I guess we’ve hit that time of the year where just I want to eat cold salads every day (Hi, summer!). So I decided to take one of my favorite pasta salads, Lemony Cucumber Couscous Salad, and transform it into a full meal. I added a few other vegetables and used half of the dressing to marinate a couple juicy chicken thighs. And ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! So much of a winner that I ate this Greek Chicken Pasta Salad for breakfast this morning. ;) #noregrets
Greek Chicken Pasta Salad Portion Sizes
This Greek Chicken Pasta Salad comes together quickly and easily and makes about four large meal-sized portions, or about six smaller side dish portions. It’s also a great candidate for potlucks, and would be super easy to double, or even triple if needed.
Can I Use Chicken Breast Instead of Thighs?
Yes, just make sure you pound your chicken breast to an even thickness, about 3/4-inch thick before marinating. Making sure the chicken is thin and even will help it cook quickly without drying it out. You can also filet your chicken breast into two thinner pieces, or use chicken tenders.
Make it Vegetarian
Want to make it vegetarian? No problem. Just skip the chicken and you can probably halve the dressing/marinade (or just make the full batch if you really like a lot of dressing on your salads). The medley of vegetables are plenty to keep this salad filling and interesting on its own! And if you want a little more protein in there, chickpeas would do very well with these flavors!
Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
Servings 4 to 6Ingredients
MARINADE/DRESSING
- 1 lemon ($0.59)
- 1/4 cup olive oil ($0.64)
- 3 cloves garlic, divided ($0.24)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano ($0.07)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
SALAD
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ($2.10)
- 8 oz. pasta (any shape) ($0.50)
- 1 bell pepper (any color) ($1.50)
- 4 oz. grape tomatoes* ($1.00)
- 1/2 cucumber (1.5 cups diced) ($1.00)
- 1/4 bunch parsley ($0.20)
- 2 oz. feta ($1.12)
Instructions
- Use a zester, microplane, or small-holed cheese grater to remove the zest from the lemon. Set the zest aside. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a separate bowl. You’ll need at least 1/4 cup juice.
- Prepare the dressing and marinade by mincing two of the three cloves of garlic and combining them with 1/4 cup lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, salt, some freshly cracked pepper, and a pinch of the lemon zest. Whisk these ingredients until well combined.
- Place the chicken thighs in a small zip lock bag and add half of the dressing, saving the rest to add to the salad later. Mince one more clove of garlic and add it to the bag with the chicken and marinade. Squeeze the air out and massage the bag to make sure the thighs are well coated in the marinade. Refrigerate the thighs for at least 30 minutes.
- While the chicken is marinating, cook the pasta according to the package directions, drain in a colander, and let cool.
- Heat a skillet over a medium flame. Once hot, add the marinated chicken thighs and cook on each side until they are well browned and cooked through (about 5 minutes each side). There should be enough oil in the marinade to keep the meat from sticking. Remove the cooked chicken from the skillet and let it rest for about five minutes. Once slightly cooled, chop the chicken into smaller, bite-sized pieces.
- While the chicken is cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Dice the cucumber and bell pepper. Slice the tomatoes in half (or dice if using Roma or regular tomatoes). Pull the parsley leaves from the stems and give them a rough chop.
- Finally, build the salad. Add the cooked and cooled pasta to a large bowl. Top the pasta with the cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, parsley, and chopped chicken. Crumble the feta over top and add a pinch or two of the lemon zest. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Greek Chicken Pasta Salad – Step by Step Photos
Start by removing the zest from one lemon. The zest is the magic part of the lemon. It provides an incredibly lemony flavor without making things too sour. So, for this recipe we use both the juice and the zest for an extra lemony kick. Use a zester, microplane, or small-holed cheese grater to scrape the thin layer of yellow zest from the peel. Set the zest aside. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a separate bowl. You’ll need at least 1/4 cup of juice.
Now prepare the mixture that will be used as both the dressing and the marinade. Mince two cloves of garlic and combine them in a bowl with 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, some freshly cracked pepper, and a pinch of that lemon zest. Whisk with a fork until well combined.
Add two boneless, skinless chicken thighs to a zip lock bag and add half of that dressing, plus one more clove of minced garlic (you really want the chicken to be garlicky!). Squeeze out all the air, give the bag a quick massage to distribute the marinade, then refrigerate the chicken for at least 30 minutes.
While the chicken is marinating, cook 8oz. of pasta (any shape) according to the package directions. Drain the pasta in a colander, and let it cool.
Heat a skillet over a medium flame and once hot, add the marinated chicken thighs. There should be enough oil on them from the marinade to keep them from sticking. Cook the thighs on each side until well browned and cooked through (about five minutes each side). Seriously, this chicken was SO GOOD that I’m probably going to feature it as its own recipe soon. I wanted to eat it by itself.
Remove the chicken from the skillet and let it rest for a few minutes, then chop it into smaller, bite-sized pieces.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Dice 1/2 cucumber (1.5 cups diced), dice the bell pepper, slice the tomatoes in half (or dice if using Roma or regular tomatoes), and give the parsley a rough chop.
Finally, it’s time to put everything together! Place the cooked, drained, and cooled pasta in a large bowl (it’s under there, I swear). Top the pasta with the tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, parsley, and chopped chicken. Finally, crumble 2oz. feta over everything and add one last pinch of lemon zest.
Pour the remaining dressing over the salad…
And toss until everything is coated in dressing. Done!
I miiiiiight have to make this Greek Chicken Pasta Salad again immediately after this batch is gone. Yeah, definitely.
One of the best Budget Bytes recipes I’ve made- and that’s saying a lot! I love how simple the recipe is and yet it delivers big flavor. I ended up marinating my chicken for almost an hour and chose to serve it next to the pasta salad vs in it so I can appreciate the chicken more. Really flavorful. I loved how bright and fresh the dressing/Marinade tasted. The pasta salad tasted like summer. Great meal and my family thanked me profusely. I on the other hand say thank you Beth! Plan to make this often.
This was amazing! My first attempt at pasta salad and it was delicious. The dressing is definitely taste as you go as I had to add more lemon and garlic. I left the chicken out and used corn kernels instead of capsicum as that is what I had on hand. I served it with roast crispy skin chicken thighs.
Will curly parsley work with this recipe? I didn’t realize you meant Italian parsley until I was preparing my meal. Is there even a big difference between the two?
That should work fine. I usually decide which one to use just based on the texture I want in the dish, but for this one either texture should work. :)
Yum. Just made this for lunch. Replaced lemon with lime (since this is what I had at hand).
Very satisfying :) Perfect for the hot weather we are having in UK
Although if storing the salad in the fridge for a few days, I would suggest adding parsley and dressing right before serving. Otherwise it tends to go soggy.,
This recipe sounds like summer is coming upon us ;)
It is still freaking cold here in the midatlantic states. We’ll save this recipe for when summer finally arrives.
on purpose I cook some summer dishes just to get some sort of reprieve from the winter weather that hangs on too long. I grill all year long and randomly make summer salads when I grill and this will be one of them! This year Seattle area had more snow in Jan-Feb than Minneapolis or Chicago, and snow is usually rare at sea level. The usual rain has been nonstop as well in western WA. So the grill has been used more often to lift spirits and summer salads add to the attitude adjustments, using many of Beth’s recipes about once a week! We did not cook usual Thanksgiving food, we went to the OR coast and had fresh caught Dungeness crab. I was even more thankful this year!
I’m surprised you didn’t toss any red onions in there! I’ll definitely have to make this, though without the peppers (because I despise them) and I’ll probably toss in a bit of red onion and some chopped kalamata olives to round out the Greek vibe! Thanks for another great recipe :)
I was thinking I’d add Red onion and Kalamata Olives too!
This looks awesome!
I might marinate chickpeas instead of chicken and then heat them up in a skillet to see if I can char them a bit. I would hate to miss out on that grilled texture and the protein!
I was thinking of pressing/cubing/marinating some tofu in the dressing, bake it and cool, then toss it in there… and some red onions!
Great idea!
Is 1/2 of a cucumber really 1 1/2 cups diced? Your picture didn’t make it seem like you had that much in there so I just wanted to check!
It was kind of a big cucumber and the photo of them diced was kind of zoomed out. :) It’s flexible, though, so if you only have a cup or have two cups worth it will all be okay.
I LOVE pasta salad. Can’t wait to make this recipe!!! :-)
I can’t wait to try this! I’d have to add kalamata olives in order to make it truly Greek in my mind :)
I think I’ll try this and sub a can of butter beans for the chicken.
Great idea!
Wow, that looks so good!
I could easily eat this as a stand-alone meal, but I’m pretty sure the males in my home would need/expect something else as well. What do you suggest as sides? Fruit? Crudités?
There are a lot of fresh vegetables in this already, so I think crudités might be overkill. Instead of finding sides to this dish, I’d probably just make THIS the side and serve it with something like sandwiches or grilled meat or fish. :)
Yes, I thought the extra veggies in crudites/salad might be a bit much as well. I might just serve the chicken separately when I feed the guys (just prep an extra thigh or two) and then chop up the leftovers into the pasta for a lunch salad for myself when they’re out of the house.
It looks so delicious, I’ve got to figure out some way to get it onto our menu. :)
This would be a great way to use up some left over swarma chicken from your other recipe. I made it and it’s delicious!!!! Also a little green onion in this… Yummy