This pasta salad is perfect for all of your family’s meals of the day, but starting the day with Greek-style chicken noodles doesn’t have to be bad either.
This delicious recipe Apronese will show you below. The dish has both vegetables, and delicious protein with sauce, it must be said that it is impossible to refuse right on the kitchen, how about you, how do you see it? Do you want to start working right away?
Sizes of Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
The Greek Chicken Pasta Salad comes together quickly and easily, and you may wish to double the recipe in case you need to serve more than four large portions, or about six smaller servings if you want to share it with others.
It goes terrifically well with potlucks, and it would be easy to double or triple as needed.
Do I Have to Use Chicken Thighs When I Can Use Chicken Breast?
I agree with you, just make sure you pound the chicken breast evenly before marinating it. Keeping the chicken breasts thin and even will ensure that they cook quickly without drying out.
If you would like to make sure that your chicken breasts are thin and even, you can also filet them into two thinner pieces, or use chicken tenders instead.
Make it Vegetarian
Do you want it to be vegetarian? Sure, you can. Just skip the chicken and you can probably halve the salad dressing or marinade if you don’t like a lot of dressing.
This salad is filled with a wide variety of vegetables and it is certainly filling enough on its own to keep it full and interesting! But if you wish to add a little more protein, chickpeas would work very well with these flavors.
Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
With its medley of vegetables and tangy lemon garlic dressing, this Greek Chicken Pasta Salad is the ideal summer meal for those of us who enjoy delicious, light and refreshing food.
Ingredients
Marinade/Dressing
- 1 lemon ($0.59)
- 1/4 cup olive oil ($0.64)
- 3 cloves garlic, divided ($0.24)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano ($0.07)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
Salad
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ($2.10)
- 8 oz. pasta (any shape) ($0.50)
- 1 bell pepper (any color) ($1.50)
- 4 oz. grape tomatoes* ($1.00)
- 1/2 cucumber (1.5 cups diced) ($1.00)
- 1/4 bunch parsley ($0.20)
- 2 oz. feta ($1.12)
Instructions
- It is very important to remove the zest from the lemon with a zester, microplane, or small-holed cheese grater. Set aside the zest. Squeeze the juicy juice from the lemon into another bowl. You will need at least 1/4 cup of juice from each lemon.
- In order to prepare the dressing and marinade, mince two of the three garlic cloves and combine them with 1/4 cup of lemon juice and olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper, and some freshly cracked pepper. Whisk the ingredients together until well combined, then serve.
- After placing the chicken thighs in a zip-lock bag, mix in half of the dressing, saving the rest for later use. Another clove of garlic needs to be minced and added to the bag with the chicken and marinade. The chicken thighs should be well coated in the marinade after pressing the air out and massaging the bag to ensure that every inch of the chicken thighs is well covered. Refrigerate the thighs for at least 30 minutes after you have added them.
- It is recommended that you cook the pasta according to the package directions and drain it in a colander before letting it cool while the chicken marinates.
- It is very important to heat a skillet over a medium heat before you add the marinated chicken thighs. Once they are hot, you can cook the marinated chicken thighs on each side until they have been well browned and cooked through (about 5 minutes each side). The marinade should be thick enough to prevent the meat from sticking. The chicken should be taken out of the skillet and allowed to rest for about 5 minutes before chopping it into bite-size pieces once it has been cooled.
- It is important that you prepare the rest of the vegetables while the chicken is cooking. You can dice the cucumber and bell pepper. Slice the tomatoes in half, or dice them if you are using Roma or regular tomatoes. Remove the parsley leaves from the stems and roughly chop them.
- You need to make sure that you have cooled the pasta before adding it to a large bowl. After the pasta has cooled, place it on the pasta, topped it with the cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, parsley, and chopped chicken. Add crumbled feta over the salad and a pinch or two of lemon zest. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Serve immediately or refrigerate until the salad is ready for consumption.
Nutritional
*There was an offer on a snack pack of grape tomatoes at the store for $1.00, but instead of using grape tomatoes, one can use two Roma tomatoes (diced) or one medium tomato.
Serving: 1Serving Calories: 710.18kcal Carbohydrates: 50.93g Protein: 17.38g Fat: 49.13g Sodium: 561.98mg Fiber: 4.25g
The nutritional values shown here are only estimates. Please see our nutrition disclaimer.
How to Make Greek Chicken Pasta Salad – Step by Step Photos
For this recipe, we use both the juice and the zest to add an extra lemony kick. We start by taking a lemon and removing the zest. The zest is the real magic of a lemon. It provides an extremely lemony flavor without making things too sour.
For this recipe, we use both the lemon zest and the juice. You should use a zester, microplane, or small-holed cheese grater to scrape out the thin layer of yellow zest from the peel and set the zest aside. Squeeze a quarter cup of juice from the lemon into a separate bowl, and set aside the juice.
You will need to make a dressing and a marinade mixture that will serve as both of these. To make this dressing, you should mince two cloves of garlic and mix them into the following ingredients: 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of lemon zest in a bowl with a fork. Mix well.
You want the chicken to be garlicky, so add half of the dressing to two boneless, skinless chicken thighs, along with one more clove of minced garlic (don’t forget to squeeze out all the air).
After pressing out all the air, give the bag a gentle massage to distribute the marinade, and refrigerate the chicken for 30 minutes at most.
It is recommended that you cook 8oz. of pasta (any shape) according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta in a colander, and then let it cool down so that it can be served.
I recommend that you heat up a skillet on a medium flame and then add the marinated chicken thighs to the skillet. Make sure that there is enough oil on each side of the thighs to prevent them from sticking. Bake the thighs for about five minutes on each side until the insides are well browned.
I am so blown away by this chicken that I will probably feature it as its own recipe very soon. It was so good that I could eat it on its own.
I recommend removing the chicken from the skillet after it has been cooked for a few minutes, allowing it to rest for a few minutes, then chopping it into bite-sized pieces.
The remaining vegetables will need to be prepared while the chicken is cooking. To prepare the remainder, dice 1/2 of the cucumber (about 1.5 cups diced), dice the bell pepper, slice the tomatoes in half (or dice if you are using Roma or regular tomatoes), and chop the parsley roughly.
As we approach the end of the dish, we’ll want to bring everything together! To top the pasta, you’ll need to add the tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, parsley, and chopped chicken.
Put the cooked, drained, and cooled pasta in a large bowl (it’s under there, I swear). Place 2oz of feta over everything and add a final hint of lemon zest to complete the dish.
The remaining dressing should be poured over the salad and mixed together…
Once you have coated everything in dressing, toss everything until everything is well coated.
As soon as this batch of Greek Chicken Pasta Salad is gone, I might have to make it again immediately. It is definitely worth repeating.
Chicken salad is so familiar to everyone, what if it’s Greek chicken pasta salad? Apronese surely many people have tried it, right, the above recipe is very easy to make you want to try a new dish but not too difficult or complicated, the ingredients are easy to find and easy to buy at the supermarket. Remember to share this recipe for your friends to enjoy too.
