This Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad recipe is packed with flavor, texture, and lots of goodness!
Loaded with chicken, pasta, bacon, and veggies this dish is tossed in an easy ranch mayo dressing for the perfect bite.
While our favorite Italian pasta salad is often served as a side, this hearty dish eats like a meal!
A Pasta Salad Entree
- This pasta salad turns a favorite side dish into a main dish with lots of great additions like chicken!
- Only 3 simple steps and 20 minutes of prep time.
- Chicken pasta salad is an easy way to stretch leftover chicken breasts or leftover roast chicken!
- Serve as a main dish or as a side (and it makes great lunches throughout the week).
- Best served cold, it’s a refreshing dish on a hot summer day.
What Goes in Pasta Salad
When making a cold pasta salad you can add in as many or as few ingredients as you’d like.
- Pasta – Use rigatoni, penne, shells, or rotini pasta. Really, any medium pasta shape will work.
- Chicken – Leftover diced cooked chicken or shredded chicken is perfect in this recipe. You can also bake chicken breast or use rotisserie chicken.
- Veggies – Opt for a variety of colors and textures to make this chicken pasta salad both pretty and flavorful. Try bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, or avocado.
- Flavor – Cubes of cheddar, green onions, bacon, and a quick and creamy dressing add lots of flavor.
Chicken Pasta Salad Dressing
For the tastiest pasta salad dressing, we love the super quick homemade ranch-style dressing in the notes. It’s rich and creamy with lots of fresh herb flavor.
Creamy: mayonnaise, sour cream, and milk. Swap the sour cream for greek Yogurt to lighten it up a bit!
Flavorful: a packet of ranch dressing mix (or try homemade ranch seasoning) & fresh herbs.
Variations
- Swap chicken for leftover turkey or ham.
- Use your favorite cheeses like fresh mozzarella, pepper jack, or feta cheese.
- Sprinkle with herbs such as fresh basil, parsley, and dill.
- Other additions to try include sliced olives (black or green), a splash of lemon juice, or red onion
How to Make Chicken Pasta Salad
Chicken ranch pasta salad comes together quickly once the veggies are prepped and the cheese is shredded. Just follow these steps:
- Cook the pasta according to package directions in a large pot of salted water.
- Combine the salad ingredients and cooled pasta in a large bowl.
- Add dressing and toss well to combine. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Before serving, sprinkle with fresh chopped green onion and extra bacon and season with salt and black pepper to taste.
Storing Leftovers
Like most cold pasta salad recipes, this chicken bacon ranch pasta salad holds in the refrigerator for 3-4 days making it perfect for lunches.
This dish doesn’t freeze well.
Favorite Pasta Salad Recipes
Did you love this Chicken Pasta Salad? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 ounces rigatoni or rotini, or penne
- 2 cups chicken cooked and diced
- 6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled, extra for garnish if desired
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
- 1 cup cheddar cheese diced
- 3 green onions sliced, plus more for garnish
- fresh parsley and dill for garnish optional
Dressing
- ⅔ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 package ranch dressing mix* or see notes for a from scratch version
Instructions
- Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water per the package directions. Drain well and run under cold water. Set aside.
- Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with dressing.
- Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with green onions and serve.
Notes
- ½ teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons each fresh dill and parsley (or ½ teaspoon each dried)
- salt & pepper
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pasta, Salad, Side Dish
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Super delicious. This recipe makes a LOT. Next time, I’ll reduce the amount of pasta (I used ziti) to 9 or 10 ounces. I did increase the bacon to 10 slices, the grape tomatoes to a 10-ounce package, and the Cheddar cheese to 2 cups.
Love your recipes! Yours is the first site I always go to. Will be trying this recipe. For having to cook chicken first will use your air fryer recipe with a sprinkle of seasoning salt. Quick and easy!
Ruth Hogg
Thank you so much for the kind words Ruth! I am so glad you are enjoying the recipes.
This salad is so delicious and soooo easy! Perfect for the kids when they’re looking for a snack or for holiday parties. The dressing is the key. Devine!
I have yet to try the recipe but what could I substitute the mayo for? I have a child that hates mayo!
You could use Greek yogurt or sour cream but this would change the flavor significantly (they’re both much more tangy) as the mayo is the base of the dressing. Another option would be to add a creamy dressing of your choice or some ranch dressing (we LOVE this homemade one, although it does have mayonnaise).
Hi Holly, not a fan of dill, should I leave it out? Or could you suggest a substitute?
Thanks, Ally in NJ
Fresh parsley or basil would both work well in this recipe. You could also just leave it out.
I tried this today for the first time and I am amazed at how good and flavorful it is! I love it! My sisters were eagerly excited to try it once I sent the pic of it to them.
Thank you for sharing LaTrice! So happy to hear how much you love the pasta salad!
Could you used canned chicken in the cream chicken pasta salad?
I don’t see why not Kathryn. Enjoy the pasta salad!
It’s a good recipe, but it does need some zip – red peppers, olives, something. And maybe a little extra crunch – like from celery. But my big complaint is that you’re supposed to be able to cook the chicken, make the pasta, chop all the ingredients, make dressing and combine in 20 minutes? That is crazy. I’m a decent cook, and move quickly, but all this will take at least an hour – probably more. That said, it’s worth it.
So glad you loved it Tom! If using raw chicken, this recipe will definitely take longer, I most often use leftovers or rotisserie chicken. As for the rest of the ingredients, I do a lot of the chopping while the pasta is cooking. I hope that helps!
Do you mix the green onions in with the pasta salad or do you just garnish the finished product with green onions?
Can’t wait to try this!
I mix them in but usually save a few to garnish on top with other fresh herbs. Enjoy!
Delicious flavors! My husband said out loud three times as he was eating it, “Wow, this is really good!” Thanks for a great recipe!
Have not made anything yet. Just found this site and food looks good
i haven’t made the recipe yet but i was wondering what do u mean by one package of ranch dressing mix. like the little packets u get from fast food places or like a bottle of ranch i’m just confused
It’s ranch powder in a packet you can find at the grocery store like this. You can also make it homemade here.
The powdered packets. You can use bottled ranch or just use the powdered ranch mix packets. If you do that it’ll come out great and you can adjust the mayo, sour cream, etc to your liking vs the bottled stuff.
We all loved it… only addition I made was I added 4 chopped up hard boiled eggs.
Great addition Dianna! That would be tasty :)