This Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad is extremely easy to make, and truly perfect for everything from picnicking to tailgating. If you love Buffalo chicken, you will really love this super simple spicy pasta salad.
(This recipe was originally published in March 2014, but was updated with new photos and content in 2022).
If you enjoy spicy food, Buffalo chicken can make just about anything more delicious! This Buffalo chicken pasta salad is the ultimate side dish for any buffalo chicken lover. Best of all, it's very fast and easy to make.
Although you can use store-bought blue cheese dressing, homemade is quite easy to make. Therefore I highly recommend it to store-bought. Using leftover chicken (from a homemade roasted chicken or store-bought rotisserie chicken) is the perfect way to extend the life of your leftovers while creating a crowd-pleasing dish.
Finishing up with some crunch from sliced celery, this pasta salad is the perfect plate of spicy comfort for any Buffalo chicken-loving occasion.
Ingredient notes
- Pasta: Use any short pasta shape you like for this pasta salad. Rotini, gemelli, shells, elbows, penne, or even farfalle would be excellent choices.
- Chicken: You can use store-bought rotisserie chicken to save time, or cook your own chicken breasts (or chicken tenders) and then cube the meat into bite-size pieces. You'll need about 13 ounces of cooked chicken to yield 2 ½ cups cubed.
- Blue Cheese Dressing: I like to make my own homemade blue cheese dressing. It also saves a lot of calories over bottled if I use light mayo and sour cream. I like to make the dressing a day or so in advance to give it time for the flavors to develop. Refrigerate until needed.
- To make ¾ cup homemade blue cheese dressing, combine ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk, 3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, ½ tablespoon red wine vinegar and ½ teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste).
- Hot Sauce: My preferred and recommended hot sauce for this recipe (and all Buffalo chicken anything recipes) is Frank's Red Hot Sauce.
How to make it
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender. Drain the pasta and rinse well with cold water to shock the cooking process and cool the pasta.
Combine the blue cheese dressing and hot sauce in a bowl or large measuring cup to make the pasta salad dressing.
Add the drained pasta to a large mixing bowl and add the chicken, celery, mixed dressing, and about ⅔ of the scallions.
Mix thoroughly and transfer to a serving dish. Top with the remaining scallions and serve.
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
Expert tips and FAQs
This pasta salad is best served immediately or at least the day it's made, before it begins to absorb too much of the dressing.
To make this Buffalo chicken pasta salad in advance, combine everything except for the blue cheese dressing and hot sauce mixture. Store the components separately in the refrigerator until ready to serve and then toss the pasta salad with the dressing right before serving for optimal results.
If you particularly love blue cheese (as I do), you may also garnish this pasta salad with additional blue cheese crumbles.
Pasta salad can be served chilled or at room temperature.
Because of food safety concerns, pasta salad should only sit out at room temperature for a maximum of 2 hours.
Other recipes you may like
- Buffalo Chicken Quiche
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Shells
- Baked Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese
- Buffalo Chicken Dumplings
- Buffalo Chicken Nachos
- Pesto Pasta Salad with Peas and Sun-dried Tomatoes
- Authentic Hawaiian Macaroni Salad (Mac Salad)
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound short pasta such as rotini, gemelli, shells, elbows, penne, or farfalle
- ¾ cup blue cheese dressing, preferably homemade
- ½ cup hot sauce, preferably Frank’s Red Hot
- 2 ½ cups (370 grams / 13 ounces) cold cubed cooked chicken breast
- 3 stalks celery, trimmed and sliced thinly on the bias
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender. Drain the pasta and rinse well with cold water to shock the cooking process and cool the pasta.
- Combine the blue cheese dressing and hot sauce in a bowl or large measuring cup to make the pasta salad dressing.
- Add the drained pasta to a large mixing bowl and add the chicken, celery, mixed dressing, and about ⅔ of the scallions. Mix thoroughly and transfer to a serving dish. Top with the remaining scallions and serve.
Notes
- This pasta salad is best served immediately or at least the day it's made, before it begins to absorb too much of the dressing.
- To make this in advance, combine everything except for the blue cheese dressing and hot sauce mixture. Store the components separately in the refrigerator until ready to serve and then toss the pasta salad with the dressing right before serving.
- To make ¾ cup homemade blue cheese dressing, combine ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk, 3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, ½ tablespoon red wine vinegar and ½ teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste).
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
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