This curried chicken pasta salad is very flavorful with lots of apples, craisins, and a creamy, curry dressing. This easy recipe is sure to be a hit at your next potluck!
We love pasta salad at our house. It’s a great dish to bring to a gathering, but it also works really well for packing in lunches during the week.
We regularly make classic macaroni salad, pepperoni pasta salad, and now this curried chicken version will be added to the rotation, because it was a big hit!
This creamy curry pasta dish makes a lot of servings, and it’s one of my favorite salads right now. The chicken adds protein, and the apples, onions, and craisins add texture and crunch. A super tasty creamy dressing is the finishing touch that I think you’ll love! Try this for your next picnic or party – I think it will become a favorite for you, too.
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken – I like to use fresh chicken breasts that I cook specifically for this salad. You could use canned chicken or rotisserie chicken if you want to take a shortcut.
- Pasta – I like rotini for this salad, because it is able to hold a lot of dressing. You could use any shape of pasta that you like, though. Some brands of gluten free pasta to check out are Barilla, Jovial, Ancient Harvest, and Tinkyada.
- Mayonnaise – If you can’t have eggs, you will need to make sure that you use a vegan mayonnaise. Helmann’s makes a vegan mayo, as well as Follow Your Heart.
Substitutions
There are ways to make this pasta salad your own!
- If you’d like to add more veggies, try adding some shredded carrots or even some peas.
- If you can’t have craisins, you can add some fresh grapes or raisins.
- Looking for more crunch? Try adding some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.
Step by Step Instructions
- Cook the gluten free pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain and set aside to cool.
- Cook the chicken breasts, and allow then to cool. Once cool, use a food processor to finely chop them.
- Chop the apples and the sweet onion.
- Place all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, and stir well.
- Put the cooled pasta, chicken, craisins, apples, and onion in a bowl, and add the curry dressing.
- Stir well and make sure that everything gets coated with dressing. Enjoy!
Storage
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for about 3-4 days. You may need to add more dressing the longer you keep the salad – pasta tends to absorb the dressing and flavor the longer it sits.
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Recipe
Curried Chicken Pasta Salad (Gluten Free).
Ingredients
- 12 ounces gluten free pasta I used rotini
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 Fuji apples
- ½ cup sweet onion
- â…” cup craisins
- 1 ¼ cup egg free mayonnaise
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ Tablespoons curry powder
- 1 ½ Tablespoons organic cane sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Cook the gluten free pasta according to package directions, then drain and set aside to cool.
- Place the chicken breasts into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer until the chicken is no longer pink, and reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees F. This will take about 18-20 minutes.
- Place the cooked chicken breasts on a plate to cool. You can slice each one in half to speed up the cooling process. It will probably take about 20 minutes or so for the chicken to cool down.
- Dice up the apple and finely chop the onion.
- Put the cooled, cooked chicken breasts in the food processor. Pulse a few times until the chicken is finely chopped.
- Make the dressing. Put the egg free mayonnaise, salt, pepper, ground ginger, curry powder, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl. Stir well.
- Place the cooled pasta in a bowl, and add the chopped chicken, craisins, apple, and onion.
- Add the curry dressing, and stir to make sure all the ingredients get coated with dressing. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until you're ready to serve.
Darryl
This was fantastic!