Spring Pea and Pasta Salad with Chicken and Asparagus

I have made this several times, but because my mom is now on dialysis I made a few modifications.  No added salt (used lemon pepper instead) and instead of mixing in the Parmesan cheese, I just sprinkled a little on top.  I also added 1 minced garlic clove and a splash of red wine vinegar to the dressing.  I am liberal with the olive oil and mustard.  Used frozen peas and fresh asparagus.  Thought I would need to add salt to mine, but all the fresh herbs (liberal with those too), it was not necessary. It was delicious!!   Mom loved it too!

We thought this was good but nothing outstanding.  I did use frozen peas, so maybe fresh would make the difference.  I also used dried tarragon since we are not huge fans of this herb than be overpowering in a dish.  Not enough vinaigrette as others have mentioned.  I did add the pasta to the vinaigrette first, then the chicken last.  Flavors were fine but I doubt I'd make this one again.  Good quality crumbled goat cheese might make this more worthwhile.

Quick, fresh weeknight meal. Followed directions as written but did not have chives so I subwtituted chopped green onion tops instead. Also, made sure everything was heated through and severed it presented as a pasta dish instead of a pasta salad. Everyone enjoyed it and I will definitely make this again

This was a timely recipe as I had both asparagus and fresh peas on-hand from the farmer's market...I ended up with half the called-for amount of chicken and just 6 oz. pasta; but these were just as well as the full amount would have been a little bland with the given amount of dressing.  As it turned out, the flavor was very good even with dried herbs, and as a stand-alone salad I just served some garlic-purple potato rolls with it (although a glass of white wine would have been nice too).  I would make this again, but increase the dressing at least by half if I use the full 2 cups of chicken. 

This was reasonably quick to throw together on a weeknight. Hubs and I felt the tarragon was just a wee overpowering, so will cut that back a bit next time. Using a roasted chicken from Costco (which have good flavor and are a good bang for the buck) saved some time. This is a good recipe to tweak to individual tastes.