Spring Pea and Pasta Salad with Chicken and Asparagus
Photo: Jennifer Causey; Styling: Claire Spollen
If your herb garden is going strong, you can snip parsley and chives fresh from the source. Tarragon is worth seeking out for this dish; its anise notes are the distinguishing flavor.
How to Make It
Step 1
Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add chicken; toss to coat.
Step 2
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Add asparagus pieces and peas during the last 2 minutes of pasta cooking time. Drain well. Add pasta-and-vegetable mixture and Parmigiano-Reggiano to chicken mixture; toss well to coat.
Serendipitously good
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.
Fresh Spring Entree Salad
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.
LauraD318