Name: Instant Pot Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 22 min
Ingredients: 1/2 pound bow tie pasta ((3 cups dry)); 2 cups water for Instant Pot ((use chicken or vegetable broth for extra flavour if you'd like)); 1 pound chicken breasts ((usually 2 chicken breasts)); 1 teaspoon Greek Seasoning; 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved ((about 3/4 pound)); 1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced ((about 50 g)); 1/2 English cucumber, diced ((about 1/2 pound)); 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted ((about 65 g or 20 olives)); 1 cup feta, diced ((about 150 g)); 3-4 fresh oregano stems, leaves only; 3 tablespoons olive oil; juice of 1 lemon; zest of 1/2 lemon; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; 1 teaspoon Greek seasoning; 1/2 teaspoon salt ((or more to taste)); 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

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Instant Pot Greek Chicken Pasta Salad is delicious and easy to make. Prep all the ingredients while pasta and chicken are cooking in an electric pressure cooker, then just mix and enjoy. Perfect for meal prepping, back-to school lunches, or work lunch.

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I am not a big fan of creamy pasta salads, however give me a pasta salad in some kind of oil-based dressing or pesto, like Vegetable Pesto Pasta, and I’ll swoon and ask for seconds.

This Greek Chicken Pasta Salad is flavourful, fresh, delicious, and filling. I love cooking pasta and chicken together in my Instant Pot as I don’t have to watch the stove or oven and use up different pans. It’s so easy and convenient.

This Instant Pot Pasta Salad is filled with briny olives, salty feta, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, perfectly cooked pasta, and tender Greek-seasoned chicken. It’s a perfect meal prep recipe and it makes a great lunch.

This Instant Pot Chicken Greek Pasta Salad can be made on a weekend, then portioned into containers and eaten throughout the week. So delicious and easy.

Ingredients to make Chicken Greek Pasta Salad

This may seem like there are a lot of ingredients but most are exactly what you’d find in a traditional Greek Salad. You can also change up the ingredients. Omit some or change up the amounts.

Feel free to omit feta if you don’t mix meat and dairy. Or, alternatively, omit the chicken. It’s a very forgiving salad. You can add chickpeas or beans for extra protein.

And if you remove chicken and use tofu instead of feta then this Greek Pasta Salad will become vegan. Use whatever the amounts you have on hand and what you prefer. So, totally versatile!

Pasta (I use farfalle, bowtie shape, because it looks super pretty but you could use any other medium-size pasta)
Chicken breast
Feta
Olives
Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Red onion (feel free to omit if you are taking this to work or school)
Fresh oregano
Greek seasoning (you can find it in most grocery stores or online)
Simple dressing (I use olive oil, mustard, lemon juice, and salt) OR use store-bought salad dressing

I don’t like too much dressing in my pasta salads, but if you prefer more dressing then double the amount of oil and lemon juice. I’d keep the amount of spices and salt the same but you could increase it also.

How to cook Pasta and Chicken together in Instant Pot

I’m going to start out by confessing something. If you If you read any literature about cooking chicken, then it’ll say that chicken breast should be cooked to 160F. In my family, however, we strongly dislike chicken cooked to 160F.

I prefer my chicken breast to be cooked to at least 180F or preferably 200F. That’s the texture and flavour of the chicken that I like.

I use this meat thermometer to check the temperature of the meat. It works really well.

This particular method of cooking pasta and chicken breasts together yields chicken breast at 180F.

Add bowtie pasta and water to Instant Pot.
Arrange chicken breasts cut up into long strips on top of the pasta and sprinkle with Greek seasoning.
Cook for 2 minutes on High Pressure.
Do natural release of 10 minutes and then finish up with quick release.
Remove the chicken and drain the pasta.

I personally have not tried but possibly if you leave chicken breasts whole, then they will cook to 160F. Please let me know if it works if you try.

I use 1/2 pound bowtie pasta which is about 3 cups and I use 2 cups water. I have tried using 3 cups water to make sure that all the pasta is fully covered but it resulted in longer time to come to pressure, so the chicken was cooked to 200F and the pasta was a bit more cooked than al dente. So, I suggest sticking to 2 cups water.

Is pasta mushy? No. It’s actually perfectly al dente and great for Pasta Salads but it is super important to buy the proper pasta. You must buy pasta that cooks in 8-11 minutes and not the quick-cooking kind. Pasta that cooks in 3-4 minutes on the stove will get mushy in instant pot.

Why cook for 2 minutes and do a long 10 minutes pressure release? This ensures that there is no foamy liquid sputtering out of the pressure release spout. Also, it helps the chicken stay moist and not dry out. Doing a quick release right away will make the chicken breast too dry.

Can you make Greek Chicken Pasta Salad without Instant Pot?

Of course you can! Just cook pasta on the stove according to the package instructions. Then cook chicken breast using your favourite cooking method.

I like baking chicken breasts at very high temperature. My method of choice is 450F and cooking the chicken breasts for about 25-30 minutes or until they reach desired doneness.

There are many different ways of cooking chicken breasts, you can learn How To Cook Chicken Breast Perfectly from Carmy.

How to make Greek Chicken Pasta Salad

What I love about this recipe is that even though there’s a lot of chopping and dicing involved, the time it actually takes to make the salad is the time it takes to cook the pasta and the chicken. You do all the measuring and dicing while the pasta is cooking, so in reality this Greek Chicken Pasta Salad is also very fast to make.

Start cooking pasta and chicken using your preferred cooking method. Mine is obviously together in Instant Pot as it’s super convenient and very hands-off.
While the pasta and chicken are cooking, measure and prep all your ingredients.
Make the dressing (or feel free to use your favourite store-bought kind, Greek Salad Dressing would work perfectly here).
Drain the pasta and let it cool. You could even rinse it in cold water to cool faster.
Let the chicken cool a little bit then dice it.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Add the dressing right away or keep in small container and use as needed.

FUN TIP: if you omit the cucumber, this Greek Chicken Pasta tastes totally delicious hot!

How to store and meal prep Instant Pot Greek Chicken Pasta Salad

This is a great meal prep recipe! Cherry tomatoes aren’t too juicy so the pasta salad doesn’t get liquidy. The rest of the ingredients keep really well also.

TIP: If you’d like, you could double the dressing and reserve some to add to the Pasta Salad when you eat it.

This Instant Pot Greek Chicken Pasta Salad will easily keep in the fridge for about 4-5 days.

I use these glass containers for my meal preps exclusively, both round and square/rectangular versions.

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