ORZO CHICKEN SALAD — Orzo pasta and tender chicken combine with grapes, celery, mayonnaise and seasonings in this unique twist on traditional chicken salad.
This delicious Orzo Chicken Salad is like a cross between a chicken salad and a pasta salad. Why not enjoy the best of both worlds?
I for one love a good chicken salad–which this recipe is! I also love a good pasta salad–which this recipe also is!
Whether I serve it at potlucks, baby showers, or simply as a light lunch or dinner for my own family, this salad always gets rave reviews. And it’s a nice change from the usual chicken salad.
This recipe does make a lot, so if you aren’t feeding a crowd, you may want to half the recipe. You can always use the rest of your chicken for soup.
You can also make this with a few cooked and cubed chicken breast halves, but buying the supermarket rotisserie chicken makes it a lot easier, and I like the flavor it adds.
This is a pretty forgiving recipe, so don’t worry if your measurements aren’t exact. If you love grapes, add more. Same goes for pretty much any of the ingredients.
It definitely tastes better after it has chilled for several hours. In fact, I like this salad best the next day. It’s great on it’s own, or served in croissants, sandwich-style.
If you’re looking for a change from the usual chicken (or pasta) salad, you’ve got to give this Orzo Chicken Salad a try!
Be sure to save this Orzo Chicken Salad recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Tips for Cooking Pasta
Use a big pot: Cook pasta in a large pot–big enough to hold 6 quarts of water per pound of pasta.
Salt: Generously season your cooking water with salt. A few teaspoons per quart of water is a good place to start. Although a little more or less is fine, depending on your preference.
Don’t overcook: Boil your pasta to until it is al dente, which means it’s cooked, but still a bit chewy. You’ll want to test your pasta for flavor and texture every 20 seconds or so during the last few minutes of cooking.
If you’ll continue cooking the pasta in a sauce, or baking it in the oven, remove the pot from the heat a few minutes before it’s done to prevent overcooking.
Here’s what you’ll need to make Orzo Chicken Salad
- Chicken
- Orzo pasta
- Produce: green bell pepper, celery, red onion, green onions, grapes, garlic
- Sour cream
- Mayonnaise
- Lemon juice
- Spices: basil, mustard powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
Orzo Chicken Salad
Orzo pasta and tender chicken combine with grapes, celery, mayonnaise and seasonings in this unique twist on traditional chicken salad.
Ingredients
- 1 supermarket rotisserie chicken
- 2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 cups grapes, halved
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orzo and cook for 5-6 minutes or until just tender. Drain and rinse with cool water.
- Remove meat from rotisserie chicken and shred into bite size pieces. Add to a large bowl along with the orzo. Stir in chopped bell pepper, celery, red onion, green onion, and grapes.
- In a small bowl, stir together sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, basil, onion powder, ground mustard powder, salt and pepper.
- Pour sour cream/mayonnaise mixture over pasta and chicken mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 445Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 50mgSodium: 282mgCarbohydrates: 54gFiber: 3gSugar: 10gProtein: 19g
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Who Dished It Up First: I’ve seen several different recipes for chicken salad that include orzo, but I originally got the idea here, at Evil Shenanigans. This is my own version.
Sharon
Looks great, funny that not even an hour ago I was searching the net for a leftover rotisserie chicken recipe and now I found it! Thanks!!
detroiteats
The salad looks great. Everything is cut to the right size.
just a girl
I had printed this out to use later and just made it tonight. It’s delicious — I especially like the kick at the end.
But, man, I didn’t read the bit about halving the recipe and I stupidly didn’t think how much it would make. There’s SO much for lil’ ol me!
Do you think I could freeze some of it successfully? (Obviously new to this whole cooking thing.)
Danelle
I don’t know that this would freeze well, but hey, if it was going to be wasted, why not give it a try?
just a girl
Good point. Thanks!
just a girl
Thanks for responding so quickly, by the way! I love your blog and have many recipes printed; I can’t wait to try another soon.
Laura H.
I love this recipe, I’ve made it countless times now and always get rave reviews!
Brooke
I would really like to pin this but it wont let me use your image for it, I went to your pinterest board and the link you have for this (so I could repin) doesn’t have a link attached to it! I want to pin this so I can find it again, why not allow images to be pinned?
Suzanne
This looks a great recipe to take to a summer Christmas luncheon party but what is Orzo pasta, please? We don’t have it here and I can’t see from the recipe what it might look like. Is it, perhaps, like a large grain of rice but is really pasta? We have that here.
Suzanne
Found the pasta. It’s called risoni here. We had it for dinner the first night but you’re right it’s definitely better the next day, which is a good thing because when you’re off to a BBQ and busy the last thing you need is to fix the salad so being able to make it the day before is really handy. This salad will be making more appearances this summer that’s for sure.
Deidra
So goood! We love this in our home often!