Hen Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta

Hen Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta is a implausible Summer season salad that makes a lightweight dinner, lunch, or snack. Tossed with the house made Honey Dijon Mustard Lemon Dressing, this healthful salad is crammed with fruit, veggies, protein, and fiber. Will most likely be a selected crowd-pleaser at Summer season potlucks, picnics, BBQ occasions, and cookouts.

Summer season rooster pasta salad

This summer time season pasta salad choices seasonal produce (apricots), skinless boneless rooster thighs (cooked in delicious seasonings), bacon, feta cheese, and actually light handmade summer time season dressing! The complete recipe takes solely half-hour and makes a stunning appetizer, light meal, and even dinner! Your family members and mates with love the current, savory, and sweet combination of flavors! In case you like summer time season pasta salads, make certain to do this in model corn pasta salad with bacon and refreshing peach rooster pasta salad with spinach, and tomatoes.

Salad components

• Hen. I pan-seared skinless and boneless rooster thighs, then sliced them thinly. To make this recipe even easier, use leftover cooked rooster, grilled rooster, or pre-cooked rotisserie rooster.
• Pasta. I used penne. You must use any kind of short-cut pasta, similar to fusilli (spiral pasta) or bow-tie pasta (farfalle).
• Apricots. Buy apricots which could be company and crisp. They have to be plump and company (or barely clean) to the contact, with unwrinkled pores and pores and skin. Stay away from overripe apricots which could be merely indented when touched or these which have cuts or wrinkled pores and pores and skin.
• Spinach is crammed with nutritional vitamins and antioxidants. It’s extreme in fiber and an excellent provide of many dietary nutritional vitamins and minerals. Spinach is an excellent provide of dietary nutritional vitamins A and C, along with folic acid, iron, and calcium.
• Feta cheese is form of nutritious, as correctly, and is an excellent provide of calcium. This delicious cheese has a clean texture and briny style.
• Cooked bacon. I cooked bacon inside the oven to attenuate the cleanup. An excellent substitute for bacon is prosciutto. I would quickly crispy up the prosciutto inside the preheated oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes.

Honey Dijon mustard lemon dressing

• Salad dressing components embody extra virgin olive oil, honey, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and Dijon mustard. I wish to advocate using freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (not the bottled kind) and extra virgin olive oil. You must use each maple syrup or honey.
• Merely combine the entire components for the dressing in a mason jar and whisk with the fork (or shut the jar with the lid and shake it vigorously to combine the flavors).

What kind of rooster to utilize

• Skinless and boneless rooster thighs. That’s what I used for this summer time season rooster pasta salad – the darkish meat of rooster thighs is juicy and tender and is generally pretty forgiving to arrange dinner.
• Hen tenders are moreover a great choice for this recipe. Be sure you steer clear of overcooking as rooster tenders put together dinner fast.
• Skinless and boneless rooster breasts are more likely to dry out sooner, so make certain to observe your cooking events intently, ensuring that the rooster is cooked by quickly, with out drying out.
• Cooked rooster. It’s a glorious recipe for leftover cooked or grilled rooster.
• Rotisserie rooster. Shred it into small gadgets and apply it to this pasta salad.

Cooking concepts

• Prepare dinner dinner pasta al dente. To arrange dinner pasta al dente means to arrange dinner the pasta so that it’s clean however company on the core of the noodle. It ought to essentially really feel company to the chew, exhausting beneath your enamel, whereas being clean however not mushy. Such a texture works best with the apricot rooster pasta salad.
• Don’t overcrowd the pan when cooking the rooster. Creating home between the rooster thighs will allow the rooster to sear correctly in its place of steaming. Use a giant ample pan to accommodate your total rooster or work in batches. The cast-iron pan works the simplest!

Recipe concepts and proposals

• Use current company apricots. Current apricots work fantastically for this summer time season rooster pasta salad.  Current apricots have a short season (May by August) so profit from this delicious Summer season produce!
• Don’t peel the apricots. Maintain the apricots’ pores and pores and skin on – not solely does it add shade and vibrancy to the dish, nevertheless why moreover eliminate the fiber contained inside the peaches’ pores and pores and skin?!  Nonetheless, make certain to scrub apricots fully in warmth working water to eliminate any filth and particles.
• Use leftover rooster. It’s a good recipe to utilize the leftover cooked or grilled rooster or rotisserie rooster.
• Use fully totally different greens, similar to arugula, yard greens, or lettuce.
• Bacon might be modified with prosciutto.
• Make it gluten-free by means of the usage of brown rice pasta, lentil pasta, chickpea pasta, or another gluten-free alternatives.
• Add nuts for crunch and texture. Toasted pine nuts, pecans, almonds, and walnuts will work correctly.
• Use a definite kind of cheese. My favorites embody feta, parmesan, Gruyere, and goat cheese.
• Serve it warmth or at room temperature. This apricot rooster pasta salad tastes the simplest when it’s a bit warmed up.

How one can retailer it

• The apricot rooster pasta salad retains correctly refrigerated in an airtight container for as a lot as 3 days.
• For best outcomes, add spinach solely when in a position to serve.

Concepts for making it ahead

• Make ahead the salad dressing. Maintain it in a transparent glass jar (similar to a mason jar) with a lid. Refrigerate for as a lot as per week.
• To make the salad ahead, combine sliced apricots, cooked pasta, sliced cooked rooster, sliced cooked bacon (skip together with spinach), and feta cheese and mix correctly. Add salad dressing correct sooner than serving.
• Add spinach ultimate – correct sooner than serving. In some other case, it could possibly wilt an extreme quantity of.

Completely different summer time season pasta salads you could like

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Hen Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta

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Hen Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta is a implausible Summer season salad that makes a lightweight dinner, lunch, or snack. Tossed with the house made Honey Dijon Mustard Lemon Dressing, this healthful salad is crammed with fruit, veggies, protein, and fiber. Will most likely be a selected crowd-pleaser at Summer season potlucks, picnics, BBQ occasions, and cookouts.

Course Salad

Delicacies American, Mediterranean

Key phrase apricot pasta salad, rooster apricots, rooster pasta salad, summer time season pasta salad

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Prepare dinner dinner Time 20 minutes minutes

Entire Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Vitality 855kcal

Creator Julia

Bacon and pasta

• 6 strips bacon
• 8 oz penne pasta

Hen

• 1 lb rooster thighs skinless, boneless
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• salt and black pepper to model
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Salad dressing

• ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Current salad Substances

• 5 oz current little one spinach
• 1 lb apricots throughly washed, pitted, and sliced
• 6 oz Feta cheese crumbled

Prepare dinner dinner bacon

• Preheat the oven to 375 F. Unfold bacon in a single layer on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

• Prepare dinner dinner for about 15 or 20 minutes or further until cooked by and crispy. Take away from oven.

• Take away bacon (being cautious to not burn your self) from the baking sheet onto a plate lined with paper towels to empty fat.

• Proceed with the recipe as you anticipate the bacon to arrange dinner.

Prepare dinner dinner pasta

• Carry a giant pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and put together dinner pasta al dente according to the bundle instructions.

• Proceed with the rest of the recipe whereas the pasta is cooking.

• When the pasta is completed, drain. Maintain the drained pasta within the equivalent pot the place you cooked it.

Prepare dinner dinner rooster

• Generously season the rooster thighs with Italian seasoning, paprika, chili powder, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

• Heat an empty cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. This allows the cast-iron skillet to heat by. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add rooster thighs. Prepare dinner dinner the rooster on medium heat for 5 minutes on one side, with out transferring it.

• Flip the rooster thighs over, in the reduction of heat to low-medium, and put together dinner for about 5 further minutes or longer on the alternative side, undisturbed, until it’s cooked by. The meat thermometer must register 165°F (74°C) inside the thickest part of the rooster. Take away from heat.

• Slice the rooster thinly.

Salad assembly

• Wash, core, and slice apricots.

• In a pot the place you cooked and drained the pasta, combine warmth, cooked, and drained pasta together with spinach and the salad dressing. Mix correctly.

• Add sliced apricots, crumbled feta cheese (saving ⅓ of it for later), and sliced cooked bacon. Toss to combine.

• When serving, excessive each explicit particular person portion with thinly sliced cooked rooster and the remaining ⅓ of crumbled Feta cheese. Or, merely mix in sliced cooked rooster into the pasta salad.

Vitality: 855kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 45g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 24g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Ldl ldl cholesterol: 157mg | Sodium: 908mg | Potassium: 1030mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 5930IU | Vitamin C: 26mg | Calcium: 299mg | Iron: 4mg