BBQ Chicken and Pasta Salad Dinner

Spice-seasoned chicken breasts are grilled to perfection and then brushed with BBQ sauce and served with a delicious pasta salad prepared with bacon, avocado, corn, black beans, green onions, and roasted red peppers. This pasta salad dinner is a hearty meal great for any backyard family picnic!

I’m all about pasta salads. I can eat pasta salad every day. There are just a few caveats. First and foremost, they have to be delicious. Texture is an absolute must! They have to be easy to make, inexpensive, and they must be still just as tasty the next day! And, finally, they have to pair well with a simple grilled main. That, Dear Reader, is precisely why I love this BBQ Chicken and Pasta Salad Dinner!

The best thing about pasta salads is that they can be made ahead of time. You can easily adapt them to your liking too because they’re very forgiving. And, it seems that everyone loves them! That’s probably why they are such a popular side dish at many restaurants, and certainly at every summer picnic or backyard BBQ!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this BBQ Chicken and Pasta Salad Dinner recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Chicken Breast – You can use thighs here too, however, you will need to adjust the cooking time.
• BBQ Spice Rub – You can buy these seasoning rubs at most grocery stores, however, it’s very easy to make your own at home with the spices you may already have in your spice rack. Check out my homemade BBQ Spice Rub here!
• BBQ Sauce
• Non-stick Cooking Spray
• Bacon – I’m using thick-cut bacon because I like the texture of it better when it’s fried. Regular-cut bacon is fine too.
• Pasta – You will need to cook your pasta in salted water.
• Roasted Red Peppers – Easily found in most grocery stores, but in case you’re wondering, it’s easy to make roast red bell peppers – learn how here!
• Corn – Use well-drained canned corn here. You can use fresh corn that has been cooked, cooled, and removed from the cob.  Frozen corn that has been cooked and cooled will also work!
• Canned Black Beans – Buying and using canned beans to prepare a meal is nothing to be ashamed of – we all do it!  I always drain and rinse canned beans.  They taste better without that thick, syrupy sauce.
• Green Onions – They add freshness and colour too.
• Parsley – Just a little bit for freshness, colour, and garnish.
• Mayonnaise – You can use any mayonnaise, even the fat-free stuff!
• Ranch Dressing
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper
• Lime Juice – Use freshly squeezed lime juice.
• Avocado

HOW TO PREPARE A BBQ CHICKEN AND PASTA SALAD DINNER

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Once cooked, drain well and transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Cut the bacon into bite-sized pieces – about 1 inch. Fry the bacon until crisp or until your desired level of doneness. Drain well and allow to cool. Season the chicken breasts with the BBQ Spice Rub and preheat your grill to 400 degrees F.

Once the grill is hot, carefully the cooking area with non-stick cooking spray. Place the chicken on the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Just before the chicken is fully cooked, brush both sides with the BBQ sauce and grill both sides just until grill marks are formed. Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board and allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, add the cooled bacon, chopped roasted red pepper, drained canned corn, rinsed and drained black beans, sliced green onions, chopped parsley, mayonnaise, ranch dressing, salt, and ground black pepper to the mixing bowl with the pasta. Toss everything together well until combined. Prepare the avocado and toss the diced pieces with the lime juice. Add it to the pasta and gently toss to incorporate. Using a sharp knife, slice the chicken breast across the grain into ½ inch slices. Plate the pasta salad and top with sliced chicken. Garnish and serve immediately. (I like to drizzle with some light sour cream.)

HOW TO TELL IF AN AVOCADO IS RIPE

I want to preface this section by asking you to do just one thing. After reading this, I do not want you to use this bit of information while shopping. Buy your avocados first and you can do this to them once you get home. To do so in a grocery store would be inconsiderate, to say the least.

To determine whether an avocado is ripe, most of us will gently squeeze it. If it’s hard, it needs more time; if it’s soft, it’s good to go. But, I have to say, I’ve tried this before and the flesh of the avocado felt like it would be buttery smooth when I cut into it. However, it was already brown in some spots. Since then, I never use the squeeze test.

To really tell the ripeness of an avocado, locate the little stem where the avocado was once attached to the tree. It should come off quite easily. You will see a little circular divot where the stem once was. The colour will tell you all you need to know. If it is green or yellow, that means the avocado is ripe and ready to eat. A bit of brown means there is probably brown inside your avocado, therefore it is over-ripe. Lastly, if the stem doesn’t come off easily, that means the avocado is under-ripe and not ready to eat.

A SEASONING WITH MANY USES!

I’m using my homemade Basic BBQ Spice Rub in this recipe. Contrary to what you might think, a spice rub is not only for rubbing into ribs or pork before you smoke them. A rub can be used in so many ways! Once you have this rub in your pantry, get ready for a whole lot of flavour in many of your mains and sides.

Obviously, you can use it as intended. Rub it over chicken, beef, pork, etc. Cover it and let it sit in the fridge so that the rub can really permeate the meat. Then, cook according to your liking. It screams grilling, right? But, what if you don’t have a grill? Here are some options.

Stir some of the spice rub mixture into the water when cooking rice. Plain rice is great, but spice-seasoned rice is wonderful! Add a teaspoon or so to a pasta salad. It’s as easy as whisking the spice rub into the mayonnaise or sour cream before tossing it with the cooked pasta. The same method can be applied to sour cream. Whisk in the rub to make a fast, easy, and delicious dip. Try placing some of the spice rub into a mason jar. Pour in some olive oil. Put the lid on and shake it until well mixed. Pour the dressing over greens or drizzle it over roasted or grilled vegetables. So much flavour!

COOKING PASTA

Let me talk to you a bit about how to get the pasta just right without overcooking it. Someone once told me that I prepare pasta like an old Italian grandma. That has stuck we me for so many years. You see, Dear Reader, I’m far from perfect, but cooking pasta is one thing I can certainly do perfectly. I don’t care what the back of the pasta package says, cook your pasta according to taste and texture. Ignore everything else. Here are my 4 steadfast rules:

Rule #1: Say no to oil!

Do you add oil to your pasta water before adding the pasta? Stop that right now! I don’t know who’s responsible for that, but I have seen some TV chefs do it! If you add oil to your pasta water, do you know what happens when you put the sauce on it? The sauce won’t stick as well as it should. It will slide off because the oil prevents it from sticking.

Rule #2: Add extra salt!

Salt the water. I used to be so afraid of salting pasta water because I thought it would be too salty to eat. Salting the water, before you add the pasta, is the only chance you get to season that pasta. Let the water come to a full boil before adding your salt. The water should taste like the ocean. Your version of this BBQ Chicken and Pasta Salad Dinner will thank you! Don’t dump the salt in; stir it in. Preventing the salt from settling at the bottom of your pot will keep your pot looking shiny and new. If you have pots with what looks like a tarnished or unpolished interior bottom, it’s because salt sat at the bottom of your pot.

Rule #3: Get that pasta moving about immediately!

Stir the pasta for a good minute when you first add it to the water. This helps to wash off some of the starch and prevents the pasta from sticking to the pot and to itself. I always pull out a piece of pasta 4 minutes before the package says it will be ready. Taste it. Chew it. It shouldn’t be completely soft. If it has a bit of bite left in the center, get it out of the water and drain it immediately. You can thank me later!

Rule #4: Do not rinse! – EXCEPT IN THIS CASE

So many of us are tempted to rinse pasta under running water after it’s been drained. I think it comes from the notion that it gets rid of the starch. Well, it does in a way. But, when pasta begins to cool off and dry, it becomes a little sticky. That stickiness soaks up pasta sauce, so don’t flush it out! A quick drain is all you need. Get the pasta into a bowl or onto a plate. Get the sauce on it and serve it up. (That all applies to hot pasta dishes, but for a pasta salad, go ahead and rinse. Get all of that starch off!)

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!