Upgrade Your Chicken Dinner With This Pesto Pasta Bake

What’s more comforting than coming home to a bowl of cheesy, chicken pasta? How about a bowl of cheesy, chicken, (wait for it) pesto pasta? You heard right. Pesto takes this average mac ‘n cheese dish and gives it a whole new dimension. Don’t have time to make this during the day? No worries: make it in advance, stick it in the freezer, and let it thaw the morning of before baking it that night for dinner. A week night meal that tastes like you took all day to make it? It’s enough to make other tastebuds green with envy.

Chicken Pesto Pasta Bake

• Prep Time:20 minutes
• Cook Time:30 minutes
• Total Time:50 minutes
• Servings:6
• Medium

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoon flour
• 4 cup fresh spinach
• 1 cup pesto
• 1 lb of pennoni pasta
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast
• Olive oil

• Step 1

  Preheat oven to 350°F. While the oven preheats, cook the chicken in a large skillet with olive oil over medium heat until brown and fully cooked.

  

• Step 2

  Reserve chicken and add the onion, garlic and mushrooms to the pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook until brown.

  

• Step 3

  Throw the chicken back into the pan, along with the spinach. Cook until the spinach has wilted, about 1 minute.

  

• Step 4

  Boil your pasta until al dente, about 6 minutes. While the pasta cooks, combine butter and flour in a large skillet over medium heat, whisking constantly. Gradually add the whole milk, until the mixture is smooth. Finally, add pesto and cheese to the sauce mixture.

  

• Step 5

  Stir the cream sauce over the reserved chicken, spinach, mushrooms and onions. Bake in a deep 13×9 inch casserole dish for 25 minutes.

  #SpoonTip: Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and set the oven to broil for 2 minutes.

  

• Step 6

  Enjoy!