The best pasta salad recipe must have a delicious dressing and this chicken Caesar pasta salad has exactly that. Juicy chicken breast, crunchy croutons and crisp romaine lettuce are tossed together with spiraled pasta and sharp parmesan cheese making one of my daughter’s favorite pasta salad recipes ever.
Ingredients for Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad Recipe
I always like to see a quick overview of the ingredients I’m going to need for a recipe so here is everything you’re going to need:
Salad
- Chicken Breasts: You will cook these ahead of time and chop into bite-sized pieces.
- SUBSTITUTION: If you want to skip cooking chicken, you could use a rotisserie chicken.
- Salt: used to season the water that you boil the pasta in
- Cavatappi Pasta: Rotini also works great. You want a hearty pasta with lots of nooks and crannies to catch all that yummy dressing!
- Caesar Croutons: Any store bought brand will work great.
- Romaine Lettuce: Rinse and dry it before chopping it up.
- Parmesan Cheese: Grab a block of parmesan that you can shave yourself!
Dressing
- Mayonnaise: acts as the base for the creamy dressing
- Plain Greek Yogurt: lightens up the dressing a little and adds good protein
- Lemon Juice: adds acidity and brightness
- Champagne Vinegar: If you can’t find champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar will work too.
- Dijon Mustard: adds flavor
- Worcestershire Sauce: adds flavor
- Garlic: You’ll grate it with a microplane or use a garlic press to get it really fine.
- Parmesan Cheese: You want the powdery kind from the can for the dressing. It gives the dressing that signature Caesar flavor.
- Salt and Black Pepper: adds flavor
The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.
How to Make Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
I know, you’re probably thinking that you’ll just buy a Caesar salad kit from the store and just add pasta and call it good, but I swear to you, this homemade salad dressing will be such a game changer! If you have the time, make this chicken Caesar salad with pasta from scratch. It’s really so simple! Here are the steps:
- Cook the Pasta: Get a large pot of salted water boiling over medium-high heat and add the pasta once the water is boiling.
- Cook the Chicken: While you are waiting for the water to boil and for the pasta to cook, get the chicken cooking. You can gril