This Marry Me Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe Is a Perfect-for-Summer Take on a Beloved Dish

There’s a reason Marry Me Chicken is so popular: It’s simple, delicious, and pretty easy to make. It earned its name after an editor at Delish, Lindsay Funston, made a recipe video for a Tuscan-style chicken dish in 2016. The video’s producer took a bite and said, “I’d marry you for that chicken!” It went viral on TikTok, and it seemed like everyone looking for an engagement—or just a really good chicken dish—had to try it out.

But a warm Tuscan-style chicken isn’t just a great dish for a hot summer day or something you can reasonably bring to a summer potluck or party. Enter: Marry Me Chicken Pasta Salad, the perfect summer dish that will have everyone begging for the recipe. 

Pasta salad recipes get a bad rap for being a bit of an afterthought. Not every picnic or barbecue comes complete with a pasta salad and, oftentimes, the salads can be pretty dull. But pasta salads can be the star of the show (and one of the easiest dishes to throw together, to boot). This is the kind of dish you can make well ahead of a party and bring in a giant bowl—one that’ll be licked clean by the end of the party.

For our Marry Me Chicken Pasta Salad, start by marinating a few chicken cutlets in a resealable bag for about an hour. Then, grill the chicken to give it that perfect toasty summer taste. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and combine it with cooked pasta, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and a homemade creamy tomato basil dressing. Pop all of that in the refrigerator and chill it until you’re ready to serve. Right before serving, add a little bit more dressing and some arugula or baby spinach. You can garnish it with basil leaves, crushed red pepper, and grated Parmesan if your heart calls for it.

The recipe serves multiple people, but it’s so good you just might want to double it. Because its core ingredients can be found pretty inexpensively, it won’t break the bank when you want to bring a showstopping dish to the cookout. This Marry Me Chicken Pasta Salad also makes a delicious addition to a packed lunch or picnic spread. Eating a bright, filling, and sunny pasta salad is the best way to celebrate the summer—right next to an engagement, of course.