Delicious Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad. This salad is bursting with flavor and yumminess in every single bite! Need a light meal for hot lazy summer days? Toss this salad together and store it in the fridge for a quick lunch, dinner or snack.
Even better? This recipe makes a HUGE batch of salad. Perfect for a party or potluck! Main dish or side, this filling pasta recipe has so many uses! This salad is NOT a good choice for setting out in the sun for hours. Serve it warm immediately or serve it refrigerator cold anytime. I recommend our Mediterranean Macaroni Salad if you need a delicious potluck salad without mayo!
Summer is such a wonderful time of year for light filling meals like this one. Make it ahead and store in an airtight container for later. I have been making this fantastic time saver meal for years.
We love it so much I wanted you to get a refreshed look at this salad. So I am reposting this recipe complete with new photos.
TWO years ago our sweet 8 month old, Ellie, caught a summer cold. She kept us up all night every night coughing and sniffling miserably. Do you ever have those days where you are so tired you can’t even think straight? My husband and I lived off coffee and power naps…my brain pretty much shut down for awhile. I SO did not want to cook! Dinner needed to be very simple and make great leftovers!
My solution was this salad. I had been craving pasta salad so I started getting creative (some might call it sleep deprived Hallucinations.). Chicken, Bacon, Ranch dressing and pasta started circling in my mind? Oh yeah. What a great combo! I threw in some veggies so it’s a full meal! And it’s filling!
My husband absolutely loves this dinner. That is an awesome thing. This dish makes a ton of leftovers! We eat pasta salad all week! And LOVE it right to the end. Which is why I still make it for just us two and little Ellie. The leftovers are amazing!
If you have a HUGE crowd to feed this recipe is a good choice. If you have only a small group, just cut the recipe in half. Unless you love the leftovers as much as we do. I keep this salad handy in the fridge. It’s a great lunch box salad too (keep it in the fridge at work, or use a cold pack).
Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad Recipe Notes:
This salad is NOT low carb or gluten free or really healthy. It’s one of those recipes that you should make with healthy food around too 🙂
Rotisserie chickens are already cooked and well seasoned making this dish easier and quicker to throw together. Add some bacon and throw in lots of yummy veggies. We love it with tomatoes, olives, chives, and spinach. I recommend tossing in whatever you are fond of (what’s in your garden? What’s in season?) in terms of vegetables. It really can be made however you see fit!
Instructions:
- Make pasta noodles on the stove according to the directions on the package. Set aside once they are cooked and drained.
- Cook bacon on the stove until it is nice and crispy.
- Drain the bacon and chop it into small pieces.
- Chop tomatoes, olives, chives, and spinach together, set in a medium bowl.
- Tear strips of chicken off of the rotisserie chicken and pile it up with the bacon in a bowl.
- In a small bowl whisk together the ranch dressing mix, sour cream, milk, mayonnaise, and the ranch dressing.
- Set the dressing in the fridge for 15 minutes to let it thicken up a little bit.
- Put all of the ingredients in a large bowl and pour the dressing over them.
Mix them all together and enjoy your delicious pasta salad!Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad is a perfect summer salad.
Looking for more pasta salad? Try our All American Macaroni Salad.
Here is your Printable Recipe:
Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
This salad is bursting with flavor and yumminess in every single bite! Need a light meal for hot lazy summer days? Toss this salad together and store it in the fridge for a quick lunch, dinner or snack.
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken-deboned and chopped, I slipped the skin off
- 1 cup cooked and chopped bacon, I used 7 slices
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 packet dry ranch dressing mix, about 2 Tablespoons dry mix
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing
- 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup fresh chopped spinach
- 1 tbsp fresh chives
- 1 cup sliced black olives
- 16 oz pasta, I used plain egg noodles for my pasta
Instructions
- Make pasta noodles on the stove according to the directions on the package. Set aside once they are cooked and drained.
- Cook bacon on the stove until it is nice and crispy.
- Drain the bacon and chop it into small pieces.
- Chop tomatoes, olives, chives, and spinach together, set in a medium bowl.
- Tear strips of chicken off of the rotisserie chicken and pile it up with the bacon in a bowl.
- In a small bowl whisk together the ranch dressing mix, sour cream, milk, mayonnaise, and the ranch dressing.
- Set the dressing in the fridge for 15 minutes to let it thicken up a little bit.
- Put all of the ingredients in a large bowl and pour the dressing over them.
- Mix them all together and enjoy your delicious pasta salad!
Notes
Serve this salad warm immediately or chill until needed. Store covered in an airtight container up to a week in the fridge.
Nutrition Information
Amount Per Serving Calories 218
The Great Chicken Round-Up - The Gluten-Free Foodsmith
Wednesday 23rd of September 2015
[…] has made a wonderful quick and easy Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad that everyone is going to love. It doesn’t matter what the weather is outside, you can bring in […]
Tina Melton
Monday 10th of August 2015
I am going to pick up the ingredients for this today, it looks absolutely delicious! Love the pictures it looks very easy, I cannot wait to try it. Thanks for sharing : )
Kayti Lavergne
Monday 10th of August 2015
That's great Tina! Let me know how you like it :)
homemadefoodjunkie
Monday 10th of August 2015
We hope you love it Tina. WE did!
Sam @ SugarSpunRun
Friday 7th of August 2015
This looks so creamy and delicious!
homemadefoodjunkie
Friday 7th of August 2015
It is Sam! This salad has great flavor too. Thanks so much for stopping by