Chicken Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta
Chicken Pasta Salad with Apricots, Spinach, Bacon, and Feta is a fantastic Summer salad that makes a light dinner, lunch, or snack. Tossed with the homemade Honey Dijon Mustard Lemon Dressing, this healthy salad is packed with fruit, veggies, protein, and fiber. It will be a definite crowd-pleaser at Summer potlucks, picnics, BBQ parties, and cookouts.
Course Salad
Cuisine American, Mediterranean
Keyword apricot pasta salad, chicken apricots, chicken pasta salad, summer pasta salad
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Spread bacon in a single layer on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Cook for about 15 or 20 minutes or more until cooked through and crispy. Remove from oven.
Remove bacon (being careful not to burn yourself) from the baking sheet onto a plate lined with paper towels to drain fat.
Proceed with the recipe as you wait for the bacon to cook.
Cook pasta
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook pasta al dente according to the package instructions.
Proceed with the rest of the recipe while the pasta is cooking.
When the pasta is done, drain. Keep the drained pasta in the same pot where you cooked it.
Cook chicken
Generously season the chicken thighs with Italian seasoning, paprika, chili powder, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat an empty cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. This allows the cast-iron skillet to heat through. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add chicken thighs. Cook the chicken on medium heat for 5 minutes on one side, without moving it.
Flip the chicken thighs over, reduce heat to low-medium, and cook for about 5 more minutes or longer on the other side, undisturbed, until it's cooked through. The meat thermometer should register 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part of the chicken. Remove from heat.
Slice the chicken thinly.
Make salad dressing
Combine all salad dressing ingredients in a mason jar. Whisk well with a spoon, until emulsified.
Salad assembly
Wash, core, and slice apricots.
In a pot where you cooked and drained the pasta, combine warm, cooked, and drained pasta together with spinach and the salad dressing. Mix well.
Add sliced apricots, crumbled feta cheese (saving ⅓ of it for later), and sliced cooked bacon. Toss to combine.
When serving, top each individual portion with thinly sliced cooked chicken and the remaining ⅓ of crumbled Feta cheese. Or, simply mix in sliced cooked chicken into the pasta salad.