Rotisserie Chicken Pasta Salad with Summer Vegetables
This isn’t so much a recipe as a guideline—use whatever items you like to make your own version. Choose pasta with texture and shape so it will hang on to the dressing and other salad ingredients for a perfect bite. A delicious store bought dressing (choose a low sugar version with clean ingredients) will make this salad easy to throw together in a pinch.
Serves 8
Ingredients:
- 1-1 lb box cavatapi pasta
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups English cucumber unpeeled, sliced lengthwise and diced into ½ inch pieces
- 1 yellow pepper, diced in ½ inch pieces
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half
- 4 whole scallions, finely sliced
- 2 ears of fresh corn, cooked* and kernels cut off the cob
- 3 cups diced or shredded rotisserie chicken (approximately one whole chicken)
- 1 cup bottled salad dressing, plus an additional ¼ cup reserved**
- 2 avocados, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks and tossed with juice from ½ lemon
- 10-15 fresh basil leaves, cut into fine ribbons
- ¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted on dry skillet
- 1-8 oz block of feta cheese, cut into small cubes
- Salt and pepper
Directions:
- Cook pasta according to package directions in very salty water. Drain and toss with olive oil to prevent sticking. Set aside to cool in a large bowl.
- When pasta has cooled, add cucumber, yellow pepper, grape tomatoes, scallions, corn and chicken and toss gently with 1 cup salad dressing.
- At this point salad can be covered and refrigerated up to one day until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, add avocado, basil leaves and feta cheese to other salad ingredients and toss to combine. Add up to ¼ cup additional dressing as desired and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- *To quickly cook fresh summer corn still in the husk: Trim any long pieces from ends of husk. Place one ear of corn, still in husk, on microwavable plate, uncovered. Microwave 2 ½ minutes. Corn will be very hot—allow to cool before handling.
- **Nature’s Promise Organic White Balsamic Vinaigrette (at Stop ‘n Shop) is my favorite!