Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad
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This Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad is perfect for a BBQ, a picnic or lunch. Loaded with chicken, bacon, tomatoes, olives , all smothered in a creamy ranch, mayo and sour cream dressing. This will be your “go to” pasta salad this summer!
The Best Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad
Don’t you feel like summer is going by too quickly? I made a pasta salad for you, my friends, because I feel that a good pasta salad is like the quintessential summer salad that’s perfect for all occasions. I’ll help us hold onto that lovely summertime feeling for just a bit longer!
The reason I love this salad so much is because it’s loaded with chicken and it has one of my favorite all time ingredients, bacon. The other ingredient that I added and love in this salad are the tomatoes because it adds a burst of freshness to the salad. So there you have it, creamy, fresh, bright and balanced, my favorite pasta salad and the only salad I want to have for the rest of the summer.
Dressing
- Mayonnaise – You can use any kind of mayo you’d like, but believe me you want this creamy component.
- Sour cream – This ingredient will add some nice tang. If you’d like to bulk up the protein you can sub this out for an equal amount of Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of lemon juice added.
- Ranch dressing – This addition will pack tons of great flavor and pair nicely with the chicken.
Pasta salad
- Rigati – This is a smaller version of rigatoni. I wanted something with ridges that would soak up all that sauce.
- Chicken – Cooked and diced up, I like to go to the store and buy a nice rotisserie chicken to chop up but you can also use Roast Chicken leftovers.
- Bacon – Fried up and chopped into bite sized pieces.
- Veggies – Celery and cherry tomatoes will add some nice fiber and brightness to our pasta salad.
- Olives – Black olives sliced up nicely to add some savory tang.
- Combine the dressing: In a medium size bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Prepare the pasta: Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain in a colander and rinse it under cold water to stop it from cooking any further. Transfer the pasta to a large bowl
- Finish the pasta salad: Add the bacon, chicken breast, celery, black olives and cherry tomatoes then add the prepared dressing. Toss well.
How To Serve
When I think of this dish, I think of a big meaty entree to munch away alongside it. Anyone else or is that just me? Regardless here are some of my favorite ways to make this into a full blown meal.
Expert Tips
- Rinse the pasta, this will take away some of the starch and prevent our pasta salad from becoming a blob.
- Keep variety in mind when adding your mix ins, you want something with crunch, something bright and acidic, something nice and creamy, and of course a little bacon.
- Cool it before serving, placing it covered in the fridge will allow all those flavors to really get to know each other.
Leftovers
You can only really store this dish in the fridge, so unfortunately freezing ahead of time won’t work. Seal in an airtight container and this dish will keep for 3 – 5 days in the fridge.
Try These Other Delicious Pasta Salad Recipes:
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Taco Pasta Salad
- Deviled Egg Macaroni Salad
- Asparagus And Peas Pasta Salad
- Macaroni Salad
- Tuna Macaroni Salad
- Antipasto Salad
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Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For Dressing
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup ranch dressing
- 1/4 cup chives (chopped)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
For Pasta Salad
- 10 ounce pasta (I used Rigati, which is a smaller version of Rigatoni)
- 6 slices bacon (chopped and fried)
- 2 chicken breasts (cooked and diced (about 2 cups), I used all the breast from a Rotisserie chicken )
- 1 stalk celery (chopped)
- 1/4 cup black olives (sliced)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain in a colander and rinse it under cold water to stop it from cooking any further.
- Transfer the pasta to a large bowl. Add the bacon, chicken breast, celery, black olives and cherry tomatoes then add the prepared dressing. Toss well.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
AMAZING!!!
This pasta salad was best I’ve had in a long time! I will be making many more times! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
My pleasure!
This is refreshingly good!
What ranch dressing do you use ? It’s hard to find a good one.
We love Litehouse ranch!
This was a great way to use some leftover chicken. It was tasty and hard to stop eating. The only thing I did differently was add a small cucumber, scallions, and some white onion. I didn’t have any bacon to add but it was still a delicious salad.
Hi Jo! What ranch dressing do you recommend using in this recipe?
This look so delicious, this is the best of the best salad I have ever had. Will be making this a recipe for my family.
Yay!
Hi Jo. I have been searching for a creamy pasta salad and you have delivered one. It is sad, but true, that many pasta salads are on the dry side, especially leftover. This one certainly fixes that issue. I have the same issue with potato salad, it must be creamy.
So glad you like the Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad as much as we do. Thanks for posting your comment and being a part of our Jo Cooks community.