Pesto chicken bake – EASY
Pesto chicken bake – EASY
-Wash/dry chicken, lay in non-stick or parchment-lined pan
-Salt & pepper both sides and under skin
-Spoon prepared pesto on top, spreading under skin—if desired
-Add sliced Roma tomatoes on top (secure w/toothpicks if need)
-Top with 3-4 ounces shredded mozzarella (divided)
-Bake 40-45 minutes at 400°F. That’s it! Took 10 minutes to prep.
Notes: I used 1/3 cup of pesto and just marking it here because I do log amounts into my MyFitnessPal calorie tracker.
You can use breasts or thighs, skinless/boneless or whole, it does not matter. I think if I make this again, I’d use boneless thighs because white meat just has no flavor and can be dry leftover. If you are using boneless/skinless meat, please note you may want to check after 30 minutes of baking, I left mine in for the full 45 because I used whole breasts.
I lined my pan with foil to avoid mega dish washing, and then on second thought, put parchment on top since I was afraid of the food sticking to the foil, but didn’t bother to remove the foil first LOL.
That said, do not worry about oil at ALL. If you are using a properly prepared pesto, it should have PLENTY. The lower-end jarred brands might be gross (using soy or canola oil and only a little olive), I would not know, honestly. I’ve always made my own. The pan juice this dish resulted in was TOP notch…green, with lovely grassy olive oil flavor, I spooned it over the meat as I ate it.
The carrot-top pesto I made is here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BobbiJoWoods/posts/CKELUL9kT5m
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Oh, just for curious folks, here is the chicken I buy: https://www.justbarechicken.com/products/family-pack-bone-split-chicken-breasts
I also buy my meat at US Wellness Meats
http://grasslandbeef.com/
I can take the skin off?
Of course you can – I noted you can use skinless
I just crisped my pesto-flavored skin in the micro on a plate after and ate it – it was like pesto-flavored chicken crispy chips
I read too quickly then, my bad. sounds like it could be good as long as it’s crispy.
lol no biggie
The skin will not crisp up this way, with the pesto and cheese/tomatoes on top. You’d have to remove it and crisp it up in the micro if you want to snack on it. The only way I would think it would get crispy was if you baked the chicken with the pesto smeared under the skin and nothing else on top. But that wasn’t what I was trying to accomplish here.
I hear ya – I’d eat it. Lol I have a great recipe for baked chicken, I’ll try to remember to post it at some point.
:)))) do it
PS – don’t throw away the pan juice/fat! Whisk the the oil from the pesto together w/the chicken juices and pour it over the leftovers, like I did (I cut the meat off the bones and placed the cut up meat into containers and poured the juice over top before covering and putting in the fridge). I got 6 servings out of this (4 oz of meat, each, with 2 slices of tomato and some cheese)
Mmmm. I love anything pesto based.
I often complain about missing “city life”. I appreciate having small farms surrounding our town when it comes to food ; we have access to such farm fresh products.
I will admit I can’t watch my fresh chickens getting slaughtered though. THAT is a bit too “farm fresh” for me. Lol
Looks fantastic, Bobbie Jo!
Totally get it. I’m fairly squeamish myself, but I have no problem handling a fully cleaned and trimmed up whole bird, or its parts. I hope you get someone to make this for you!
ok
Bobbi Jo Woods
Lol. You must think I would die if my husband isn’t around to cook for me.
Let me tell you…. I can cook a mean peanut butter and banana sammich, woman! Lulz ?
No, I don’t think that. I didn’t want to assume he was the only one who cooked for ya! Lol
For those of you who eat pasta/bread/potatoes, I think that pan juice would be a lovely thing to sop up with any of those things.
My mom still does once in awhile. She’s 90 years old and feels sorry for my husband.
Clearly she thinks the poor guy has the worst wife in history. lol I laugh, but I’m serious. She, obviously, comes from the generation where I should be thinking about what I’m going to cook for my dinner while I make breakfast for my husband. Lol
Nope. Sorry, mom —– hubby likes to cook and I shop for his menu. I do clean up mess too. It’s the least I can do… unless I can figure out how to get my chef husband to do it all for me. ?
lol
I would rather be the cook and not do clean-up duty
?❤️
Looks soooooo fucking good!;
Thanks, it really was.
I made the pesto chicken pizza for lunch just now and it was delish. Posting recipe later…or will I? Maybe it’ll be a bonus in my book