Chicken Club Pasta Salad

I promised I would include pictures when I started this blog, but I made this for a party, and by the time I remembered about the pictures, I was about 4 beers into the night and trying not to catch the chicken wings that were on the grill on fire.

So, trust me, this looks like a pasta salad. My husband, who usually doesn't care for pasta salad, was very interested in all the toppings for this, and was caught many times digging into the bacon and cheese chunks and retreating sheepishly into the other room when I called him out.
The ingredients look like the most delicious baked potato toppings of all time.

Chicken Club Pasta Salad

8oz rotini pasta (I used whole wheat because it doesn't taste any different).. any other shape you like is just fine, too.
2 cups diced chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken, but leftover chicken would be awesome in here, too. And a good way to use leftovers)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced green onion
6 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup mayo
3/4 cup Italian dressing (I used creamy Italian)

Cook pasta per the directions on the box. Drain and cool! COOL!!! Seriously. You want it cold. You can run water on top of it, throw in some ice cubes. But if it's not cool, it will absorb all of the dressing and the salad will be dry.
Assemble all of the ingredients, exept for the mayo and salad dressing. Mix those together in a separate bowl. Pour the dressing on the salad and toss. Refrigerate.

If you're going to make this in advance, like I did, leave the avocado out until just before you serve it. It will get all brown and mushy if you don't. And that's not yummy-looking.

This salad is a great alternative to the generic pasta salads you usually see. It's really good, and I had many people ask me what was in it. I will certainly make this again!!