Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad is America’s favorite chicken wing flavor in a summer salad! There’s so much to love about this little lovely! It’s filled with cooked fusilli pasta, chopped chicken, minced celery, red bell pepper and dressed with a zesty homemade Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing. Chill it for a few hours and this Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad is ready to eat!
My favorite part about it is I don’t have to deal with chicken bones to have a hit of hot sauce! I was a vegetarian for over 20 years. Three years ago I went back to eating meat a few times a week. But, chicken wings have been something that I cannot get on board with! If Jeff orders them while we are in a restaurant, I request a menu from the server so that I can prop it open between our two sides of the table, so I don’t have to witness the carnage! Sorry, it honestly grosses me out! Now we fight over who ate more of this dish! The Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing is addictive!
The only cooking you’ll have to do for this recipe is the pasta. The only other thing you may need to cook if you don’t have any on hand is a chicken breast. Every time I visit Costco I pick up a couple of their rotisserie chickens and chop the meat from them and freeze it, so I always have cooked chicken available for a last minute meal. It defrosts in a couple of minutes in the microwave and saves us from heating the oven or grill for cooking a single piece of meat.
Let’s talk about the pasta
Don’t feel like you have to make a special trip to the store if you don’t have fusilli pasta on hand. I wouldn’t use spaghetti or angel hair pasta for this recipe. But, there are so many pasta shapes that are perfect for salads! Wagon wheels, cavatappi (aka corkscrew), elbow macaroni, penne, and farfalle are all solid choices for pasta salad. We need a pasta shape that the dressing and veggies will cling to and are easily picked up with a fork!
If you are #celeryhater
No worries! If you hate celery or even red bell pepper feel free to sub in different veggies. May I suggest using corn, shredded carrots, chopped broccoli or water chestnuts instead? The salad needs something with a crunch to keep it from being too heavy.
If you are #celerylover
Buffalo Blue Cheese dressing and celery is a marriage made in foodie heaven! Do you adore celery but are bummed when you pull it from the vegetable bin and it is sad and limp? I have a tip for you! Wrap your celery in a sheet of aluminum foil. I don’t know the science behind it but the foil keeps the celery crisp for weeks longer!
Hope you enjoy this recipe and make it part of your 4th of July festivities! We recommend pairing a bowl of this pasta salad with a glass of our Watermelon & Elderflower Sangria. Is a red sangria more your style? Try our Triple Berry & Ancho Chile Sangria! If you like these recipes and would like to receive them to your inbox everytime we post a new one subscribe at the bottom of the page. We would love to have you as part of the Yums & Kisses family!
Print
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 side servings 1x
Description
Buffalo Chicken Pasta is the perfect summer side dish! It’s zesty and full of chopped chicken breasts, blue cheese, fusilli pasta and veggies tossed with a spicy Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing!
Ingredients
For the Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing:
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp minced chives
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup hot sauce ( I used Frank’s Red Hot Sauce)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp onion powder
For the Pasta Salad:
8 ounces cooked fusilli pasta (cook according to pkg directions) drained & rinsed thoroughly with cold water
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery (about 2–3 stalks)
1/2 cup minced red bell pepper (about 1/2 a pepper)
1 and 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
For Garnish:
minced chives, crumbled blue cheese, additional hot sauce if desired
Instructions
Prepare the Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing:
Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Set aside.
Prepare the Salad:
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. When pasta is done, drain in a colander. Immediately rinse with cold water until pasta is cold to the touch and not much starch is rinsing from it any longer. Drain the pasta well before proceeding.
In a large bowl combine the cooked pasta, celery, red pepper, chopped chicken and 1 cup of the dressing. Toss the salad until the pasta is well coated with the dressing and veggies are evenly distributed. Reserve remaining dressing for drizzling over salad at serving time, if desired.
Chill the pasta salad for at least 4 hours before serving.
Notes
Use your favorite Hot Sauce in the recipe if you don’t have Frank’s!
Be sure to rinse the cooked pasta thoroughly with the cold water. If the pasta isn’t well rinsed, the starch that accumulates on it during cooking will result in sticky pasta that may clump in the salad. Rinsing the pasta with cold water also stops the cooking process and prevents the pasta from becoming mushy.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: buffalo chicken pasta salad, pasta salad, buffalo chicken, salad, buffalo chicken salad, chicken, chicken pasta salad