Chicken Pasta Salad

Kitchen blog has returned! Flu is gone, and Craig is back on the East coast, so let us continue with the cooking. :)

This recipe is one of my favorites. Its origins date back to when I played varsity softball at Fitch...haha. One of my teammates, Lizzie Myers, made this pasta salad at home and brought a bunch of it with her on a particularly long bus trip to a rival school. She made the mistake of offering to share with her teammates...and didn't get much for herself! Lizzie gave all of us the recipe and I've been drooling over this stuff ever since.

INGREDIENTS:

1 box rotini pasta

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

1 packet Pasta Salad mix (found in salad dressing aisle)

1 green pepper, cut into bite size pieces

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

Essence of Emeril (or any other favorite seasoning)

1 carrot, peeled and cut into small pieces

DIRECTIONS

-Start by cooking the pasta. Once the pasta is done, drain and put it in a large bowl. Put the pasta in the refrigerator so it can cool while you do everything else.

-Spray a pan with cooking spray. Put the chicken in and cook on medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with the Essence of Emeril--make sure all the pieces get some covering with the seasoning. Cook the chicken until no longer pink. Let cool for a few minutes.

-Pull the pasta out of the fridge, and add the chicken, pepper, and carrot to the pasta.

-All the pasta salad mixes that I buy have the recipe for the dressing on the side. Usually you need to stir up the mix with 1/4 cup of the vinegar and 1/4 cup of the olive oil. But read the packet because some call for water, more/less vinegar, etc. Whatever the packet says, mix up that amount of dressing. Mix the dressing with the pasta/chicken mixture.

-We usually put the pasta salad in the freezer for about 10 minutes (if we're in a hurry), or in the fridge for about an hour before eating. It's better cold!

COMMENTS:

-We eliminated the carrot in our version and just did more green pepper. You can try adding different veggies too.

-We ate this for dinner (hey, we're light eaters), but it also makes a good side dish. I bring it to a lot of office parties and potluck things.

-The amount we made fed both of us for dinner, plus packed 2 containers for lunch leftovers. (Sweet, more tomorrow!)