We’ve done a ton meal preps lately so it only seems appropriate that we don’t neglect our slow cooker and do a slow cooker meal prep this week! That meal prep? One of our easiest recipes to date! This Slow Cooker Pesto Chicken is packed with protein, healthy fats, and made using 4 ingredients you might already have!

To make this one, take out your slow cooker and 3 pounds of either fat trimmed chicken breast or thighs. My preference? Whatever’s on sale that week!

Add your chicken into the bottom of your slow cooker and pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth or pasta water (we’ll talk about this in a second) and 1 ounce of lemon juice.

Continue by evenly spreading 6 ounces of pesto over the top of your chicken and 2 tablespoons worth of sliced butter. The most important part of this recipe is to make sure you’re using a good tasting pesto.

Throw your cover on and put it on low heat for 5-6 hours or until your chicken reaches 165F/73C.

While it’s cooking, this is where you can chop up some fresh tomatoes and make however much pasta you want to pair with this recipe. I usually make 8 ounces of farfalle which gives the recipe a pretty good balance in macros.

You don’t need to add pasta to this, you can eat it over pretty much anything or even put it in a sandwich or wrap and it’ll be just as good! I’ll put the nutritional breakdown for both with and without pasta down below in the recipe card.

Pro tip? If you don’t have broth, save some of your pasta water and use it in replace of your chicken broth.

Shredded Pesto Chicken

Once your chicken reaches 165F/73C you can either shred it by using 2 forks or a hand mixer. If you’ve never tried shredding your chicken with a hand mixer, DO IT! Not only is it multiple times faster, it comes out twice as shredded versus the fork method.

Don’t want shredded chicken? Simply add the rest of your ingredients in. I put my optional pasta in first followed by 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and some chopped up tomatoes.

Put your lid back on and let it cook on low until your cheese has melted, usually around 15-20 minutes.

After you portion it out, keep it in the fridge where it should last around 4-5 day or freeze it!

⚡ Key Takeaways

• Only 4 ingredients required — chicken, pesto, chicken broth (or pasta water), and lemon juice form the base of this recipe.
• 5–6 hours on low is all it takes; chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F / 73°C.
• 3 lbs of chicken breast or thighs makes enough for a full week of meal prep, lasting 4–5 days in the fridge or longer when frozen.
• Use a hand mixer to shred — it’s significantly faster than forks and produces a finer, more consistent shred.
• Pasta water works as a broth substitute — save it while cooking your optional 8 oz of farfalle to avoid an extra ingredient.
• Highly versatile serving options — works over pasta, rice, or greens, or stuffed into a sandwich or wrap with no recipe changes needed.

Ready for dessert? Try some Cottage Cheese Mousse!