Pesto Chicken Salad
This Pesto Chicken Salad is light, healthy and packed with the perfect pesto flavor! Great for BBQs, brunches, baby showers & more! It’s sure to become a ‘go-to’ recipe all Summer long!
Pesto Pasta Salad
Have you ever tried a recipe at a get-together and knew you had to make it as SOON as you got home? This was me after I tried a delicious pesto salad that one of my friends brought to a lunch play date awhile ago. All of my girlfriends at the play date were raving over how tasty it was and I couldn’t wait to recreate this yummy pesto pasta salad recipe! After taking my first stab at the pesto salad, it turned out DELICIOUS! It’s so light and healthy and even husband-approved! This pesto pasta salad is the absolute perfect dish to bring to any get-together!
MY OTHER RECIPES
The combination of flavors in this pesto chicken salad is seriously to-die-for! It’s so easy to throw together and can be eaten as both a main or side dish. This pesto salad is equally as great eaten as leftovers…believe me, you won’t leave a bite behind! This has become one of my favorite ‘go-to’ Summer salad recipes and I have no doubt it will become of yours as well!
How to Make Pesto Salad
This pesto salad recipe is super easy and takes only minutes to make! Once you see how simple and tasty this recipe is, it’ll quickly become a fast favorite!
- Cook bow-tie pasta according to package directions in a large pot of salted water. Drain pasta & run it under water. Drizzle with olive oil and stir around.
- Put pasta in large serving bowl & stir in pesto and Italian dressing. Add spinach, chicken, tomatoes & feta cheese. Toss to combine. Salt and Pepper to taste.
- Cover the pesto salad & refrigerate. If pasta seems dry before serving, stir in another tablespoon of olive oil.
Love this pesto salad? Check out these other pasta salad recipes:
- Easy tortellini Italian pasta salad
- BLT pasta salad
- Buffalo chicken pasta salad
- Cilantro lime chicken pasta salad
Here’s the printable recipe for Pesto Salad:
Pesto Salad
This Pesto Chicken Salad is light, healthy and packed with the perfect pesto flavor! Great for BBQs, brunches, baby showers & more! It's sure to become a 'go-to' recipe all Summer long!
Ingredients
- 1 package bow tie pasta (whole wheat or plus)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup basil pesto (jarred or homemade)
- 1/4 cup Italian dressing
- 1 cup chicken (grilled, canned or rotisserie)
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup feta cheese
Instructions
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Cook the bow-tie pasta according to package directions in a large pot of salted water. Drain the pasta and run it under water. Drizzle with olive oil and stir around.
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Put the pasta in a large serving bowl and stir in the pesto and Italian dressing. Add the spinach, chicken, tomatoes and feta cheese. Toss to combine. Salt and Pepper to taste.
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Cover the pesto salad and refrigerate. If the pasta seems dry before serving, you can stir in another tablespoon of olive oil.
Recipe Notes
Instead of Italian dressing, you could also try a ranch packet mixed with sour cream or Greek yogurt in the pesto salad.
This looks sooooo good! Thanks for sharing!
Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com
Am I just a crazy old lady who can’t figure things out, or did you share the recipe and I cannot find it. It sound awesome and I would love to prepare it!…That is, if you wouldn’t mind…
Lol! Some how the recipe image disappeared. It’s back now and ready for print! :)
I’m really jealous of your white Target dishes. Just wanted to let you know ; )
hehe you spotted them! Aren’t they so pretty? I only have this one set… but I’d LOVE the whole set!
This looks so yummy! I love pesto!
This looks wonderful! I am going to make this over the weekend!
Looks so good, can’t wait to try it!!
This looks yummy! What’s even better is that I have all of the ingredients for it!
What brand of Italian dressing did you use? When you say you could even use a ranch packet, is that in place of the pesto and Italian dressing or one or the other? Hehe sorry for all the questions.
Hey Kelly! I just used what I had in my fridge-wishbone Italian. If you use the ranch packet, I wouldn’t use the Italian. It would be 1/2 TB ranch seasoning mixed with 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt. Hope that helps. :)
Looks delightful!!
This is so great – I’ve been looking for recipes using basil. I have some about ready to use in my garden
This looks awesome and I guess a lot of people would want to give this a try.. I hope my husband would love this..
This sounds delicious. I am going to try it soon. Thanks for the recipe and all your great ideas.
It looks great, I’m going to make it today, thank you for sharing, but pasta healthy? I wish! I guess most people still think high carb/low fat is good for you…
haha! you could make it without the pasta and i’m sure it would be yummy! the salad’s healthy in my book. ;) ;)
That looks so yummy. In fact, I wish I had the ingredients on hand to have it for lunch today!Thanks for sharing.
This is fabulous!! I love pesto. Made it to go with hamburgers and to be able to eat the leftovers for lunch!! Thanks for sharing:)
I just made this for dinner for the Hubs and twin buggy boys. Everyone loved it! It was SUPER easy to put together, and it made a TON of food. We’re all looking forward to the leftovers. Thank you for a great, easy recipe.
Looks amazing! Cant wait to make it!
This one I must try by all means. It is such an awesome recipe.I love pesto so much.
This looks delicious!! Can’t wait to try this out Jamielyn! {pinning}
This was so good. I made it last night with goat cheese, reduced fat pesto and fat free Italian dressing. we ate it hot. It was so delicious!!! Thanks, Jamielyn for the recipe. Even my little ones enjoyed it and they are picky eaters!
This looks delicious!!
I tried this recipe last night and it was sooooooo delicious! Hubby had 3 (yes 3!) bowlfuls of it, and took the rest in his lunch today!! Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe :)
I finally got around to making this yesterday, and can I say, YUM! My red-meat-eating husband even got seconds and gave multiple compliments. I think it helps that a salad sounds so much better on a day where the temps are 109. Thanks!
Look wonderful! Time for some new challenges. Thanks for posting them.
This is one delicious looking salad.
This looks so flavorful! Wow!
LOVE everything pesto! Saving to make soon!
This is perfect for summer!
Anything with pesto is a winner and this looks delish!
This looks amazingly delicious! Such an amazing salad to add to my list of must-make!
I need to try this immediately, it looks so good!
I need to try this right now! Such a gorgeous salad!
This looks delicious! I love how quick and easy this is to make!
Love pesto…not so much Feta, what cheese would you recomend instead? Mozzarella ?
Subbing the feta with chunks of mozzarella would be delicious!