Updated with new pictures 🤗
Chicken Broccoli Pesto Pasta Toss is made with homemade pesto, fresh broccoli & lean chicken. A healthy, easy and tasty weeknight dinner that tastes like a special occasion. Shh…it’ll be our lil secret that you can make it in 30 minutes or less. Your family is gonna love dinner with this one and you will too once you know that the “homemade” pesto has actually been made ahead of time, store in your freezer and toss in in the last 5 minutes of cooking to make everything all saucy, wonderful and get in my mouth..
Okay, I don’t know if y’all are as much of a ‘food nerd’ as I am, but I have planters of herbs and vegetable on my deck. I love to grow fresh vegetables and herbs for as long as I can each year. Down here in Georgia, that is the majority of the year. I know that we are blessed, but we do have to deal with all that heat and humidity… Various types of basil is definitely one of the things that I like to grow. And if all goes well, I have a TON of basil to harvest and figure out a way to preserve. My favorite way to preserve it is to make various basils and freeze them in single portions for use later. You can check out my post on freezing basil for the step-by-step instructions.
The cool thing is this if you have frozen pesto ready in your freezer, you can have amazing pesto-saucy lovin’ dishes whenever you want!! Ok, let me say that again…make pesto with your abundance of basil from the garden, make batches of pesto, freeze it and then you can have the saucy-goodness of fresh-homemade pesto ANYTIME you want it!!
Cook up some lean boneless chicken breast, whole grain pasta and the vegetables of your choosing and you have a meal that will please the entire family! So let’s break it down…
Here is the recipe for Chicken Broccoli Pesto Pasta Toss:
- 12 oz. 100% Whole Wheat Penne Pasta (or gluten-free pasta)
- 1 head fresh broccoli, rinsed and chopped into florets.
- 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 4 (1 oz.) portions of homemade frozen pesto or more if you like it "saucier"
- Sea salt and fresh pepper to taste.
- Garnish with parmesan cheese
- Cook pasta according to package instructions for the "firm" degree of doneness. Add broccoli florets for the last two minutes of cooking. Reserve 1 cup of the starchy cooking water. Drain pasta and broccoli. Return pasta and broccoli to hot pot add reserved cooking water and set aside, keeping warm.
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.
- Once hot, add onion and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is soft and is starting to turn translucent.
- Add chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through (approximately 5 minutes).
- Add homemade frozen pesto. Stir as the pesto cubes melt.
- Once completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add to pasta and stir to combine. Garnish with parmesan cheese.
that looks like something my family would LOVE. thanks so much for sharing and for the meal inspiration!!
You’re welcome Emily and thanks for stopping by!