You can’t go wrong with a bowl of Pesto Chicken Pasta for dinner! This Chicken Pesto Pasta is ready in less than 30 minutes and is full of fresh flavors.
The key to amazing Chicken Pesto Pasta is fresh pesto. You won’t regret making homemade pesto with your pasta and chicken.
Fresh Chicken Pesto Pasta
If there’s one dish everyone loves, it’s pesto pasta! This Chicken Pesto Pasta tastes like summer and is packed with veggies and protein. Whether it’s summer and you have fresh basil or you’re making this dish in the middle of winter, it’s a great dish.
You can make this Chicken Pesto Pasta for a weeknight for your family, for a fancy dinner party with a glass of red wine, or for an easy dinner for a new mom. Basically, it’s the perfect meal.
self-made
Pesto
There’s nothing better than having homemade pesto ready whenever you’re craving pesto chicken pasta.
Do it
Everything you need
Everything you need for this chicken pesto pasta recipe is probably in your pantry or fridge right now! Everything you need is here.
- penne We like to serve this chicken pesto with penne pasta, but you can use any type of pasta you like.
- Salt– You need salt to salt the pasta water, chicken and pesto! Don’t skip it!
- olive oil– we love the flavor that olive oil adds to the pesto in this recipe. We use it in pesto and to roast chicken and vegetables. That being said, feel free to use the oil that’s right for you.
- Chicken breast– Find the freshest chicken you can find.
- Italian spice– The key to great-tasting pasta and great-tasting chicken is seasoning the chicken before you cook it. It really makes a difference.
- Yellow Onion– The onion adds a little sweetness and crunch to this delicious pasta.
- garlic– oh baby, no pesto without garlic.
- chicken soup– The chicken broth is the base of the sauce and adds so much flavor to this dish.
- cherry tomatoes– We add the cherry tomatoes at the very end of this recipe so they are just warmed up and plump instead of overcooked and chewy.
- Starchy Water– The starchy water thickens the sauce and helps the sauce stick to the pasta once you’ve added it.
- Pesto – we use our homemade pesto recipe for this pasta, but if you don’t have time you can always use store-bought pesto.
- ground pepper– top these pastas with freshly ground pepper!
How to Make Chicken Pesto Pasta
There’s nothing quite like a big bowl of hot pesto pasta. It’s not as complicated as you think. With the right ingredients, you’ll be ready to make this pasta in no time! Let’s break it down.
Make the pesto
We have a classic and easy homemade pesto recipe on Fit Foodie and that’s what we use when we mix up a delicious pesto recipe. They really throw everything in a blender or food processor and let it go.
Prepare all the ingredients
After you’ve prepared the pesto, it’s time to prepare your ingredients. I like preparing things in phases.
Next, the noodles are cooked. Feel free to use any pasta you like. We opted for a wholemeal penne, but white pasta would also do. the The most important thing when cooking your pasta is that you add salt to the water before adding the pasta!
It doesn’t have to be a ton of salt, but just a pinch or two of salt in the water adds a little extra flavor to the whole dish that really shows when the dish is done.
Just before the noodles are done, discard about 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta water for the sauce, then remove the noodles from the heat and strain the water and set aside for a moment.
Chop up the chicken and veggies and get ready to roast!
sauce it up
There are a few different steps to this pasta sauce.
Start by heating a large skillet over medium-high heat. Then add the olive oil to the pan. When the olive oil is fragrant, add the chicken and Italian seasonings.
After the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the pan.
Add more olive oil to the pan and then sauté the onion and garlic together.
Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes, then (and FINALLY) add a few tablespoons of starchy water and pesto to the pan.
Whisk everything together until a sauce forms. If you drag your spoon across the bottom of the pan, there should be a film on the bottom of the pan! That means you’re ready to add the chicken and pasta to the pan!
here’s a tip
I always pay attention season in layers when it comes to pasta dishes. Seasoning the chicken gives this pasta an extra punch of flavor at the end. And? You’ll end up using less salt if you salt a little throughout the cooking process.
Serve it
BOOM. You have a large batch of pesto chicken pasta. Top the pesto chicken pasta with fresh parmesan and fresh basil and enjoy.
Chicken Pesto Pasta 101
If you want a creamy chicken pesto pasta, drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream into the pesto sauce and whisk into the sauce to make it creamy and delicious.
Make this recipe vegan by substituting chicken for tofu, then replace the homemade pesto with our delicious Vegan Pesto Recipe.
Yes, you can freeze pesto to use later. At the end of summer, make a large batch of pesto with fresh basil and save it for later.
After you’ve made the pesto, pour the pesto into ice cube trays, then place those cubes in a large airtight container in the freezer. From there, you can use a few cubes of pesto whenever you need it.
We use chicken broth to add a base for the pesto pasta and it adds tremendous flavor. Once the broth has reduced by half, add the tomatoes.
Serve this pasta in a large bowl and serve it family style with delicious, warm, crusty bread and a bottle of red wine. You just can’t go wrong!
How to store chicken pesto pasta
Allow the chicken pesto pasta to cool before transferring to an airtight container and refrigerating for up to 5 days.
