Easy weeknight dinners are the goal at our house. With at least one kiddo in sports every night of the week, there just isn’t time to spent cooking an elaborate meal. While we like quick meals, our number one goal is something delicious that will fill us up. For this weeknight meal, we used Barilla’s Creamy Genovese Pesto Sauce. It took a basic chicken dish to the next level and was delicious served with buttered pasta. Take a look at how I made this baked pesto chicken.
From start to finish, this dish took just about 40 minutes. With only about 15 minutes of hands on cook time. 
I started out with two pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I love buying the packs of 2 from Costco. They’re the perfect size for us for dinners. Knowing I was going to use Barilla’s pesto for this dish, I decided to add in tomatoes. I love cooked tomatoes, especially with creamy Genovese pesto sauce. First, I seasoned the chicken, covered each breast with pesto. Then, I tossed halved tomatoes in olive oil, added a little seasoning and put them in around the chicken in the baking dish.
I baked the chicken at 400 for about 25 minutes, until the chicken was cooked all the way through. The tomatoes were perfectly shriveled in that time, starting to lose their shape.
After that, I topped the chicken with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese on each piece of chicken. I broiled it for about 2 minutes, just until the cheese started to brown and bubble.
That’s it. Now it’s time to serve. I actually had one piece by itself for dinner the first night. Then the next night, I made some pasta to go with. It was good by itself but it was GREAT with the pasta. The pesto added to much flavor, you’d never be able to tell that it came from a jar!
If you’re looking for an easy weeknight dinner, grab some Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto sauce, chicken and tomatoes and you’ve got yourself an easy baked pesto chicken dinner!
- 2 pieces chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1/4 cup Barilla Pesto Sauce
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
- salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Coat a baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place trimmed chicken breasts in the cooking dish.
- Season them with garlic powder, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.
- Spread 1/4 Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto over each chicken breast. Make sure they're completely coated.
- In a separate bowl, place cut tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and you can add more onion powder and Italian seasoning if desires.
- Once tomatoes are coated, place in baking dish around the chicken.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked completely through.
- Remove from oven and top with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese- 1/2 cup on each chicken breast.
- Broil for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown and bubble.
- Serve and enjoy!
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