Look at this glorious bowl of pasta heaven. When I say that this is a delicious pasta salad, I am not kidding. I had this salad for the first time when I was about 8 years old at my friend Pyper Reynolds house and from the first bite, I knew I wanted my mother to have that recipe because it was just so delicious. Luckily I wasn't afraid to ask! So, gather together these very simple ingredients:
6 Cups of uncooked Bow Tie Pasta, or pasta of your choice
6 Eggs, for boiling
1 Whole Cucumber
1 Large Can of Chicken or 2 Small Cans of Tuna Fish
3/4 - 1 Cup of Mayonaise
Salt and Pepper to taste
OPTIONAL: 3 to 4 Green Onions, chopped
First you need to boil your eggs. There is a trick to hard boiling the perfect egg and guess what? I'm going to tell you how to do it. If you follow these simple instructions, your eggs will not only be super easy to peel but the yokes will be perfectly yellow with NO ugly green ring around the yoke.
Take your desired amount of eggs, in this case I used 8 because I like eggs but also it helps give you a creamy consistency to your pasta. Place the cold eggs in a saucepan large enough so that the eggs are on one layer on the bottom, cover the eggs with cold water, put on your burner and turn up high so that they come to a running boil. I put a lid on my pan so that it comes to a boil faster.
Wait until it starts to be a pretty rough boil and then pull the pan completely off the burner leaving the lid on and turn off the burner. Set your timer for 20 minutes and just let the eggs sit in the boiling water. After 20 minutes put your pan with the eggs in the sink and run cold water over them. I fill my pan up with cold water and let it sit for about 5 minutes and when the water starts to get warm I dump it out and refill the pan with cold water. I do this 2 or 3 times so that they cool quickly and completely. Set them aside.
While the eggs are cooking, put a pan of water on to boil and cook your 6 cups of Bow Tie pasta to almost done. It is nice if your pasta has a little bite to it.
Dump your cooked and cooled pasta (very important that you let it cool before building your salad) into a nice large serving dish or bowl.
While your eggs and pasta are cooking, peel and then chop up the whole cucumber into bite sized pieces.
While the chicken or tuna is still in the can, slice through the large pieces of meat with a knife so that all the chicken is cut up into smaller pieces. It is nice to get a little bite of chicken or tuna in each spoon or forkful so add more if you like.
When your eggs are cooked and cooled, chop them all up. Look at how beautiful the yolks look! I'm telling you, these are the perfect boiled eggs. Now you are going to start building your delicious salad!
In your large bowl that is holding your cooled pasta, add the large can of chicken or the 2 smaller cans of tuna that you have sliced up.
Then add the chopped cucumber.
It looks so good already, doesn't it?
Add the 3/4 Cup to 1 Cup of Mayonnaise. Here you are really going to just have to add to taste.
Throw on your salt. I always use Kosher Salt but you can use regular salt if you want. I like Kosher Salt because it has a more savory flavor
Then add the pepper. Mine looks like a lot but this is a big salad. Now get to mixing!
Since I had some green onions in the refrigerator I decided to add them as well. I didn't really need them but I do love Green Onions and I try to get them in anywhere I can!
Plus, they are so pretty!
Throw them on top of your salad and mix it all together well but gently so that you don't tear your pasta.
Now doesn't that just look like summer in a bowl? I know I said that my Tomato, Feta and Basil salad was summer in a bowl but this really is too but when we were eating it tonight, I could feel summer coming on!
Give this salad a try and let me know what you think. If you have great ideas for summer salads, I would love to hear those as well.
Happy Beginning of Summer!
Chicken, Pasta, Egg and Cucumber Salad
6 Cups of uncooked Bow Tie Pasta, or pasta of your choice
6 Eggs, for boiling
1 Whole Cucumber
1 Large Can of Chicken or 2 Small Cans of Tuna Fish
3/4 - 1 Cup of Mayonaise
Salt and Pepper to taste
OPTIONAL: 3 to 4 Green Onions, chopped
Cook your pasta according to the package instructions. While the pasta is cooking, put your eggs on to boil. Chop up your cucumber and slice the meat you are using. When your pasta is cooled, put in your large serving dish and add the cucumber, chicken or tuna, hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste and mix well. If you have green onions, chop up 3 or 4 and add to the mixture. This is a delicious salad that will go a long way!
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