Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Chicken Pesto Pasta can be served hot or cold and is made with homemade basil pesto, chicken, and protein pasta, and topped with shaved Parmesan.

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Hi Everyone, this Chicken Pesto Pasta is one of my Summer/Early Fall, go-to recipes. We usually have Homemade Basil pesto (or other pesto varieties) on hand made with herbs from our kitchen garden.

If you don’t have homemade pesto on hand, you can certainly use a store-bought variety too! So really, it can be made any time of the year.

I made this recipe with the idea in mind that at any given time, you might find yourself with leftover pasta or chicken from another meal and you can use that for this recipe or one like this.

I made sure to include step-by-step recipe photos in this post to show you how simple this recipe is to throw together.

Pesto is truly the ingredient that binds everything together!

I love to top this with aged dry cheese, like this shaved Parmesan in the photos but go with whatever favorite cheese you prefer.

If your pesto sauce is too thick, just add extra virgin olive oil to thin it out.

This recipe has carbs, plenty of protein, and greens making a balanced dish and perfect for an easy lunch, low-key dinner, or easy side.

I love to have this hot but it’s certainly greatly chilled too.

RELATED: Lemon Chicken Piccata Penne Pasta

Trying Something Other than Chicken

If you don’t like chicken as the protein in this recipe, you can go with any other meat and it would work – I can see turkey (think about using up those Thanksgiving turkey leftovers!) or thinly sliced steak working well.

The Pasta

I personally love using protein pasta (we’ve been loving Barilla protein+ (not sponsored) lately). If you want to use regular pasta, you could do that too!

RELATED: Tomato Pesto Bagel Toast

If you make this Chicken Pesto Pasta recipe, and like it, please give it a rating in the recipe card below and let us know in the comments at the end of the post.

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RELATED: Basil Pesto Carrot Chickpea Protein Pasta Salad

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Chicken Pesto Pasta

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Chicken Pesto Pasta can be served hot or cold and is made with homemade basil pesto, chicken, protein pasta, and topped with shaved Parmesan.

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Ingredients

• 14.5 ounce (411 grams) (1 box) protein pasta, cooked, we use Barilla brand Protein+ Penne Pasta, *you can substitute regular pasta
• Kosher salt for cooking pasta
• 1/2 cup basil pesto, amount to taste
• 1-2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
• Kosher salt, amount to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• fresh basil, chopped for topping/garnishing, optional

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta in salted water according to the instructions and strain. You can add extra virgin olive oil and stir to combine so that the pasta doesn't stick together.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the cooked pasta, the pesto, and the cooked chicken and mix together evenly.
3. Serve with optional shaved Parmesan and Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (amount to taste).

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1170Total Fat: 30gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 71mgSodium: 369mgCarbohydrates: 170gFiber: 10gSugar: 3gProtein: 51g

Please note that the Calculated Nutrition is an estimate at best.

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• Published 10/30/2021
• Updated & Republished: 11/13/2022

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Sara Maniez

Owner at Life's Little Sweets

Sara is an architectural designer turned work-at-home Mom. She lives in New Jersey by way of New England and New York, with her husband and 3 kids under 8. She loves design, being creative, and spending time with family and friends. She loves checking out local businesses and eats and being apart of the local farm to table community.

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