnecessary chaos.
Enough of the benefits! Let’s get to the salad preparation itself and discover its admirable advantages on our own!
Ingredients for the recipe
- 500 g of spiral pasta,
- 2 larger chicken breasts,
- 1 spoon of mayonnaise / sour cream,
- 1 large can of sterilised corn,
- 1 small can of sterilised pineapple,
- 4 hard-boiled eggs,
- 2 handfuls of finely chopped leeks,
- 3 spoons of olive oil,
- Seasoning: Barbecue pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice
Preparation of pasta salad with chicken
1Wash the chicken breasts, dry and cut them into small cubes. Add olive oil and grilling spices. Let it all rest in the cold for at least 10 minutes.
2Cook the spiral pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.
3Fry the meat in a pan. Then let the pieces cool. After that, it is time to start preparing the other ingredients for the salad. Begin with chopping the leek, then pineapple and eggs into smaller pieces.
4Finally, add cooked pasta, corn, leeks, pineapple, eggs, mayonnaise and grilled chicken pieces into a larger bowl. Mix it all and season with salt, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and, according to your preference, even juice from sterilised pineapple.
5Let the salad stand in the cold for at least an hour, so that all the flavours come through.
Well done! Now you can fully enjoy your pasta salad with chicken or leave it as a meal prepping idea that will be enjoyed later in the week.
If you are in a mood for a different kind of salad, try out our verified recipe for a delicious potato salad!
Pasta salad with chicken and slightly different ingredients
Read more: Other great additions to pasta salads
Hana’s Recipes has already provided you with several ideas how to make pasta salad more colourful, delicious, yet still well-balanced and healthy. But what about these unique ingredients? Would you give them a try?
- Dried fruit: Fresh fruit as well as fruit pieces from the can are highly popular in pasta salads now, exactly as sterilised pineapple in our case. However, we do not commonly hear about dried fruit. It can certainly be an option, primarily dried pieces of cherries, figs or cranberries. They all bring a delightful sweetness to the salad which ideally adds to salty flavours of other used ingredients. Hana’s Recipes also believes that it is beneficial to soak dried fruit pieces in warm water for a few seconds to plum them up before adding to pasta salad with chicken, for instance.
- Edible flowers: Many people still consider adding edible flowers to salads as pure decorations. However, they bring with themselves many antioxidants for lower risk of heart diseases as well as vitamins and minerals for better immune function. Certain edible flowers like calendula and chamomile are also known for their digestive powers during indigestion or bloating. Of course, we recommend double checking if the chosen flowers are 100% edible and if there haven’t been utilised any chemicals or pesticides. However, once it is confirmed the flowers can be used in pasta salads, the visual appeal as well as the subtle taste addition work very well together. Mainly in terms of roses, violets or a famous lavender.
- Seafood: Probably not a major surprise that seafood complements the flavours of pasta salads very well. In case of pasta salad with chicken, people may think that seafood would be an unnecessary addition. However, a smaller portion of shrimps, crab meat, diced calamari or scallops will not hurt. Besides, not only does seafood bring wonderful texture and taste to the salad, it also provides extra protein to the meal and is low in saturated fats and calories. All you need to pay attention to is that the chosen seafood is cooked well before being mixed with the rest of salad ingredients.
FAQ 1: How can I ensure that the pasta in the salad remains firm and not mushy?
To prevent the chosen pasta from becoming mushy before being added to the salad, make sure to cook it al dente, according to the package instructions. Moreover, rinsing the cooked pasta under cold water right after draining can help maintain its texture and provide the right taste and aroma to the meal.
FAQ 2: Are there any gluten-free versions of pasta salads?
You can generally make the pasta salad either vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free, particularly based on your dietary limitations or common preferences.
Specifically for gluten-free options, salads may consist of brown rice, quinoa or lentils. These are used most commonly as gluten-free alternative versions of our mentioned pasta salad with chicken. Obviously, you may experiment however you like and include other ingredients that you generally enjoy.
Good luck and happy cooking!
