Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Chicken Pasta Salad with Asparagus Recipe


When the weather turns warm, it's nice to have a few good main dish salad recipes to turn to. The following recipe was inspired by a recent recipe from Jenn's Food Journey. I didn't have all the ingredients she called for and wanted to make it gluten free, plus I wanted to add the asparagus which is in season in our garden. So, this recipe can be made with gluten-free pasta or regular pasta. If you're going gluten free, I highly recommend Tinkyada pasta as the best brand I've found for taste and for keeping its integrity when cooked.

Chicken Pasta Salad with Asparagus Recipe - Gluten free (or not)

1 large can chicken breast, drained and shredded or broken into small pieces
4 c. Tinkyada (gluten-free) penne pasta, cooked, rinsed, drained, and cooled
2 c. fresh asparagus, cut diagonally into 1" pieces and steamed until bright green and slightly translucent, then cooled quickly in ice water (The important thing here is to NOT overcook it.)
1/2+ green pepper, diced
1/2+ red bell pepper, diced
1/2+ onion, chopped
1/3 c. kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1/2 c. Miracle Whip salad dressing (You may want a little more or less.)
1 t. Bragg's Liquid Aminos
3/4 t. dry mustard
Sea salt to taste
1 sprig parsley
Put all ingredients into a large bowl and mix gently. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, then pour out into the serving dish and garnish with parsley. Also, it's fun to put a few extra kalamata olives on top to add to the color.

Difficulty level:  EASY
Time needed: About 20 minutes to cook, cool, and assemble, and is even better the next day.

I really liked this because I like getting some protein in a salad, I love chicken, I need kalamata olives, the dry mustard gave it a little zip, and the exciting green and red of the peppers and asparagus helped balance the boring color of the pasta.


This post is linked to: Making the World Cuter Mondays and Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and Making Monday Marvelous and Made from Scratch Tuesday and Delectable Tuesday and Anything Related Tuesday and Take a Look Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday  and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Wandering Wednesday and What's Cookin' Wednesday and We Did it Wednesday and Thrilling Thursday and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Fat Camp Friday and Fun With Food Friday

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9 comments:

Unknown said...

LOVE this salad... even with the asparagus :)
Glad I could inspire such a delicious looking (and sounding) dish!!

NanaNor's said...

Hi Judy, I always love your recipes but so appreciate gluten free-then I don't have to tweek it myself! I will be sure to make this, share it and share the recipe with my daughter's family-who are also gluten free.
Hugs today.
Noreen

Beth Zimmerman said...

Beautiful .... and sounds delicious!

Ma What's 4 dinner said...

OH that looks sooooo good. I'm totally going to make this for the 4th!

Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma What's For Dinner
www.mawhats4dinner.com

Yenta Mary said...

Oh, it's perfect! Light, refreshing, easy, colorful, protein, vegetables, and FLAVOR ... :)

Candace said...

I absolutely LOVE this salad, Judy! Chicken and pasta is one of my favorite combinations and I love that you've added asparagus to it. De-licious!

Judy said...

Thanks for the recipes, Judy, they sound very tasty! I'm finally getting a bit caught up on blog-reading. I agree, Tinkyada products are great, and I especially like the spaghetti.

Paula y Mónica said...

Hi!!!

I found your blog today and saw that cutiest pitapata!!!!

My sister is an animal lover too. She is crazy about animal care and protection, she alwas brings animals from the street.

http://amore8fortunata.blogspot.com

I made my owns pitapatas!!!

You have a beautiful blog, (and animals too)

My english it´s no good, sorry for some mistake!

Xoxo. hug your four-legs friends for me!!

Rug Cleaning Santa Monica said...

Yummy! What a great summertime pasta dish! I Can't wait to try it :D
-Rachel

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