I make this pasta salad A LOT. I never really thought to put the recipe up until I started doing a series of Chicken 2 Ways meals for the kids. So when I made some buttermilk fried chicken, I added it to the pasta salad and it was FANTASTIC.

There are a lot of ingredients to the dressing, but DON’T let that deter you. The flavor is exactly what you are looking for. Please don’t be tempted to wimp out and use that bottled dressing crap. It’s full of preservatives and so much oil that it will never stick to the pasta anyway. You won’t regret it, I promise.

ingredients:
8 ounces of pasta
1-1/2 cups cooked broccoli
1 cup chopped green/red/yellow peppers
1/4 cup sliced olives
2 cups buttermilk oven-fried chicken, cut into cubes

dressing ingredients:
4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Obviously, make sure you make Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken in advance of this recipe.

Boil the pasta according to package directions. Drain, but do not rinse. If you don’t want to cook fresh broccolli (I never do) just defrost Trader Joe’s frozen broccoli. It’s always frozen at the height of freshness so when it’s defrosted it tastes just fine.

Put all the dressing ingredients into a shaker and shake well to combine. If you don’t have a shaker, mix it in a bowl!

In a large bowl toss the pasta, broccoli, peppers, olives and chicken with the dressing. You don’t need to use all the dressing if you don’t want, just as much as you need. Mmm, you’d be surprised how good this is – it’s great for parties.

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