Hen Pasta Salad (with Creamy Greek Yogurt Dressing)

This creamy hen pasta salad is totally loaded with goodies: bacon, peppers, broccoli, corn, feta cheese, hen, and tomatoes… all tossed along with a tangy, herby buttermilk Greek yogurt dressing. This huge pasta salad can feed a crowd, and it additionally makes for excellent leftovers.

What started a number of years in the past as a “throw a bunch of leftovers along with some chilly pasta” dinner has change into a summertime staple in my home. Pasta + hen + veggies + bacon + cheese + simple. This hen pasta salad is a successful mixture for certain. And it all comes along with a tangy do-it-yourself dressing that’s almost unattainable to move up.

It’s the pasta salad for these of us who like a variety of STUFF of their salads. 😉

Right here’s Why You’ll Love This Hen Pasta Salad:

• Endlessly customizable—add your favourite greens, attempt a distinct cheese, or make it vegetarian
• Creamy, tangy dressing made with low-fat buttermilk and Greek yogurt
• Handy make-ahead recipe, similar to my creamy strawberry feta pasta salad
• Makes a giant batch, excellent to take to a BBQ or different gathering
• Scrumptious leftovers make for a fast and simple lunch or dinner

If it’s a vegetable and you’ve got it available, it is best to throw it into this pasta salad. Like artichokes, olives, shredded carrots, diced cucumbers, chickpeas, you get the thought! With that in thoughts, right here’s my beginning lineup of substances:

Base Components in Creamy Hen Pasta Salad

• Pasta: I like fusilloni or rotini greatest right here as a result of the corkscrew form captures a lot of the creamy dressing. Use any brief pasta that’s simple to eat (let’s keep away from fettuccini right here!), and has plenty of nooks and crannies to carry onto dressing.
• Chopped Cooked Hen: This may be grilled, blackened, poached, rotisserie roasted—no matter you occur to have available. I choose grilled or rotisserie.
• Cherry Tomatoes: You’ll love the little juicy pops of taste these give the pasta salad. They’re the most effective elements of this kale pesto mozzarella pasta salad, too!
• Broccoli: Chop recent broccoli florets into small items—no must prepare dinner it. After I don’t have broccoli available, I often sub in cucumbers.
• Cooked Corn: Candy, crisp corn scraped off the cob is the tastiest on this pasta salad, however frozen and thawed or canned corn work too.
• Bell Pepper: Crimson, orange, yellow—take your choose from the pack of peppers. (Say that 5 instances quick!)
• Feta Cheese: Salty, creamy feta cheese crumbles style so good on this salad, however be at liberty to swap in a distinct cheese.
• Cooked Bacon: Crisp and crumbled bacon bits add a lot unimaginable taste to each chunk.

Whereas the pasta cooks, prep the opposite substances and make the salad dressing.

Buttermilk Herb Greek Yogurt Dressing

Now let’s speak concerning the dressing! Although there’s already a lot to like on this pasta salad, the dressing really makes the entire dish come collectively. The base is low-fat/nonfat Greek yogurt and low-fat buttermilk. When you can’t discover buttermilk, you need to use complete milk and add an additional teaspoon of lemon juice, however you’ll lose some taste. Add slightly mayonnaise, a drizzle of olive oil, some recent herbs, a squeeze of lemon, a splash of vinegar, and a sprinkle of seasonings. It tastes tangy, creamy, and oh-so-much-better than store-bought dressing. It jogs my memory slightly of the Greek yogurt sauce that pairs so nicely with these zucchini fritters.

This recipe makes about 2 cups of dressing. It could look like loads, however the pasta soaks up loads because it sits, and there are additionally so many add-ins—this recipe feeds a crowd!

Place the nice and cozy pasta, chopped veggies, and hen in a giant bowl, and pour a lot of the dressing on prime. Stir to mix and coat the whole lot with dressing, then add the crumbled feta and bacon and stir once more. That’s it! There’s extra work in chopping all of the greens than really making this dish.

You’ll be able to take pleasure in it instantly, however I prefer it greatest after it sits for a pair hours within the fridge. The flavors develop slightly extra, turning this into pasta perfection.

Success Tip: Save a Little Dressing for Serving

Save the final little bit (a number of Tablespoons) of dressing to stir into the pasta salad proper earlier than serving, so it tastes further creamy and flavorful. I’ve been making this recipe for years, and I simply found this little trick. What a distinction it makes! You see, because the pasta salad sits, it absorbs an increasing number of of that scrumptious dressing and might start to clump collectively. Give it slightly refresher to loosen it up, and so as to add one other sprint of taste.

Success Tip: Preserve the Pasta Heat

Don’t let the cooked and drained pasta cool for too lengthy. Heat pasta mixes simpler, and helps the flavors within the dish *pop.* As a bonus, the nice and cozy pasta begins to melt the feta cheese, so the dish is even creamier. So good.

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Hen Pasta Salad (with Creamy Greek Yogurt Dressing)

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  Creator: Sally
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  Prep Time: Half-hour
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  Prepare dinner Time: 10 minutes
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  Complete Time: 40 minutes
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  Yield: serves 12
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  Class: Dinner
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  Methodology: Cooking
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  Delicacies: American

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Description

This easy pasta salad has the works! Bacon, crisp peppers, broccoli, feta cheese, hen, and tomatoes lined in a creamy, tangy  buttermilk Greek yogurt dressing. It’s for these of you who just like the “stuff” in pasta salads, greater than the pasta itself! Easy, fast, and makes nice leftovers. For the perfect outcomes, comply with my recipe carefully.

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Buttermilk Herb Greek Yogurt Dressing

Pasta Salad

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Directions

1. Make the dressing first, so it’s able to go. Whisk all the dressing substances collectively, and preserve at room temperature or cowl and refrigerate till prepared to make use of. Could be made and refrigerated for as much as 2 days earlier than utilizing.
2. Have the hen and your entire greens chopped, measured, and prepared for step 4, since you don’t need the pasta to chill for too lengthy. 
3. Prepare dinner the pasta: Convey a big pot of salted water to a boil. (I often use 1 teaspoon salt.) Add the pasta and prepare dinner till simply previous al dente. See pasta bundle for particular directions. Drain the pasta, and let it cool for simply 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour pasta into a big bowl. Add the hen, tomatoes, broccoli, corn, and pepper. Pour a lot of the dressing over the pasta salad (reserve about 1/3 cup or 80ml to make use of in step 7) and gently toss to mix.
5. Stir within the feta cheese and bacon. Style. Season with further salt, pepper, and herbs if desired.
6. You’ll be able to serve the pasta salad instantly, but it surely tastes even higher when you cowl and refrigerate it for no less than 1 hour and as much as 1 day. If refrigerating for longer than a number of hours, let it sit on the counter for 20-Half-hour earlier than serving, to assist loosen up the chilly, agency pasta.
7. Everytime you’re able to serve it, stir within the reserved dressing.
8. Cowl leftovers tightly and retailer within the fridge for as much as 1 week.

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Notes

1. Make Forward Directions: Make the dressing as much as 2 days upfront. See step 1. You can also make the whole pasta salad as much as 1 day upfront. See steps 6 and seven.
2. Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk
3. Buttermilk: Buttermilk is essential for taste. When you don’t have any, use complete milk or low fats milk and add 1 further teaspoon of lemon juice to the dressing. Nondairy milk works in a pinch, however the taste is missing. Add the additional teaspoon of lemon juice if utilizing nondairy, and add extra herbs to style.
4. Mayonnaise: Don’t omit the mayonnaise! You’ll be able to’t style it that a lot, but it surely does add slightly taste. When you determine to interchange it with extra yogurt, the dressing tastes further tangy.
5. Totally different add-ins: Be at liberty to swap out any of the greens for different favorites similar to cucumber, artichokes, olives, shredded carrots, or chickpeas.
6. Can I omit the hen? Sure, you possibly can skip the hen and add extra greens, or change with cooked chopped ham or sausage.
7. Up to date model: I initially printed this recipe in 2014! It wanted slightly makeover, because the dressing lacked taste. To repair it, I doubled the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and vinegar, added some sugar to steadiness out the flavour, and added dill. It’s extraordinary now, and yields a bit extra so the pasta salad is much more flavorful.

Diet

• Serving Dimension: 1 serving
• Energy: 330
• Sugar: 5.3 g
• Sodium: 411.2 mg
• Fats: 14.8 g
• Carbohydrates: 35.3 g
• Protein: 14 g
• Ldl cholesterol: 31.2 mg

Key phrases: hen pasta salad