Are you ready to try one of my favorite quick meal prep recipes? This Baked Chicken Pesto recipe is packed with protein, low in carbs, smells as good as it looks, and only takes around 30 minutes to make! Did I mention you only need a few ingredients to make!?
Start this recipe by taking out 3 pounds of chicken breast, trimming the fat off of them, and cutting them into cutlets (thin slices). Use a sharp knife to do this!
Place those cutlets into a baking dish just big enough to fit all of them. You want everything snug so that there is no open space in your baked chicken pesto.
Top and evenly distribute over your baked chicken pesto 1/2 cup of basil pesto, 1/2 cup of marinara, and 2 freshly sliced plum tomatoes.
Don’t have pesto? Make your own by processing or blending these ingredients together until they look like…pesto!
Homemade Basil Pesto
- 2 Cups Basil
- 4 Tablespoons (20g) Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1/4 Cup Pine Nuts
- 1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic (or 2 Cloves Garlic)
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Cover your baking dish with some aluminum foil and put it into the oven on 375F/190C for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes take out your baking dish and uncover it.
Sprinkle over the top of your baked pesto chicken 6 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Don’t like mozzarella? Use whatever you want!
Put your chicken back into the oven on 375F/190C for 10 minutes.
Eat this baked pesto chicken recipe by itself, over rice or quinoa, in a salad, or anything else you can think of! Let me know some of your favorite ways to eat this in the comments below.
Guess what time it is now? Dessert time! How about a Protein Molten Lava Cake!?
Baked Chicken Pesto
What We Used
- Oven
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Ingredients
- 3 Pounds Chicken Breast
- ½ Cup Pesto - Basil
- ½ Cup Marinara Sauce
- 2 Sliced Tomato - Plum
- 6 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese - Grated
- ½ Cup Mozzarella Cheese - Reduced Fat
Instructions
- Trim the fat off your Chicken Breast and cut them in half the long way
- Take out a baking dish and add your Chicken Breast into it (make sure to use a dish that allows everything to fit snug)
- Evenly distribute your Basil Pesto, Marinara, and Sliced Plum Tomatoes on top
- Cover your dish with aluminum foil
- Bake on 375F/190C for 25 minutes
- Take your chicken out and uncover it
- Top it with your Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese
- Bake uncovered for another 10 minutes on 375F/190C
Video
Notes
- Calories: 2154
- Fat: 90g
- Saturated Fat: 19g
- Sodium: 1420mg
- Carbs: 26g
- Fiber: 3g
- Sugar: 17g
- Protein: 310g
- Calories: 359
- Fat: 15g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1g
- Sodium: 236.6mg
- Carbs: 4.3g
- Fiber: .5g
- Sugar: 2.8g
- Protein: 51.6g
Nutrition
13 Comments
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Quick, easy, delicious! I made it with boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts. Moister and only 10 calories more per piece. I cut the fat part of the pieces open and left the thinner parts alone so they cooked easily.
Good tip to completely fill the pan without gaps.
This was very easy to make and tasted great. Really liking the 50+ gm protein per serving!
Hey Derek, I’ve been following your site and getting recipes since 2014/2015 and to this day your website is still my favorite. I’m glad I get to save them to Pinterest for later now! Thank you for sharing with us!!
Thank you Jessie, you rock!!! Always trying to improve.
This recipe is so good . My son , husband and I loved it . I make and freeze sundried tomato pesto at the end of every summer because our basil plants grow like crazy . I’m always looking for great recipes to use my pesto and this is definitely a favorite . So easy also . Thank you Mr. Howes !
I made this dish last night it was quick, easy, and my favorite inexpensive. I love recipes that have ingredients I already use on a regular basis. This was tasty and it smells devine. Thanks Derek it was delicious.
Wonderful to hear Cora! Thank you for the feedback 🙂
Another winner! Very tasty!
Boyfriend made this for the second time (he loves your site!) and once again it was deliciously amazing! I’m officially hooked 🙂
Love it Kim! 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful feedback!
Hello Derek! I really appreciate you making videos and creating recipes for us. I hope you get to hear that you are appreciated every day from your fans and people from the community. Thank you for not promoting anything and just purely doing the recicpes and coming up with fun ways to eat healthy.
Thanks vi! Much love! <3
just made this for dinner tonight smells and tastes amazing