Cheesy Pesto Baked Chicken

I absolutely love pesto.  It’s great on just about anything.  I made this pesto chicken on Friday for my friend Shay and it was a hit.  It’s mindlessly easy to make and all you really need are just 3 simple ingredients (pesto, chicken, mozzarella).  You could always make your own pesto if you want to get super gourmet (this arugula pesto looks to die for!), but the bottled kind works just fine!

If you love pesto like me, try my pesto green beans too!

XO

Cheesy Pesto Baked Chicken (Serves 4)

From Kalyn’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt and fresh ground black pepper for seasoning chicken
• 1/2 cup of your fave pesto.
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese (you can use low fat or regular…I used regular)

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 375
• Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken pieces, then cut each chicken breast into strips lengthwise into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Season the chicken with salt and pepper
• Spray a 9″ x 12″ baking dish with non-stick spray, then spread 1/4 cup pesto over the bottom of the dish.
• Lay chicken strips over the pesto, then spread 1/4 cup more pesto over the chicken.
• Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake the chicken for 25-30 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. (Don’t cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.)
• When chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and sprinkle chicken with 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese.
• Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 minutes more, just until cheese is melted. After I melted the cheese for 5 minutes I switched my oven to broil and broiled for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.

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