Bacon Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad

By Angela Sellari

Bacon Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad is a simple and hearty recipe that will fast become a regular part of your meal planning. You can serve this pasta salad as a side dish or as a complete meal.

You can even make this ahead and store in the refrigerator until dinnertime. This is a great pasta salad to make when you have some leftover rotisserie chicken. You can also use boiled or broiled chicken, or chicken breasts that have been cooked in the crock pot. You really can’t go wrong.

I told you when I shared my pizza pasta salad last week that I am on a bit of a pasta salad kick. I wasn’t kidding. I’m sure I’ll be sick of pasta salads by the end of summer, but until then I have a few more recipes that I’ll be sharing. I love how this looks in the bowl, before it gets stirred up.

Bacon Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

3 cups fusilli pasta, cooked to al dente
2 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded
1 cup frozen peas, cooked
1 cup diced tomatoes
6 slices bacon, cooked and diced
1 cup bottled ranch dressing
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain, and allow to cool. In a large bowl, add drained pasta, chicken, bacon, peas, tomatoes and chives. Toss to combine.

2. Gently stir in ranch dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, top with bacon crumbles for garnish.

The chives in this recipe are totally optional. I don’t always add it. But this time I had some on hand, so I added it. I like the extra flavor that it added to the pasta salad.

If you let this sit in the fridge for a while, you might need to add a little more ranch dressing just before serving. The pasta really soaks it up.