A simple way to prepare chicken that looks like you spent a lot of time preparing. It can also be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated until baked. Be sure to use a good quality pesto for best results. I like to serve it with pasta, but it is also nice sliced and served on a green salad.

Pesto Chicken

chicken breast

basil pesto, divided

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a baking dish.


Spread about 2 tablespoons of pesto per chicken breast over the top of each breast, and wrap each breast in prosciutto slices to cover the entire breast. Place the wrapped chicken breasts into the prepared baking dish.


Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink, the juices run clear, and the prosciutto is lightly crisped, about 25 minutes.


This recipe was fantastic! So easy too.  I marinated chicken for a few hours in a citrus, onion, mustard seed marinade and used bacon instead of prosciutto.  I'm no chef but this recipe sure made me seem like one.  Delicious. Thanks for posting.

Great idea and sooooo simple!  I also used bacon instead of the prosciutto, and it was in the oven for about 35 minutes, but everyone loved it.

This was phenomenal!  I didn't have prosciutto, but can't wait to try it that way, too!  I always season my chicken with kosher salt, pepper, and garlic powder before I make it, but the pesto was so flavorful that I probably could've skipped that step.  I served the chicken over pasta tossed with pesto.  Easy enough for the family (my 4 year old loved it) but impressive looking enough for company.

To add more flavor, I pounded the chicken out and made a filling of feta, roasted red peppers, garlic, pepper and finely chopped mushrooms. I coated the inside with pesto first, then filled it and covered the tops with salt, pepper, pesto and then the prosciutto. AWESOME!!! 
ADDING: After making this several times, I don't care for the texture of the Prosciutto after cooking. Now, I coat the outside of the chicken w/Pesto, S & P. Then on the inside, I do Pesto, S & P, Prosciutto, then the filling. Fold and cook. PERFECTION!!!

I never really cook and yet this turned out great! It was easy, and very delicious. For the pesto sauce I used the recipe for "15-year-old pesto sauce" and it worked out really well!  I served this with brown rice and asparagus and it tasted wonderfully  together.

If you love Pesto you will love this. We served it on angel hair pasta and it was delicious.

We really enjoyed this! I made this with a slight variation: A reviewer mentioned that she didn't like the texture of the prosciutto cooking on the outside so I decided to cook it on the inside.  I pounded the chicken breasts even, dusted them with garlic powder and a bit of freshly ground pepper. I spread just one tablespoon of pesto on each breast [I love pesto but didn't want it to overwhelm the dish], a slice of prosciutto and then 2 thin slices of  smoked gouda per breast to cover the prosciutto. I rolled it up and secured it with a toothpick and put it in a greased glass baking dish in the fridge, until I was ready to bake it, which I did later at 350 for 25 minutes.  I was afraid the cheese would all melt out but the gouda held it's shape. The flavors went together wonderfully.

I would encourage lovers of this recipe to try it with the prosciutto and pesto inside.

super simple and very delicious. the flavors come together so well - it tastes a lot more complex than it is. salty crispy juicy... very good!

My husband said this was fantastic!  I made pesto with fresh basil from my garden.  I wasn't sure how to prepare the chicken, so I tried it two ways.  First I pounded the chicken, then spread the pesto on the breast, then rolled the chicken and wrapped the bacon around it (picture added).  The smaller pieces that I cut off the breasts, I also pounded, spread the pesto on, but the wrapped the bacon around the chicken as it lay flat with the pesto side up (picture added, but you can't see the chicken under the pesto).  Since the chicken was not as thick on the smaller pieces, my husband said they were more flavorful.  They cooked in 25 minutes as well.  The full breasts took closer to 45 minutes.

This was just ok for me. Hubby liked it more than I did. It was a good start - but next time I make it I'll definitely be doing some tweaking. Fast and easy - just lacking something...

This easy chicken combines pesto and prosciutto for a quick and delicious dinner!

pesto chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total: 35 minutes

Servings: 4

Cost: $4.39 /serving

Author : Pjaros

Ingredients

Instructions

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