Chicken Pasta Salad

Chicken pasta salad turns a short list of everyday ingredients into a filling, make-ahead meal built around properly cooked chicken. Poaching at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil keeps the breast fibres from seizing, producing shreds that stay moist after hours in the fridge. Penne holds the creamy lemon-Dijon dressing inside its tubes, while diced celery, halved cherry tomatoes, and sliced green onions add crunch and colour to every forkful. The assembled salad improves with at least 1 hour of chilling, making it a reliable dish to prepare the morning of a gathering.

How to Poach Chicken for Pasta Salad Without Drying It Out

Keeping the poaching water at 82 to 85°C (a bare simmer with occasional small bubbles) rather than a rolling boil prevents the muscle fibres in chicken breast from contracting tightly, which is the direct cause of dry, stringy chicken in cold salads.

Place the chicken breast in a saucepan and cover with cold water by 5cm. Add a pinch of salt, a bay leaf, and two sprigs of thyme. Bring the water to 82°C over medium heat — small bubbles will appear at the bottom of the pan and rise slowly. Maintain that temperature for 14 to 16 minutes per 200g breast, adjusting the burner as needed. Remove the pan from heat and allow the chicken to rest in the liquid for a further 10 minutes before removing. The carry-over heat from the liquid brings the internal temperature to a safe 74°C while keeping the outer fibres from overcooking. Pat dry, then shred along the grain with two forks into 3 to 4cm pieces that hold their shape when tossed.

Building the Creamy Lemon-Dijon Dressing

Combining mayonnaise, sour cream, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, and Dijon mustard in a 2:1 mayo-to-sour cream ratio creates a dressing with enough fat to coat 400g of pasta while the lemon acid prevents it from tasting heavy.

Whisk 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a quarter teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Taste the dressing before adding it to the pasta: it should be noticeably tangy and slightly over-salted at this stage. The pasta will absorb both acid and salt during chilling and the final salad will taste correctly seasoned. A dressing that tastes balanced before tossing will taste flat after an hour in the fridge. Add a second teaspoon of lemon juice if the dressing lacks brightness.

Assembling and Chilling the Salad

Folding the chicken into the salad after the pasta has fully cooled prevents the residual heat from the pasta from warming the dressing and causing the mayonnaise to separate.

Cook penne in heavily salted water (1 tablespoon kosher salt per 4 litres) until fully tender, then drain and spread onto a baking tray to cool for 10 minutes at room temperature. Transfer to a large bowl and add the shredded chicken, diced celery, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced green onions, and diced red bell pepper. Pour three-quarters of the dressing over the salad and fold gently until all ingredients are evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Before serving, add the remaining dressing and fold through, taste for salt and lemon, then finish with shaved Parmesan and chopped flat-leaf parsley.

Serving Chicken Pasta Salad

Remove the salad from the fridge 20 minutes before serving to let the dressing loosen slightly. Cold temperatures firm the mayonnaise and mute the lemon flavour, making room-temperature serving noticeably more satisfying than fridge-cold.

Serve as a main dish in bowls with crusty bread, or as a side alongside grilled chicken thighs, burgers, or corn on the cob. For a larger gathering, the recipe doubles cleanly: prepare two separate batches of dressing and combine them just before tossing, since doubling in a single bowl risks uneven coating. Leftovers keep well and the flavour continues to develop on the second day. Find more cold pasta salad ideas in Recipe Dairy's salad collection.