This new twist takes everything you love about Cobb salad like chicken, bacon, corn and cheese, and adds cooked bowtie pasta.
ingredients
Grill
Pasta
Dressing
Salad
directions
Prepare a grill for high heat.
Cut each chicken breast open and in half to make 4 thin chicken fillets. With a meat mallet, gently pound each chicken fillet to even thickness. Sprinkle the chicken with the paprika and some salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
Put both the chicken and corn on the grill above the direct heat. Cook the chicken on one side for about 4 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. For the corn, simply rotate to get charred and blistered kernels on all sides. This takes about the same time as the chicken, so tend to both simultaneously. Remove the chicken from the grill and cover with aluminum foil for 10 minutes. Allow the corn to cool enough to cut the kernels off, then do just that. Put the corn in a bowl. Once rested, finely chop the chicken: not big chunks, nice lil bits the size of peas.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and season with salt. Cook the pasta to al dente according to the package instructions. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
In a small food processor, add the mayonnaise, avocado, scallion, lime zest and juice, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Blend until smooth; if needed, add a splash of water to thin to desired consistency.
To the large bowl of pasta, add the sun-dried tomatoes and dressing and mix to combine. Arrange the chicken, corn, eggs, bacon and cheese on top of the pasta salad.