Recipe Review

This Pesto Chicken Pasta Salad Could Not Be Easier to Make

updated May 1, 2019
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Now that Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, I’ve started to dip into my arsenal of summer recipes faster than I can dig my white pants out of storage. The first dish on my list? Pasta salad. Cue this pesto chicken pasta salad from Creme de la Crumb.

First things first: Boil boxed pasta. Simple enough, right? (Fusilli or rotini work best because they grip the sauce in their little grooves.) Once drained, place the pasta in a large bowl and mix in fresh spinach, arugula, halved cherry tomatoes, shredded chicken, and Parmesan cheese. Bind it all together with your favorite bottled Italian salad dressing and pesto sauce (whisked together) and then serve. Or chill and eat it straight from the fridge whenever your heart desires.

You’ll love this recipe if you need to get dinner together in a pinch, because it calls for tons of grocery store shortcuts. Don’t feel like you’re cheating if you use rotisserie chicken — the recipe author encourages it! Bottled Italian salad dressing and jarred pesto are also time-saving ingredients, but if you’re feeling fancy or have time to spare, by all means, make your own.

This versatile favorite works as a quick weeknight dinner, big-batch summer barbecue contribution, or even just a week’s worth of warm-weather lunches. I could eat the stuff for three meals a day for the next three months (if that were socially acceptable). Needless to say, I will be making limitless quantities of this pasta salad this summer. Who’s with me?

Get the Recipe: Pesto Chicken Pasta Salad from Creme de la Crumb

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

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