The BEST Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe! EASY homemade pasta salad to make with a quick vinaigrette, chicken, blue cheese, hot sauce, and veggies!
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….
Be sure to refrigerate any leftovers if you have any.
Would love to hear about your favorite pasta salads!
Here’s a quick video so you can see all the steps:
Hope you enjoy this Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad! If you’re a big buffalo chicken fan, check out this great list of 17+ Best Buffalo Chicken Recipes! You might also like this Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese.
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.
Notes
Nutrition:
(Nutrition data is provided when available for informational purposes only and calculated using an online nutritional calculator. For the most accurate information please calculate based on specific ingredients and brands you use as well as any changes you made to the recipe. I am not a certified nutritionist or registered dietician and any nutritional information provided should only be used as a general guideline and estimate.)
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)
About Lisa Huff
Lisa Huff is a Cookbook Author, Freelance Recipe Developer, Food Photographer, Blogger/Writer, and award-winning home chef. She loves creating unique recipes from healthy to decadent including cocktails, appetizers, main dishes, dessert recipes and more and has appeared on various shows, publications, and websites.
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!
Thanks for the recipe! Going to make this for a tailgate tomorrow!
Thanks Lisa, hope you all enjoy it!
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.
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!
Thanks for posting this I just had to Pin it!! It looks so yummy and I’ll just love the Frank’s in there!
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
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!
This is such an awesome salad! I made it for a party and people were fighting over the last little bit! Thanks for sharing. :)
Oh Brie,that is so sweet! Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed my Buffalo Pasta Salad! You made my day! :)
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!!
Thanks Pam! Hope you enjoy my Buffalo Pasta Salad! Frank’s is definitely good stuff!!
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! :)
Hope you enjoy the pasta salad!
I love chocolates! this is great recipe, gorgeous photos as well. thanks for sharing!
Oh, definitely Frank’s!! Anything Buffalo requires the real stuff. Harrison like Frank’s on just about anything. Salad looks great!
Angela, I could put Frank’s on just about anything too!
This pasta salad with buffalo chicken flavours sounds so good!
I’m gonna make this but it’s definitely missing onions!
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
I’ve had such a craving for buffalo chicken lately. This would definitely satisfy it! :)
I hope the buffalo pasta salad satisfies your buffalo craving. We like all things buffalo around here! :)
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
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! :)
This is such a fun salad! Great job coming up with the recipe!
Thanks Erin!