Homemade Pesto & Baked Pesto Chicken

{baked pesto chicken and kale}

For most of my life, I thought I didn't like pesto, but I think I was comparing store-bought to home made. And man, does it make a difference if you're eating it home made. Pesto is one of the quickest and tastiest sauces around and I like that it's so versatile. You can use it with baked chicken, zucchini noodles, starch free bread, on fish, etc. And you can change up the herbs and nuts depending on what you have available. I like to use walnuts, but almonds will work just fine. (P.S. I'll tell you about making kale another day.)

Pesto
makes about 1 1/2 cups
2 cups fresh basil or cilantro leaves (packed into a measuring cup)
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts or almonds
3/4 cup coarsely grated/shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 a lemon's worth of freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Wash basil/cilantro leaves if needed and dry. Put basil leaves and sliced garlic into food processor (or a blender if you don't have one) that's been fitted with the steel blade and process until basil and garlic is finely chopped, adding oil through the feed tube as you mix. You're going to have to take off the lid and scrape the sides with a rubber scraper periodically to make sure it all gets mixed.

{processing the basil & garlic}

2. Add walnuts, Parmesan cheese, and lemon juice to the chopped basil mixture and process 1-2 minutes more, until the pesto is mostly pureed and well mixed. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and pulse a few times more.

3. Store any leftover pesto in the refrigerator, where it will keep for more than a week. Pesto can also be frozen.

Baked Pesto Chicken
makes 4 servings
1 lb. chicken (I used boneless thighs, but breasts work well too)
salt and black pepper
1 cup pesto
4 oz. mozzarella cheese (I buy mozz. in a block because shredded cheeses usually have added starches to keep it from clumping)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. 

2. Spray a 9" x 12" baking dish with non-stick spray, then spread 1/2 of the pesto over the bottom of the dish. Lay chicken pieces over the pesto, then spread the rest of the pesto over the chicken, making sure to cover all of the pieces.

{pre-baking chicken + pesto}

3. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil (or use a baking dish with a tight-fitting lid) and bake the chicken for 25-30 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. But don't cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.

4. When the chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and spread the chicken with mozzarella cheese slices. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 -10 minutes more, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. (If your broiler is separate from the oven, start preheating it when you take the chicken out.) 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.

{ready to eat}