Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad with Garlic Dill Mayonnaise

Pasta salads are one of my favorite summer meals.  You really can't go wrong throwing any fresh vegetable, a little meat, some pasta and some sort of dressing into a bowl.  My husband, however, is a pasta salad snob.  This means we don't normally eat any type of pasta salad in our house.  So, I save these dishes for potlucks and ladies' nights, where I think most people will enjoy it.  I needed a dish to take to a get together last weekend, and I really didn't want to go to the store.  There was a box of pasta in the pantry, fresh veggies and herbs in my garden, and some chicken in the freezer.  Perfect!  After a little research on sprucing up plain mayonnaise, I had something that I liked.  Best part?  My pasta salad snob husband likes it too.

If you read down through the recipe, you'll see that I have 50 cherry tomatoes listed as an ingredient.  It's not necessary to use exactly 50 tomatoes.  I just happened to count them as I was cutting them and tossing them in the bowl.  Feel free to add more garlic, too; I didn't want it to overpower the salad, but if you love garlic, add in another clove or two.

Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad with Garlic Dill Mayonnaise


1 lb. pasta, cooked
2 green peppers, diced
50 cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber, chopped
2 grilled chicken breasts, sliced
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl gently combine cooked pasta, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and chicken.  In a separate bowl mix together mayonnaise, garlic and dill.  Stir the mayonnaise gently into the pasta mixture until well dispersed.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve chilled.

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