Cowboy Pasta Salad - The Keep At House Chef

This is without doubt one of the most filling pasta salads on the market! It’s full of meat, cheese, beans, and greens. Carry to a BBQ or make as a fast and simple dinner at house and we promise there received’t be any complaints about leaving hungry!

For those who love this recipe, you’ll love our “cowboy caviar” Black Bean and Corn Salad.

Why Our Recipe

Loaded with all the good things. We’re speaking beef, bacon, cheddar, and veggies.
Our creamy selfmade salsa verde dressing brings a smoky kick you’ll love.
Makes for a brilliant filling dinner, or deliver it to a potluck or BBQ to feed a crowd.

A Bowl full of Cowboy Pasta Salad displaying the ingredients on top.

Half of this pasta salad’s flavorful goodness comes from our scrumptious, selfmade dressing. It’s our secret ingredient! Bear in mind, pasta salad is just nearly as good because the dressing you placed on it. Our cowboy dressing is made with salsa verde, lime juice, and loads of smoky spices and seasonings. The salsa means that you can actually mess around with the warmth stage, so if you happen to prefer it scorching, make sure that to make use of medium to scorching salsa.

Ingredient Notes

Overhead layout of Ingredients for Cowboy Pasta Salad.

Rotini Pasta: Rotini’s nice for grabbing onto all that dressing. No rotini? Use one other quick pasta like fusilli or penne.
Floor Beef: We like utilizing 80/20 beef for the very best taste. Floor turkey or rooster works too if you’d like it a bit lighter.
Cheddar Cheese: Sharp cheddar brings a bit additional punch, however actually, any cheese you’re keen on will work. Pepper jack could be superior if you’d like a bit kick.
Cherry or Grape Tomatoes: Both one is ideal. Minimize them in halves or quarters so that you get the right chunk. A mixture of pink and yellow tomatoes seems to be actually fairly too.
Black Beans: Give them rinse and drain to maintain issues from getting soggy.
Canned Corn: Completely nice to make use of straight from the can, however you may as well use uncooked recent corn or frozen corn.
Crimson Onion: Crimson onions are the very best for consuming uncooked.
Jalapeño: Completely optionally available! Recent jalapeños add a pleasant spicy crunch, or use pickled for rather less warmth.
Bacon: Crumble it up! Cook dinner your personal or seize the pre-cooked type.
Salsa Verde: Seize a jar of your favourite gentle or medium salsa verde. Use no matter warmth stage you want.
Lime Juice: Recent-squeezed is all the time going to have the very best taste, however bottled lime juice works too.

Regulate the Warmth

Among the finest issues about cowboy pasta is how simple it’s to tweak the spice. For those who’re into warmth, seize a scorching salsa verde, bump up the chili powder, and toss just a few additional jalapeño slices on high. Not a fan of spicy? Stick to gentle salsa and skip the chili powder and jalapeños. Simple!

Closeup image of Cowboy Pasta Salad with dressing drizzled over it.

Make-Forward Directions

This salad’s tremendous simple to make forward. You may whip up the dressing 1 to 2 days early and stash it within the fridge. Cook dinner the pasta and floor beef the evening earlier than, too. Simply preserve them separate so all the pieces stays recent. If you’re able to eat, all you’ve bought to do is chop the cheese and tomatoes and toss all of it collectively in an enormous bowl. Achieved and finished.