Pasta Salad with Chicken, Avocado and Tomato
on Jun 21, 2020, Updated Aug 27, 2023
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Summery, colorful, delicious. Perfect for entertaining, packing for an office lunch, picnics, you name it.
This is very much a modification of the Chicken and Avocado Salad on this website, just with extra dressing and pasta. But when you turn a chicken salad into a pasta salad it just become a whole other thing, doesn’t it?
Make Ahead
If you want to make this ahead of time, it’s perfect for that. You can make it all a day ahead of time, and just add the avocado and the tomato at the end. Keep it, covered in the fridge. The tomatoes can also be included ahead of time if it makes your life easier, but I never like to put fresh tomatoes in the fridge if I can help it, whether they are uncut, or already part of a dish. Their texture gets affected, and even if you bring them back to room temp before serving, I think their flavor gets muted as well.
You could also make the pasta and toss it with the dressing, and then add all of the veggies and the chicken in the next day. If you are cooking the chicken (try Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken!), you can do that up to a few days ahead of time, or if you are using rotisserie chicken you can cube it a day or two before finishing the salad.
Pasta Salad with Chicken, Avocado and Tomato: Summery, colorful, delicious. Perfect for entertaining, packing for an office lunch, picnics, you name it.
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With the avocado you have less leeway – you really want to add this right before serving. Toss the pasta salad gently to try and keep the avocado from getting nagged up, though it will still look pretty even if it does. If you want to go for a very restaurant-ish presentation, just serve the pasta salad in a large shallow serving bowl or platter, and sprinkle the diced avocado over the top just when you are ready to serve.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
- Simple Vegetarian Spring Pasta Salad
- Simplest Tomato, Corn, Basil, and Mozzarella Pasta Salad
- Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Feta, and Herbed Mayonnaise
- Perfect End of Summer Pasta Salad
- Pasta Salad with Salmon and Creamy Cilantro Dressing
More Chicken Salad Recipes
- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
- Indonesian Chicken Salad
- Smoky Chipotle Chicken Salad
- Pasta Salad with Chicken and Chipotle Dressing
- Chopped Salad with Chicken, Tomatoes, and Lemon Thyme Dressing
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Pasta Salad with Chicken, Avocado and Tomato
Ingredients
- ½ pound cooked chunky shaped pasta (like cavatappi)
- Kosher salt (to taste)
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup thinly sliced scallions
- ½ cup finely diced red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 cups cooked chicken breasts (about 2 6-ounce boneless skinless breasts; shredded or diced)
- 1 ripe avocado (cut into small cubes)
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (halved)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions, cooking them until past the al dente stage, and in fact, nicely tender, so that far end of the recommended cooking time, plus an extra minute. Drain, and rinse quickly with cool water.
- While the pasta is cooking, in a large bowl combine the olive oil, lime juice, scallions, bell pepper, cilantro (if using) and salt and pepper. Once you have drained and rinsed the pasta, add it to the bowl with the dressing and toss to coat well. Allow it to sit for about 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken, avocado and tomatoes and toss to combine everything. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. Transfer to a serving bowl.
