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Grilled Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad
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Grilled Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time13 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dinners for hot weather, gluten free dinner ideas, gluten free pasta salad recipes, healthy pasta salad recipes, pasta salad recipes, pesto pasta salad recipes, pesto recipes, picnic recipes, summer dinner ideas, summer pasta salads
Servings: 6
Author: Renee Kohley - Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

For the Pesto

  • 3-4 cups basil leaves
  • 3/4 cups shredded cheese of choice I like to use a sheep's milk manchego
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic peeled
  • 1/2 cup nuts of choice walnuts, pine nuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, etc
  • 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 - 1 1/4 cups olive oil

For the Grilled Chicken

For the Pasta Salad:

  • 1 large summer squash (yellow squash) sliced on the bias
  • 2 cups chopped broccoli florets
  • 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
  • 1 12 oz box pasta of choice I like using the Jovial Gluten Free Brown Rice Farfalle Pasta

Instructions

Make the Pesto:

  • Put all of the pesto ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor and pulse to combine into small bits.
  • Turn the food processor on to blend, and use the drip cup in the lid to drizzle the olive oil into the pesto mixture while blending. Scrape the sides down and blend until smooth. Set the pesto aside for dressing the pasta salad later.

Grill the chicken:

  • Pre-heat your grill or grill pan to medium high. If using a grill pan, brush the pan with cooking fat of choice such as ghee, butter, olive oil, avocado oil.
  • In a small dish, whisk the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and then rub both sides of the filleted chicken breasts with the seasoning blend.
  • Grill the chicken breasts until they are done. The internal temperature of the cooked chicken should be 165 degrees, but you'll want to pull the chicken off the grill before that as it will continue to cook while it rests.
  • Let the chicken rest while you prepare the pasta salad.

Make the pasta salad:

  • Get a pot of water boiling, and boil the pasta to just past al dente. I find that pasta salads (especially gluten free pasta salads) have the best cold pasta salad texture when you cook the pasta just past al dente.
  • Brush your grill or grill pan with cooking fat of choice and grill the summer squash rounds for a few minutes. I like mine to be crisp tender, but if you want them softer you can grill them for longer.
  • Drain the boiled pasta, and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Toss the cooked pasta with the veggies and at least half of the pesto sauce. You can add more pesto to your liking.
  • Slice the rested chicken and toss into the pasta salad.

Notes

  • Change out the veggies to what you have on hand. Asparagus, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers all grill up so well!