Keeping It Clean, Quiet, and Easy

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Chicken Tomato Pesto Pasta Recipe

Everyone needs a go-to, family-friendly pasta recipe in their arsenal. This chicken tomato pesto pasta recipe is a perfect candidate for that position for so many reasons. 

It can be a satisfying main dish or a side dish. 

A plate of chicken tomato pesto pasta with a piece of garlic bread or a garden salad makes for a restaurant-quality meal. You can also serve it as one of many side dishes at a Sunday dinner. Keep this recipe in mind for your next pot luck — you’ll never go wrong, taking anything with pesto in. People love pesto! 

It’s versatile

It is excellent served either piping hot (keeping it that way on a hot plate) or as a chilled pasta salad. 

It’s a wholesome and nutritious pesto pasta dish

Fresh, summer ingredients like tomatoes and fresh basil are so healthy. Both the pesto sauce and grilled chicken are low in saturated fat. 

Easy to cook

The dish might seem complicated, but it’s actually easy to make. It only takes a few steps, some of which can be done the night before. 

It’s a flexible recipe that you can change up 

The pesto

Pesto in jar.

If you’re not a fan of fresh basil, try spinach or arugula. If pine nuts aren’t your thing, try pecans in your pesto. The only thing set in stone about pesto is to have some kind of greens, some kind of nuts, some kind of grated, hard cheese, and olive oil. Mixing and matching often creates delicious pesto results. 

Try different pasta

This particular recipe calls for farfalle pasta, but you could easily use fettuccini, rotini or whatever pasta you have on hand. 

Change out the protein

If chicken isn’t your favorite, cook up some shrimp on a skillet instead and add that to your pasta. Serving a nice piece of grilled salmon over the top of tomato pesto pasta would be a heavenly and healthy treat. 

Switch out the tomato

Depending on the season, cherry or grape tomatoes are generally sweeter and have more flavor than other grocery store variety tomatoes. That sweetness is a great contrast with the pesto. However, if you have access to fresh garden-grown tomato, then a substitution may indeed be in order. The tomatoes are raw in this recipe so that they can impart that fresh, juicy flavor. However, if you could roast them to achieve a more intense, caramelized tomato flavor. You could even cook them under the broiler to get a little char on their skins, which would also bring another level of depth to the pasta. 

Pesto Recipe

This pesto recipe is easy to make, but does require a food processor and will take about 15 minutes to prepare. 

  • 3 cups of fresh basil leaves
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • ¼ cup lightly toasted pine nuts
  • ¼ cup chopped walnuts
  • ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese 
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 squeeze of lemon juice
  • ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil 
Cooked fettucine.
  1. In the bowl of a food processor, add the basil leaves and pulse a few times, just to get them chopped. 
  2. Next, add the garlic, pine nuts, walnuts, parmesan cheese, pepper, salt, and lemon juice. 
  3. Pulse the food processor several times. 
  4. Then leave it running while you drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube. 
  5. Let it blend for one or two minutes, until creamy. 
  6. Turn it off and taste the pesto. Adjust seasonings if necessary, perhaps with more salt or lemon juice. 

You can use this pesto right away or chill it for later. Remember, pesto discolors quickly when exposed to air. To keep it green and beautiful, store your pesto in an airtight container. 

Nutrition facts with % of daily value

Pesto

Calories per serving: 60 
Fat grams: 6g – 9%
Saturated fat: 1g – 5%
Cholesterol: 3 mg – 1%
Sodium: 50 mg – 2%
Carbohydrates: 0g – 0%
Dietary fiber: 0g – 0%
Protein: 1 g – 2%

Chicken Tomato Pesto Pasta

This is an easy recipe that serves four people and takes approximately 55 minutes to prepare.

  • 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Juice of ½ half a lemon
  • 1 pound of farfalle pasta (bow ties)
  • Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half and lightly seasoned with salt
  • 1 ½ cups of pesto
  • Parmesan cheese for garnish
  • A few basil leaves for garnish
  1. Cut the chicken breasts in half, starting at the fatter side of the chicken breast. 
  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken.
  3. Get a grill pan nice and hot, on medium-high heat.
  4. Add olive oil to the pan. 
  5. When it sizzles, add the chicken to the grill pan, piece by piece, without crowding the pan. You may need to cook the chicken in batches. 
  6. Cook each side of chicken for four minutes, or until they are golden brown and the juices run clear. 
  7. You could also cook the chicken on a charcoal smoker for an added taste.
  8. Put the chicken aside to rest. 
  9. After several minutes, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. 
  10. Set the chicken aside.
  11. Prepare the pasta according to the package directions, which is usually about 11 minutes for al dente. Don’t forget to salt the water. 
  12. Drain the pasta but reserve ¼ cup of pasta water. 
  13. While the pasta is still warm, spoon the pesto onto the the pasta and toss. If it’s too thick, drizzle in a little of the pasta water to make a nice pesto sauce to coat the pasta smoothly. 
  14. Add the chicken in with the pasta. 
  15. Add the cherry tomatoes. 
  16. Toss all together and serve. 

Top your pesto pasta with grated parmesan cheese and a few basil leaves for garnish. 

Nutrition facts with % of daily value

Chicken Tomato Pesto Pasta

Calories per serving: 550 
Fat grams: 27 g – 42%
Saturated fat: 5g – 25%
Cholesterol: 66 mg – 22%
Sodium: 360 mg – 15%
Carbohydrates: 48g – 16%
Dietary fiber: 3g – 12%
Protein: 30g – 60%