This Chicken Curry Mayo Pasta salad is no boring middle of the road pasta salad, it’s packed with flavour and crunch! It works as a meal by itself, particularly as a quick lunch if prepped beforehand, but it’s also a perfect side dish for BBQs and picnics. There’s some chopping to do, but it still shouldn’t take longer than half an hour to make as the pasta and chicken cook while you chop the veggies!
Chicken Curry Mayo Pasta Salad
🍴 Servings: 6 – 8
🕒 Hands-on: Up to 30 minutes
🎛 Cooking/total time: ~ 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 500 – 650g raw chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp oil, for frying
- salt & black pepper, for the chicken
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ - 250g fusilli
- 50g (100ml) frozen peas
- 50g (100ml) frozen sweetcorn
- 70g leek (about 10cm chunk)
- 50g gherkins (5-6 baby gherkins)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 small apple
- 3 – 4 pineapple rings
- 300g (300ml) mayonnaise
- 2 – 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp curry powder
- ½ – 1 tsp salt
- ¼ – ½ tsp black pepper
- 1.5 – 2 tbsp white sugar
STEPS
1 Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add whole chicken breasts when the pan it hot. Cook for about 15-20 minutes (check out my method of cooking juicy chicken!). Put the cooked chicken breasts on a chopping board and chop into bite size chunks once cooled.
2 Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook al dente according to package instructions. Once cooked, drain and transfer into a large dish. Add frozen peas and sweetcorn (no need to defrost, they will also help to cool down the pasta).
3 Chop all vegetables and fruit: slice leek in half lengthwise and cut into thin half-moon shapes. Dice red pepper, apple and gherkins into about 1-1.5cm cubes, and cut pineapple into small(ish) pieces.
4 Next, add about half of the mayonnaise, lemon juice and seasoning to the cooled pasta. Give it a stir and then add all chopped ingredients.
5 Stir in the remaining mayonnaise, lemon juice and seasoning. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving, ideally until the next day.
Notes:
- Chicken — Make sure to also season the chicken when cooking it!
- Leek — Rinse the leek after chopping as leeks normally have a bit of sand and dirt between the layers. Any parts can be eaten, but light green part works the best for this recipe
- Assembling — When you start building the pasta salad you can always add the mayonnaise and seasoning at once. I just prefer to add it in batches as it’s easier to stir and also adjust the seasoning
- Mayonnaise — Since the pasta salad has so many fruits and vegetables, I don’t find it heavy at all. However, if you prefer a slightly lighter version, you can always replace some of the mayonnaise with natural yogurt
ALLERGEN & DIET INFO:
🔷 This pasta salad works well without the chicken as well, so to make this dish vegetarian simply leave the chicken out!
Main equipment:
Large frying pan (+ lid) → chicken
Medium saucepan/pot (2-3L) → pasta
Colander (optional)
Chopping board & knife x 2
Large dish (ideally 2.5L)
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