Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Salad
Servings: 5 servings
Calories: 605kcal
This Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Salad is made up of chicken breasts, pasta, vegetables and mixed with a Mediterranean inspired dressing for flavor. It is meant to be eaten cold making it a perfect meal prep for those who don't have the ability to reheat their meals.
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Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 1.5 lbs (681 g) boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 tsp (10 g) oil
- 1⅓ tbsp (20 g) lemon juice
- ½ tsp (2 g) onion powder
- ½ tsp (2 g) garlic powder
- ½ tsp (2 g) cumin
- ½ tsp (3 g) salt
- 1 tsp (1 g) dried oregano
For the Pasta
- 8 oz (227 g) chickpea pasta dry weight, any pasta works if you don't want to use chickpea
For the Vegetables
For the Dressing
- 6 tbsp (90 g) olive oil
- ¼ cup (60 g) red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp (15 g) lemon juice
- 2 cloves (10 g) garlic
- 2 tsp (2 g) dried oregano
- ⅓ tsp (2 g) salt
- ½ tsp (2 g) pepper
- 1 cup (112 g) crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
For the Pasta
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it's al dente, according to the package instructions. Once it's cooked, drain the pasta and rinse under cold water to cool it down and stop the cooking process.
For the Chicken
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (204℃).
- In a bowl mix together the oil, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and salt. Add the chicken and toss to coat the surface.
- Place the chicken into a casserole dish and cover with foil.
- Roast at 400°F (204℃) for 20-30 minutes. The size of your chicken will impact cooking time. Larger pieces will likely take closer to 30 minutes while smaller ones less.
- Once the chicken is done cooking, allow it to cool and cut it into thin, bite sized slices. I find that cold chicken breasts tastes best when it is sliced thin.
For the Vegetables
- Wash and cut the tomatoes and cucumber. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters depending on their size. Cut the cucumber into a medium dice. Remove the seeds from the cucumber with a spoon before dicing.
- Cut the red onion into a thin slices and rinse them under cold water to take the bite out of the raw onion. Pat dry with paper towel.
- Combine all of the vegetables and spinach into a large bowl
For the Dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, lemon juice, dried oregano, and salt to create the dressing.
- NOTE: The spinach will stay fresher if you add it to your meals right before eating. If you don't mind the extra step this is a good choice. I personally don't mind so I add it all when I am prepping the meals.
Construction
- In the large bowl with the vegetables, add in the drained noodles and spinach and pour the dressing over the top. Toss everything together to ensure it's well coated. Add the sliced chicken and feta cheese and give everything another good toss.
Plating
- This recipe makes 5 servings. Divide the pasta salad evenly among 5 meal prep containers. They will last up to 5 days in the fridge.
- It's likely it will be undersalted when you plate. I prefer to salt just before eating each dish as salt will encourage water to be released from your vegetables.
Nutrition
Calories: 605kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 45g | Fat: 32g | Fiber: 8.5g
NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR THE Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Salad
The information in this table represents the estimate for the total nutrition of the recipe as it is written. If you wanted to split the recipe into more or less servings than what is originally listed you can use this table to determine the nutritional estimates. If you update the number of servings in the “Servings” field of the recipe above, the information in these tables are no longer accurate as you have updated the ingredients.
Servings
Carbs
174.3g
Protein
227.2g
Fat
157.6g
Calories
3024.4 cals
This Post Has 19 Comments
I think the serving stepper is broken. It says for 5 servings I need 7.5 lbs of chicken.
I think fortis one 1 serving means 5 servings, at least for the time being. 1.5 lbs of chicken would be excessive for one serving of any dish.
I think you’re right.
What kind of pasta is that? Looks good and I want to try that
I think the portions are wrong… 80 ounces of pasta and 15 pounds of chicken for 10 servings?
Flavors are great on this one! A nice summer addition.
Great flavor. Hope he does more salads. Not as filling as I’d like. What to add and keep calorie count down?
Made this tonight. Thought it was perfect. Delicious!!
Big fan of this. I have made it 2 weeks in a row. Refreshing during this summer heat.
I can’t believe I made salad for a week and liked it.
Does this keep pretty well in the fridge for a week? I usually freeze most of my meal preps.
Really good and refreshing. I substituted the chicken breast on this for a rotisserie chicken, added the seasonings afterwards.
I really enjoyed this one. I added a bit more red wine vinegar to up the ratio on the dressing because I like it a little more tart personally along with a little extra lemon juice. With the bit of extra liquid I used some extra spinach, it was nice to be able to add some volume and not impact the calories! Chicken seasoning was absolutely delicious as well. Coming out of the fridge this is going to be amazing for the 90 degree+ weather. Zesty and full of flavor!
Very good! The only thing I suggest is ensuring the fetta is DRY. I made it once with a wetter cheese and it single handedly drowned the whole dish.
I’ve made this one multiple times, it’s great for summer! Is the listed nutritional info assuming we use chickpea noodles?
Delicious and refreshing
Was skeptical before making this but this has to be one of the best meals I’ve made and I’m so excited about it that I will be continuing to make this in the future.
I love this Salad!! I have had it as one of my meals for the past 4 weeks lol. I cooked all the chicken breast for 5 weeks and froze them in the ZWILLING bags and it greatly reduced my prep time for the following weeks.
Great!