Cool as a Cucumber Chicken Pasta Salad

PoultrySaladsPasta/Dumplings

Jun 19

Written By Blue Wizard

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As our nation begins to open up and people start to get together again, we need to still be as safe as we can while doing so. There’s no better way to stay safe that to have a socially-distant, outdoor, barbecue party. Also, if you’re asked to bring something to such a party, there’s not better thing to bring than some sort of cold pasta salad! Enter my Cool as a Cucumber Chicken Pasta Salad! I stumbled upon this recipe ages ago when I was looking for something different than your traditional Italian pasta salad or run-of-the-mill macaroni salad. The freshness of the cucumber, the crunch of the celery, and the substance of the chicken make this a pretty perfect dish in my book, and a sure hit at your next barbecue.

Any good pasta salad should start off by cooking the pasta. You should cook your pasta according to the package directions until it’s fully cooked to your liking, not al-dente as many hot recipes recommend as this pasta will do no more cooking from this point forward. In order to ensure this, after I drain the pasta, I rinse it under cold water. This stops the cooking of the pasta immediately so it doesn’t get mushy, and it also rinses off the excess starch which would be essential in a hot dish but can muddy things in a cold pasta salad.

You guys know that I love to prep and chop my ingredients before I start in a recipe and that includes chopping the celery and cucumbers in this one. A note about the cucumbers. I use English “seedless” cucumbers for this recipe. Though the name is a total misnomer as they still have seeds, they are less numerous and these cuc’s tend to be less watery. I still make sure to de-seed the cucumbers with a spoon before I chop and add them to the recipe. We like a creamy pasta salad and not a watery one so this step is a must.

I’m quite proud of the sauce for this salad. I use non-fat greek yogurt for a slightly healthier dish, however I still like the flavor of mayo so I add just a little bit to the dressing. In addition, the chives and dill work great with the cucumbers and really make this dish taste like summer.

The chicken in this recipe can be any cooked chicken that you desire. I find that the easiest thing to do is to buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and just de-skin and pull all of the chicken off of the bones to chop it up. I can even store the chopped meat in the freezer so that I can make any dish that requires cooked chicken whenever I need to without going through the process of cooking it myself. I find that an average rotisserie chicken will get you 4 cups of meat (plus a little extra for snacking) which is exactly what this recipe calls for.

Pulling this recipe together really just takes as much time as it takes to cook and cool the pasta as you can do all of the other prep work while you’re waiting on that. This is also a great dish to make the day before a party as the herbs will flavor the salad overnight. All you have to do is give it a good stir right before the party and you’re good to go. This dish is a true winner, and I know this because I brought it into work one day for lunch and one of my students asked to taste it. After doing so he stole the remainder from me to share with his friends and then asked for more to share around the next day. If this can satisfy a group of ravenous teenagers it’s sure to satisfy you and your party guests.

This proves, once again, that you don’t have to be a pro to make magic in the kitchen.

Joe the Blue Wizard

Yield: 6 as a main course

Author: Joe the Blue Wizard