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Home » Recipes » Healthy Lunch Recipes

Simple Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken

Published: Apr 11, 2024 by Tera Gigot · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

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This simple pesto pasta salad with chicken is flavor-packed, high-protein, and done in 20 minutes! It's equal parts perfect for serving a crowd (think picnics or potlucks) as it is for meal prepping lunches through out the week.

Chicken pesto pasta salad on a white plate. this recipe

Pesto has a special way of making the simplest ingredients taste like a perfectly cohesive, rich, and flavorful dish in mere minutes. And this pesto pasta salad with chicken is no exception! With chicken already cooked, you can easily throw this together in 20 minutes or less, and you've got a protein-packed, healthy pasta salad that tastes like a gourmet deli pasta salad.

P.S. Don't worry if you have extra pesto on hand after making this. I've got you covered with pesto potato salad and a warm spring roasted veggie pasta with pesto!

Jump to:
  • Key Ingredients
  • Substitutions & Variations
  • How to Make Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken
  • Tips for Success
  • FAQs
  • Related Recipes
  • 📖 Recipe

Key Ingredients

Chicken pesto pasta salad ingredients.
  • Pasta - Small pasta with crevices to hold the pasta is best! Think fusilli, rotini, bowtie, or cavatappi.
  • Pesto - After years of making pesto pasta recipes, I almost always go with homemade pesto or fresh pesto from the store (the kind in the refrigerated sections). When using store bought, I love the Trader Joe's kale and cashew pesto (vegan) or Costco's pesto. That said, any pesto will work!
  • Chicken - Use your leftover grilled chicken breast in summer, leftover whole roasted chicken, or buy a rotisserie chicken. If needed, you can cook and cool some chicken.
  • Sun-dried tomatoes - I recommend jarred sun-dried tomatoes here because they've been marinating in that delicious olive oil. I love Mezzetta sun-dried tomatoes because they're in most stores and don't have chemical additives.

Please see the recipe card for full ingredients & quantities.

Substitutions & Variations

This chicken pesto pasta salad is meant to be simple and flexible so that you can adapt as needed. Here are some ways to modify:

  • Vegan/vegetarian option - Remove the chicken to make this a vegetarian pasta salad. To make it vegan, use a vegan pesto (like my vegan parsley walnut pesto) and omit the chicken. Feel free to add in another plant-based protein such as chickpeas.
  • High protein - This is already a protein-packed pasta salad, but using legume pasta or high-protein pasta will add even more. Legume pasta is pasta made from legume-based flours such as chickpea or lentil flours, so it's gluten free as well.
  • More veggies - Stir in some arugula or spinach just before serving, add chopped oven-roasted bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, peas, or artichokes.

How to Make Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken

Rotini being cooked in a stainless steel pot.

Step 1: Fill a medium pot with water (enough to cover a box of dry pasta by an inch or two), and salt generously. Bring to a rolling boil, then add pasta. Cook on medium-high until the pasta is cooked past al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water, then drain and rinse the pasta briefly with cool water to remove starchy residue.

Rotini pasta tossed in fresh pesto.

Step 2: Add the cooked pasta to a large bowl and toss with fresh pesto to fully coat.

Pesto pasta salad with chicken in a large bowl.

Step 3: Add in the chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and fresh basil. Stir everything together to coat with pesto. Add in about ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water and stir into the pasta salad to help the pesto distribute and cling to ingredients.

Chicken pesto pasta salad in a light blue serving bowl.

Step 4: Top with shredded parmesan and serve immediately or chill until ready to serve! I love to toss in arugula or chopped spinach just before serving to pack in more veggies and fresh flavor.

Tips for Success

  • Cook pasta PAST al dente by a few minutes. I know the box instructions say otherwise, but this is a cold pesto pasta salad, so the noodles will harden as it chills in the fridge. After making many pasta salads, I find that cooking the pasta longer than the box says helps it stay soft and moist after sitting in the fridge. Soft, luscious noodles > hard, crusty noodles, all day!
  • Pasta water. ¼-cup to ½-cup splash of starchy pasta water helps the pesto distribute and cling to all the ingredients, and also helps keep our pasta salad from becoming dry. I keep a measuring glass right next to my pot on the stove so that I don't forget before draining.
  • Be generous with the pesto. The pesto is our main sauce, and it's key to preventing a dry pasta salad! If you add more to this salad - be it veggies, pasta, or chicken - be sure to increase the pesto accordingly.

FAQs

How long does pesto pasta salad last?

I recommend enjoying this pasta within five days of making it.

How do I store this pasta salad?

Place pasta in an airtight container in the fridge and serve as needed. I love making it in a large glass or stainless steel bowl that comes with a lid, so that I don't have to dirty up another dish to store.

Is chicken required for this pasta salad?

Not at all! I often replace it with chickpeas or a different type of veggie, such as roasted red peppers, garlic roasted tomatoes, fresh cherry tomatoes, or artichokes. If you omit chicken and still want to pack a protein punch, try a legume pasta such as chickpea or lentil. I use this in my olive tapenade tuna pasta salad and it tastes delicious!

Related Recipes

In the mood for pesto and/or pasta? Try these recipes:

  • Pesto potato salad scooped into large copper spoon resting on small white ceramic plate, next to bowl of potato salad and small white bowl of pesto
    Easy Pesto Potato Salad
  • Pesto pasta with spring roasted veggies in beige bowl with golden fork on gray and white surface with parsley sprinkled around
    Pesto Pasta with Spring Roasted Veggies
  • Parsley walnut pesto in small white bowl with spoon, on gray surface with walnuts and parsley leaves sprinkled around
    Vegan Parsley Walnut Pesto
  • Olive tapenade and tuna pasta salad in small white bowl with fork on light blue and white surface
    Olive Tapenade and Tuna Pasta Salad

Did you make this chicken pesto pasta salad recipe? Don't forget to leave a star rating 🌟 and comment below, and tag me on Instagram and Pinterest so I can see what you made!

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📖 Recipe

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Pesto pasta salad with chicken on a white plate.

Simple Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken


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  • Author: Tera
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: ~6 cups
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Description

This simple pesto pasta salad with chicken tastes like a gourmet deli pasta salad and comes together in 20 minutes or less! It's packed with protein and can easily take on more veggies. Meal prep it for lunches all week, or share it as a potluck dish to serve a crowd.


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 lb. package pasta (I love rotini, fusilli, bowties, or cavatappi)
  • ½ cup fresh pesto
  • 2 cups cooked chicken, cut into cubes
  • 1 cup kalamata olives, drained and sliced
  • 1 8-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil, drained
  • ½ cup parsley or basil, chopped
  • ⅓ cup parmesan, finely shredded
  • Optional but recommended: arugula or spinach for serving


Instructions

  1. Cook pasta. Fill a medium-large sized pot with enough water to cover pasta by a couple inches. Generously salt the water (I use a couple teaspoons) and bring to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook on medium-high heat until past al dente. Read the box instructions to find al dente, and then cook for a couple more minutes. Important: Scoop out ½ cup of the pasta water and set aside, then drain and briefly rinse the pasta with cold water to remove the starch.
  2. Toss pasta in pesto. Once pasta is drained and rinsed, add to a large bowl with the pesto. Toss to fully coat and get the pesto in all those noodle nooks and crannies.
  3. Add in other ingredients. Add in the chicken, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and herbs. Stir everything together to coat in pesto. To help the pesto spread and cling to the ingredients, add in a splash of the reserved pasta water (I usually do 2-4 tablespoons).
  4. Chill or serve. Top with parmesan and serve immediately or chill until ready to eat. I love this pasta salad cold and served over a bed of fresh arugula or greens.

Notes

  1. Rinsing pasta. We want to rinse the pasta with cool water to help stop the cooking process and remove any starchy residue that will cause noodles to stick together. However, just a few seconds should do it - if the pasta is still lukewarm instead of ice cold, the pesto spread around it easily.
  2. Cooking past al dente. For chilled pasta salads, it helps to cook pasta al dente as pasta hardens in the fridge. This helps prevent a dry pasta salad!
  3. Serve with greens. My favorite veggie to add to this pasta salad is fresh greens, but they wilt quickly when this salad is stored in the fridge. Instead, I love serving this pasta salad on a bed of arugula, spinach, or mixed greens.
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Category: Pasta Salad
  • Method: Combine
  • Cuisine: Italian

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: ~1.5 cups
  • Calories: 512
  • Sugar: 3.4 g
  • Sodium: 367.6 mg
  • Fat: 16.8 g
  • Saturated Fat: 3.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 62.6 g
  • Fiber: 8.7 g
  • Protein: 32.2 g
  • Cholesterol: 58.4 mg

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Tera Gigot, the author, photographer, and recipe developer of Roots and Radishes.

Hey, I'm Tera! And I'm so glad to meet you. I've been using seasonal produce to create recipes in my Wisconsin kitchen for 12 years. Here you'll find nourishing whole foods recipes that are approachable and delicious.

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Pesto pasta salad with chicken on a white plate.
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