This basil Pesto Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken recipe is the perfect dish for summer! Making a pasta salad with pesto sauce makes for an incredibly fresh flavor. With ingredients like arugula, baby spinach and pesto, you just can’t go wrong!
This past weekend, we had some friends over for some food and a few drinks. As always, I made a ton of food but when looking at everything, I still felt like our spread was missing something. After I check the refrigerator and pantry, my thoughts went to a pasta salad.
I feel like I’ve been on a pasta salad kick lately; after last week’s Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad, I had a craving for more. I took a look in the refrigerator, saw some leftover greens from a salad I had made for lunch and voila! This Pesto Pasta Salad was born.
It was a total hit! Everyone loved it and even commented about how it was deliciously different than any other pasta salad they’ve had. I chalked it up to a win, even though we had enough food leftover to feed an army.
I love that this recipe has more substance than your usual pasta salad. The baby arugula and spinach add another dimension of textures and flavors that contrast nicely with the pasta.
You can make this pasta salad as a side for a summer BBQ, or top it with grilled chicken to make it a complete meal. It’s so fresh and flavorful, it’s really perfect in any setting!
More recipes like this Simple Pesto Pasta Salad recipe:
Equipment needed to make this Easy Pesto Pasta Salad:
- [easyazon_link identifier=”B01HIFRCPA” locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]Grill[/easyazon_link] – Grilling season is upon us and having a nice grill is essential! It’s perfect to grill this chicken to perfection.
- [easyazon_link identifier=”B01HXQTNVK” locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]Grill Sheets[/easyazon_link] – These grill sheets are perfect for an easy clean up!
- [easyazon_link identifier=”B01MDQ0SOA” locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]Mixing Bowl[/easyazon_link] – This set of mixing bowls is great! Perfect for mixing up all the ingredients of this pasta salad.
Easy Pesto Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- 1/4 C Italian dressing
- 1 lb rotini
- 1/4 C pesto
- 1/3 C mayo
- 1 C baby arugula
- 1 C baby spinach
Instructions
- Let chicken breast marinate in a bowl with Italian dressing for at least 2 hours.
- Cook rotini according to package instructions.
- Drain pasta and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Grill chicken over medium heat.
- Stir mayo and pesto together until combined.
- Combine chilled pasta, baby arugula, baby spinach in a mixing bowl.
- Toss ingredients in the mayo and pesto mixture.
- Top with grilled chicken.
Claire says
I love everything pasta!
When I was pregnant with my second I ate pesto pasta with steamed spinach nearly every day!!! True story!
So this is screaming my name!
Love it, especially with the addition of the chicken, what a great dish to take to a bring a dish or a pot luck!
Wilhelmina Wessel says
I could eat this every day, I absolutely adore pesto!