Over fresh lettuce leaves, this chicken salad is topped with a lemony mayonnaise.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups orzo pasta
- 2 (10 ounce) packages baby spinach
- 3 cups chopped grilled chicken
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons capers, or to taste (Optional)
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook orzo in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
- Mix orzo, spinach, chicken, tomatoes, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, and capers in a large bowl.
- Whisk balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sugar, parsley, basil, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper together in a bowl; drizzle over salad. Toss to coat. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over salad.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 488 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 54 g |
| Cholesterol | 42 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 530 mg |
| Sugars | 14 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I love this salad. It is a family favorite and it is easy to riff on if you don’t have every ingredient.
This is a really great, refreshing salad!!! So easy to prepare, and the dressing is so yummy!!!
This is delicious! I left out the sugar but put a little honey in as a substitute, maybe 1 tablespoon. Will definitely make this again soon!
This is a delicious and filling meal. I used spring mix instead of baby spinach (because I had it available) and I toasted the pine nuts as another reviewer suggested. I served the dressing on the side, which I think worked out well because the orzo really absorbs the dressing and that could potentially overwhelm the balance of flavor.
This is so good. I’ve made it about five times now. I did omit/substitute a few things. I omitted the chicken, capers, and Roma tomatoes. I substituted arugula for spinach, garlic powder for crushed garlic, and feta cheese for Parmesan. I also added chopped black olives. Yum!! Thanks for the awesome recipe!!!
I have made this a dozen times and everyone always loves it and asks for the recipe. I use farfalle instead of orzo and I leave out the chicken because I typically serve it as a side dish to some other protein. Tastes best when made the night before, really let’s the dressing sink in! Best pasta salad ever!
Great dinner salad, used half the dressing.
I made this almost exactly as written and my family and myself loved it. The only thing I left out was the sugar to to diabetes. Great recipe that keeps well as leftovers.
Wow, a delicious salad! I thought the amount of balsamic vinegar would make the dressing too strong, but I added it to taste and the favors were just right. I ate this for 3 days straight!
This was the perfect recipe to use up a few things in the fridge. I used more pasta and less spinach, left out the chicken and made only half the dressing. Very Good.
I used arugula rather than spinach (I had everything else on hand), and that was the only major change I made. The olive oil I used was lemon olive oil, and I used leftover beer butt chicken rather than grilled. I toasted the pine nuts (put them in a pan on stovetop in low heat until barely browned). We thought this was delicious. The only thing I would worry about would be that there wasn’t enough of that wonderful dressing. I’m not sure because I made such a small batch and we didn’t even eat all of that, but I would want a little more dressing than it called for, so maybe a recipe and a half of that? It’d be good on any other salad, so that would work for me! Thanks for a great salad, EMILIEWASMYEVE!
Made as written except I didn’t add the pine nuts. The dressing is very good, although I was the only one who used it. The rest of the gang ate this without.