Chicken Pesto Pasta

When you’re short of time and everyone’s hungry, pasta is the quickest way to get dinner on the table. This chicken pesto pasta will tick all the boxes – fast and really delicious. Tender chicken coated in creamy basil pesto sauce. With plenty parmesan, of course.

To make life a little simpler, I always have some homemade pesto in the fridge. It adds instant flavour to pasta sauces, stirred into soups or to make the best mozzarella and pesto toasted sandwiches. A good store-bought pesto will do but making your own is really easy and the flavour, infinitely better. It’s also a good way of using up herbs. Often I’ll add mint, spinach and flat leaf parsley to my pestos. If I don’t have pine nuts on hand, I might throw in some almonds or walnuts. If you need a good pesto recipe, here is one of my favourites. When making pesto, remember to pour a little extra virgin olive oil over the top to keep the pesto from spoiling.

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Serves 4

30 ml (2 tablespoons) olive oil
10 free range, skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips
zest of half a lemon
15 ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice
pinch of dried chilli flakes
60 ml (1/4 cup) basil pesto
250 ml fresh cream
250 – 300 g penne pasta
50 g (1/2 cup) freshly grated Parmesan, to serve
a handful of fresh basil, to finish
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a wide-based pan. Season the chicken with salt and black pepper. Brown the chicken on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Add the lemon zest, juice, chilli and basil pesto. Turn to coat the chicken in the pesto. Add the cream and half of the parmesan cheese. Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce is slightly reduced and thickened.

Cook the pasta in plenty of well-salted, boiling water. Before draining the pasta, reserve  250 ml of the pasta water.

Drain the pasta and tip into the sauce. Add  the reserved pasta water to thin the sauce down if necessary.

Serve with parmesan and fresh basil sprigs.

More quick and easy pastas

Spinach and chickpea pasta

Lemon cream mushroom tagliatelle pasta