Chicken Taco Pasta Salad is the perfect recipe for taking to a potluck or for a meal on a hot summer evening. The great thing with this Chicken Taco Pasta Salad is you can make it and serve it the next day. It stays fresh for several days.
At potlucks, I love the Taco Salads that are lettuce based. Those are amazing! The only thing I don’t care for is leftovers don’t keep, which is sad. Often times those Taco Salads will need to be assembled right before serving. Sometimes that just does not work. Well, this recipe can be made the night before the crushed Doritos can be sprinkled on as each person takes their serving. Plus, any leftovers will keep.
This is also a great recipe to make and serve for a meal on those hot summer days when you do not want to heat up the house. Or do you have kid’s activities to go to right after work and need a quick meal? This salad can be made the evening before and served as a cold pasta meal. It has meat, pasta, vegetables, and a dressing. Everything in a meal.
Ingredients
So, let’s get to the ingredients and mixing this together. You will need an extra large bowl because this recipe makes a large bowl full.
It has a box of pasta. I used Rotini, but you could easily use another shaped pasta. The pasta needs to be cooked, drained, and cooled before mixing.
It has canned chicken with taco seasoning and black beans as the sources for protein. The chicken is canned so you do not need to heat the house to cook the chicken. Shredded chicken can be used if that is what you have.
There are a variety of vegetables like, green peppers, diced onion, and Roma tomatoes. You can omit some if you choose too.
Let’s not forget the cheese. You cannot have a taco without cheese.
The dressing is made with Catalina or French Dressing with taco seasoning mixed in it.
Lastly, crush up some Dorito chips and sprinkle them on top for added crunch and flavor. For a potluck, you can add them in right before serving, but I prefer to have them in a separate bowl and allow people to put them on themselves.
Serving
I would take this as it is to a potluck, or I would serve it cold as a meal on a hot summer evening. If I would serve this as a cool meal, I’d serve it with cold fresh fruit, like watermelon or cantaloupe. A Creamy Grape Salad is another great side dish to serve with Chicken Taco Pasta Salad.
Happy Cooking!
Chicken Taco Pasta Salad
Equipment
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 2 cup Bowl
- 1 Very Large Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz Rotini Pasta Cooked, Drained, and Cooled
- 2 7 oz Can Chicken Breast Drained
- 1 15 oz Can Black Beans Rinsed and Drained
- 1 each Green Bell Pepper Diced
- ¼ each Red Onion Finely Diced
- 2 each Roma Tomatoes Diced
- 2 cups Cheddar Cheese Shredded
- 1 packet Taco Seasoning
- 1 cup Catalina or French Dressing
- Dorito Chips Crumbled
Instructions
- Drain the cans of chicken breast meat and put into a very large bowl. Add 2 tbsp Taco seasoning. Mix well.
- Add the cooked and cooled pasta to the bowl.
- Add the drained black beans to the bowl.
- Dice the onion, green pepper, and tomatoes. Add to the bowl.
- Mix well.
- In a smaller bowl mix together the 1 cup of dressing and the rest of the taco seasoning. Pour into the large bowl and mix well.
- It is ready to serve immediately. Serve with crushed Dorito chips on top.
