Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Diced Chicken

Looking for a quick, easy & versatile dish to serve your family? I have a great Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Chicken to share with you!

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WELCOME TO MIX IT UP MONDAY WITH MAD DASH MIXES

WEEK 54

One of my favorite main dish salads is a pasta salad with diced chicken!  I love to prepare pasta salad year round.  It is just the perfect thing to have on hand for a quick & easy lunch or supper.

While a pasta salad can be made completely from scratch, I find that I normally relay on a pasta salad mix.  Using a pasta salad mix just makes my life so much easier!  Using a mix to make a recipe is as simple as adding a few ingredients to the mix, stirring, cooking or chilling and serving!  And of course, one of my very favorite line of culinary mixes is Mad Dash Mixes!

Let’s Get To Mixin’

While this week’s recipe doesn’t involve using my vintage Hamilton Beach Stand mixer, I always include a picture of it.  It has become my logo of sorts!  The mixer belonged to my Mom.  I decided to bring it to Florida since it still worked.  I did have it rewired before bringing it down.  I am not sure how old it really is.  I plan to keep using it until the motor burns up!

LET’S MAKE MEDITERRANEAN PASTA SALAD

THE INGREDIENTS

This Pasta Salad is made with a mayonnaise based dressing, black olives and cooked, diced chicken.  Mad Dash Mixes*** makes a kit that includes the pasta and the mix for the dressing.

To save time, I used already cooked and diced chicken that I purchased in the frozen foods section of the grocery store.  I simply set the frozen chicken out and let it thaw at room temperature before I boiled the water for the pasta.

My grocery store didn’t have canned sliced black olives so I did need to chop the whole black olives into slices.

It is times like this, that I really miss owning my own pizzeria where I had access to all the sliced olives, frozen cooked chicken and other ingredients that I might need for my culinary creations!

THE STEPS

Boil the water in a large pot.  After the water has started to boil, add the pasta and let the pasta cook for 10 to 12 minutes.  Cooking time with depend on the type of pasta used.  The Penne pasta took about 11 minutes to cook.  The pasta is done when it has reached the al-dente stage, meaning it is still firm when you chew it.  Avoid over cooking the pasta, as it can become mushy.

While the pasta is cooking,  prepare the dressing by combining the mayonnaise and the seasoning packet in a mixing bowl.

Once the mayonnaise and seasoning mix are blended together to make the dressing, add the chicken and the sliced black olives to the dressing.  Blend well.

Once the pasta has finished cooking, drain the pasta using a large colander.

Once the pasta is drained, add it to the chicken/black olive/dressing mixture and mix until well blended.

Cover the salad and chill for at least one hour before serving.

READY TO SERVE

Once the salad has chilled for at least an hour, it is ready to be served.  I added a few sprigs of rosemary to the plate of salad pictured above.  The sprigs of rosemary increase the Mediterranean flair of the recipe.  The sprigs also add eye appeal .  They aren’t meant to be eaten along with the salad!

To add variety to your Mediterranean Pasta Salad, you can make the following substitutions:

Instead of Penne Pasta, use bow tie or shell shaped pasta.  Really any shape pasta will work.  You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the type/shape of the pasta.  The cooked cubed chicken can be replaced with tuna or even cooked turkey.   Parmesan Cheese can be sprinkled on top of the pasta salad before serving.

Enjoy!

Pin This For Later!

If you liked this pasta salad, you may also want to try this one!

Cranberry Orange Pasta Salad with Pecans

COOKING WITH KIM

My entrepreneurial journey started with my love of herbs , both growing and cooking with them.  This love of herbs eventually led to owning a pizzeria.

After relocating to Florida, I decided to start a blog where I could share my love of cooking, decorating and crafting.  Throughout my culinary career, I have discovered the using mixes can make a cook’s life so much easier!  Using a mix to make a recipe is as simple as adding a few ingredients to the mix and then stirring, cooking or chilling and serving!   Mixes are such a time saver!  After meeting the folks from Mad Dash Mixes* at a blogging conference last summer, I decided to add a weekly blog post featuring recipes using their mixes.  Now I am now having a lot of fun working with Mad Dash Mixes. They did send me some products to sample but my opinions about the products are my own.  My full disclosure policy can be found on the Disclosure page.

*If you would like to try some of their products, I have arranged for you to receive a 15% discount if you use the code farmhouse.  Orders can be placed at http://www.MadDashMixes.com

Disclosure: this post was written in collaboration with Mad Dash Mixes

All opinions are my own.

Please see my disclosure page for more information.