The BEST Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe! EASY homemade pasta salad to make with a quick vinaigrette, chicken, blue cheese, hot sauce, and veggies!
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BEST Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe with an easy buffalo vinaigrette type dressing (no mayo or heavy dressings), chicken, veggies, and blue cheese. As you may already know I love buffalo chicken recipes and all other buffalo type recipes. This easy Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad is one of my faves!
When I asked my Snappy Gourmet friends on Facebook earlier this summer for recipes they’d like to see, someone suggested an easy Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe so here you go.
Unfortunately, we’ve been traveling a lot this summer so my cooking has been minimal (how many days until school starts up again??). I finally got around to this buffalo chicken pasta recipe this week!
This Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad has a light taste and would be great as a side dish or main dish. Perfect for dinner, tailgating, or a picnic and it’s great HOT or COLD. It would be great with shrimp, or skip the meat all together for a vegetarian dish. Use your favorite pasta shape and veggies and make it all your own!
I love Buffalo just about anything as I mentioned! There are so many different kinds of hot sauces and many of them are great for different dishes. For “Buffalo” dishes, I like to use Frank’s Hot Sauce. It’s widely available and adds a real buffalo type flavor without being overly spicy.
Instead of covering this Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad with a heavy blue cheese dressing, I decided to make more of a vinaigrette dressing and add crumbled blue cheese to the salad. Adding a little Ranch flavored seasoning would also be a good addition to the dressing.
This Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe turned out way better than I thought and definitely a keeper. Hope you enjoy!
The only time consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the veggies. I like to peel the outside of the celery so that it’s not so stringy. A little tip I learned years ago.
You can use any precooked chicken, but I like to use leftover precooked boneless chicken breasts. You could chop up a rotisserie chicken, substitute precooked shrimp (peeled and deveined), or leave the meat out all together.
I would say the dressing is mild to moderately spiciness. If you want it spicier use less olive oil, and more hot sauce.
Mix the pasta, veggies, cheese, and dressing all together. You can serve it right away, or refrigerate until ready to serve. If the pasta salad dries up a little after being in the refrigerator add a little more hot sauce and/or olive oil.
This Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad is perfect for a picnic, tailgating, or potluck! Mmmmm….
Here’s a quick video so you can see all the steps:
Would love to hear about your favorite pasta salads!
Hope you enjoy this Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad!
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces uncooked pasta (such as mezze penne)
- 1/2 cup Frank’s hot sauce
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- 2 cups precooked chicken chopped
- 1 1/2 cups crumbled blue cheese
- 1 cup carrots chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions to al dente. Drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water.
- Meanwhile, whisk together hot sauce, oil, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, and celery salt in small bowl until well combined.
- Place pasta in large mixing bowl. Stir in chicken, blue cheese, carrots, and celery. Slowly mix in dressing until desired amount.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes
SNAPPY TIPS: You can serve this as a side dish or main dish and can be served hot or cold. It would even be great for a tailgating or picnic potluck! It’s mild to moderately spicy. If you would like it to be spicier, use more hot sauce and less olive oil. If the pasta salad seems dry after being in the refrigerator, add a little olive oil or hot sauce.
SNAPPY SUBSTITUTIONS: Use any shape pasta you’d like. Instead of chicken, you could use precooked small shrimp (peeled and deveined) or leave out the meat all together for a vegetarian option. A little ranch flavored seasoning mix would also be good in the dressing. Red onions and/or scallions would also be a good addition.
Other Buffalo type recipes you may enjoy:
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms – Snappy Gourmet
- Buffalo Pretzels – Snappy Gourmet
- Buffalo Chicken Soup – Foods Of Our Lives
- Buffalo Chicken Pizza – Kitchen Swagger
(This post was updated April 2017 with a few new pictures but same recipe)
Erin @ Dinners, Dishes and Desserts says
This is such a fun salad! Great job coming up with the recipe!
snappygourmet says
Thanks Erin!
Donna Roof says
This sounds so refreshing for a make ahead pasta dish with a salad. I have a great Buffalo Chicken appetizer dip that everyone loves. I’m sure you have it. You can serve it with nachos, crackers or fritos. If you don’t have it, and I can e-mail it to you.
Donna Roof
snappygourmet says
Thanks Donna! I do have a recipe for a few versions of Buffalo Chicken dips, but thank you! Love it with fritos! Now you’re getting me hungry! :)
Katie says
I’ve had such a craving for buffalo chicken lately. This would definitely satisfy it! :)
snappygourmet says
I hope the buffalo pasta salad satisfies your buffalo craving. We like all things buffalo around here! :)
jeff says
I’m gonna make this but it’s definitely missing onions!
snappygourmet says
I totally agree Jeff! I added onions to my personal version and added a note that they would be a good addition but I get accused of adding onions to too much! LOL
Kevin (Closet Cooking) says
This pasta salad with buffalo chicken flavours sounds so good!
Angela FRS says
Oh, definitely Frank’s!! Anything Buffalo requires the real stuff. Harrison like Frank’s on just about anything. Salad looks great!
snappygourmet says
Angela, I could put Frank’s on just about anything too!
trina @ best salad recipes says
I love chocolates! this is great recipe, gorgeous photos as well. thanks for sharing!
best chocolate recipes says
Your beautiful photos really show off what a delicious pasta salad this is! I’ll be making this tonight, I’m sure my hubby will enjoy this. thanks for the share! :)
snappygourmet says
Hope you enjoy the pasta salad!
Pam N says
Will have to try this salad and soon! Looks yummy!! Franks sauce is a staple in our house. Relatives from Buffalo swear by it. Thanks!!
snappygourmet says
Thanks Pam! Hope you enjoy my Buffalo Pasta Salad! Frank’s is definitely good stuff!!
Brie says
This is such an awesome salad! I made it for a party and people were fighting over the last little bit! Thanks for sharing. :)
snappygourmet says
Oh Brie,that is so sweet! Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed my Buffalo Pasta Salad! You made my day! :)
Kelly from Legends says
I have finally had the chance to make this, one word…Yummy! We love Buffalo ‘anything’ in my house, and Franks Hot Sauce can always be found in my pantry. I am excited to try this with shrimp also, possibly adding a few bacon bits with the Blue Cheese!!! Thanks, and keep up the great work. Your photos are the best, heard you got a new camera
snappygourmet says
Hi Kelly! So glad you like the Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad! I’m also a fan of anything “buffalo” and actually just bought another bottle of Frank’s today. I think I’m addicted to it! :) Thanks again!
Inspire Me Heather says
Thanks for posting this I just had to Pin it!! It looks so yummy and I’ll just love the Frank’s in there!
Jim says
I enjoyed this dish a lot. Thank you so much. I ended up sautéing the carrots, celery (and some onion) to soften them up some because I’m too lazy/unskilled (take your pick) to dice them as nice and small as you did. It was delicious though, I’m excited for the leftovers.
Lisa Huff says
Thanks so much Jim! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! If I didn’t have to take pictures of my veggies for my blog, my dicing would not look that nice either. :) Thanks again!
Lisa says
Thanks for the recipe! Going to make this for a tailgate tomorrow!
Lisa Huff says
Thanks Lisa, hope you all enjoy it!
Kendra V. says
This was SO good!! We left out the celery and carrots because we were eating it hot (and my husband despises celery), but I will definitely try it cold this summer with them added in. Thanks for a yummy and quick recipe!
Katie Lyons says
I made this recipe for a 4th of July Cookout and it was a HIT!!!! The only thing I did differently was shred the chicken… It was DELICIOUS!
Thanks! :)
Lisa Huff says
So glad you enjoyed the pasta salad! One of my most popular dishes! :)
Kathy Cranmer says
I love this recipe…I live in a suburb of Buffalo, NY and we love our Frank’s Hot Sauce. I am glad to see you use blue cheese and celery in your recipe..original sides of chicken wings. Can’t wait to take this to the next family picnic!!!
Lisa Huff says
Thanks Kathy! Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Laureen says
Oh yum!!! It’s now on my list!
Jason says
Great dish. Used to buy something similar at our local grocer but they dropped it. This dish is even better. I substitute yellow and red bell pepper for celery and carrots (personal preference) and added salami chunks alongside chicken. Doubled up on blue cheese as I am a big fan of it. Nice work!
Lisa Huff says
Great, glad to hear you enjoy it! :)
Brad says
Made this for a Super Bowl Party. It was a big hit, I added black beans and scallions.
Thanks!
Lisa Huff says
Thanks Brad! So glad you all enjoyed it!
Casey says
If I add the dry ranch dressing into the sauce would I not do the other seasonings?
Lisa Huff says
If you add the dry ranch seasoning mix you probably don’t need the other seasonings. Personal taste though. I’d start with a little bit of the ranch and taste it and adjust.
Tanya says
I found this recipe along with your Garlic Cheddar Drop Buscuits just the other day. Today, in both the high school and middle school cooking classes I teach in a home school co-op, the kids made both recipes. What hits! Everyone loved it! The only thing we did differently was we used feta cheese instead of bleu cheese. I’m sure we’ll be making more if your recipes in the future! Thanks!
Lisa Huff says
Ohh that totally makes my day, thanks Tanya! :) And a big hello to all your students!