Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

You will want second helpings from this dish.

I loved this buffalo chicken pasta salad! It was so creamy, and making the fried chicken and adding fresh blue cheese definitely stepped it up. A couple of things I did was I marinated the chicken in a buttermilk mixture for at least 24 hours so the chicken is flavorful and will be able to stick to the flour mixture better. Also, on the chicken as I coat it in the flour mix I pressed the chicken in it to make sure it would stick. If you want a thicker coating you could try dipping in flour back in buttermilk mix and then back in flour then put in fryer for about 6 minutes.

I also suggest using fresh blue cheese and crumbling it yourself because it will taste more fresh!

Recipe Below:

Servings: 8

Time cook: 1 hour, 24 hours on the chicken

Ingredients

• Fried Chicken 

  • 1.5 lb of chicken tenders

  • 1 cup of buttermilk

  • 1/4 cup of olive oil 

  • garlic powder 

  • salt and pepper 

  • onion powder 

  • paprika 

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour 

  • peanut oil for frying 

  • 3/4 bottle of baby ray Buffalo sauce 

• Pasta Salad

  • cavatappi pasta 

  • 1 1/4 cup of celery, diced 

  • 1 package of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 

  • green onions, 5 sprigs save some to garnish 

  • 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt 

  • 3/4 cup of lactose-free sour cream 

  • blue cheese crumbled, to garnish 

  • 1 cup of baby rays Buffalo sauce 

Directions: On the chicken marinade add the buttermilk, olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder and place in a bag, marinade for at least 24 hours.

Once ready to start on pasta salad start to boil your pasta and cook accordingly. While this is cooking cut up your celery, green onion and tomatoes. Then make the sauce, add the yogurt, sour cream, ranch seasoning and the 1 cup of buffalo sauce. Mix in a bowl set aside.

Once the pasta is done, set aside so it can cool. This is when you would prep and start to fry your chicken. Get a frying pan and put peanut oil in to cook. For the flour mixture add all seasonings listed under chicken. Whisk. Now start to dread your chicken, make sure oil gets to 375 F and then cook for 6 minutes. Salt and set aside. Once they are done taoss in buffalo sauce and chopped the tenders into smaller pieces.

All ingredients in a bowl and mix. Top with blue cheese and left over green onions.