Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

I wanted to eat some chicken recently, but I wasn't quite ready to eat the Italian dressing thing again (though there's no particular reason why I wasn't - I just wanted to do something different with it this time). I was peeking around in my Fridge-of-Holding, and I remembered I had some Caesar dressing in there. I probably should use that up, since I honestly don't remember when I bought it. If you want to make your own Caesar dressing, here's my favourite recipe for it (with the extra bonus of other dressings as well). Anyway, I really like chicken caesar salads, but I didn't actually have any romaine lettuce. So I decided to turn it all into a pasta salad. It's more filling and stretches further this way too, which is also an extra bonus. Aside from the addition of pasta and the lack of lettuce, there are a couple other deviations from the normal Caesar-type thing, since I wanted to have some variance in texture. Hope you enjoy!

1/2 pound pasta, cooked according to package directions (I used gemelli)
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
salt and pepper to taste
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 - 3/4 cup Caesar dressing
Extra parmesan shaved or grated for serving

Season chicken with salt and pepper, then cook in a non-stick skillet. Cool and cut into cubes. Combine with cooked and cooled pasta, celery, carrot and dressing. Toss well then chill before serving. Add extra parmesan when serving. Makes about 4 cups.

Comments

  1. j.1:13 PM

    OOh, I never thought of swapping out lettuce for pasta in "normal" salads. I bet that be a great change to a greek salad. And if you used something like orecchiette (sp) or medium shells it'd probably hold the veggies really well, too. Hmmm...

    Thanks for the idea!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allie4:43 PM

    Oh, please let me know how it goes with a Greek salad! I think it might be really good with orzo too, even though it wouldn't catch the veggies at all. Great idea!

    ReplyDelete

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