Easy Pesto Chicken Bake (5 Ingredients) - The Schmidty Wife (2024)

This delicious Pesto Chicken Bake is easy to make, throw in the oven for a fresh weeknight family meal! Made up of healthy protein packed chicken breasts, garlic, pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese this dinner with be a breeze!

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Baked Pesto Chicken Recipe

Regular followers know how much I love my chicken bakes, and today’s recipe is no exception.

What is better than a healthy low-carb chicken dinner made with 5 ingredients and ready in under 30 minutes? Nothing.

This Pesto Chicken Bake takes it back to the basics with the classic flavors of pesto, garlic, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese!

What You Need

This recipe doesn’t call for anything crazy for supplies you will need:

• 9×13 Baking Dish – or similar sized baking dish
• Measuring Spoons & Cups
• Spoon or Spatula – something small to spread out the ingredients
• Aluminum Foil or Sheet Pan – for covering the chicken to rest once it is out of the oven
• Meat Thermometer – piece of mind that the chicken has hit 165ºF

Ingredients

Just a handful of simple things for the recipe:

• chicken breasts cut into cutlets – A typical pack of chicken breasts at any given grocery store contain chicken breasts that are huge, most chicken breasts are roughly 16 ounces (1 pound) while a proper serving of chicken breast is 6-8 ounces, about half of a typical chicken breast found in a grocery store. So to keep this recipe properly portioned AND to keep cooking times down I recommend butterfly-cutting your chicken breasts in half. OR you can buy chicken breasts already portioned into proper sized cutlets. Typically when I am at the grocery store fo a recipe like this I look for a 2ish pound package of breasts with 2 large chicken breasts I can cut in half to make 4.
• minced garlic
• pesto – Try my Homemade Sunflower Seed Basil Pesto or my Carrot Top Pesto Recipe!
• tomatoes
• mozzarella cheese – I used shredded mozzarella in this recipe. You can get the pre-shredded or get fresh mozzarella and shred it yourself.

For a complete detailed list of the ingredients continue towards the bottom of the page.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

First thing is to cut your chicken breasts into cutlets (Unless you bought properly proportioned cutlets). Grab a clean cutting board and sharp knife, very carefully cut the chicken breast in half.

Add the chicken breast cutlets to a baking dish in a single even layer. Season the chicken lightly with salt.

Add 1/2 teasoon of minced garlic to each chicken cutlet and spread the garlic out over the top.

Add 1 tablespoon of pesto to the top of each chicken cutlet and spread evenly over the top.

Now add 2-3 tomato slices to the top of each chicken. Then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese over the top of each chicken cutlet.

Transfer your dish to the oven. Cook for 22-25 minutes. Chicken will be ready when the internal temperature reaches 165ºF and juices run clear. Once you take it out of the oven cover the baking dish and let the chicken rest about 5 minute before serving.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be liquid on the bottom of the dish when you are done baking and that is OKAY! The chicken and other ingredients (especially tomatoes) will let off juices as they bake, this is normal.

What are some good Side Dishes for Pesto Chicken Bake?

• Try vegetables like my Oven Roasted Broccoli or a steamer bag of Mixed Vegetable.
• A simple side salad, like my Simple Spinach Salad is a nice option
• Or keep it low-carb with some Garlic Parmesan Mashed Cauliflower
• Make some pasta to go on the side, maybe mix in extra pesto, something like pesto and angel hair pasta would pair deliciously

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