One-Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies

I absolutely love a good pesto meal and this one did not disappoint! I do have to point out though that it's tough finding sun-dried tomatoes that don't have any added ingredients or preservatives to them. Try to find fresh ones in the produce aisle or at your local natural market if you can. Also, I 100% recommend making your own pesto sauce. The recipe below came out delicious and was extremely easy to make while the chicken was cooking. I actually ended up adding the full serving of pesto sauce to the chicken because it didn't really quite make 1 cup worth for me. I also didn't have a lot of fresh basil though, which could be the reasoning for that. Anyways, while the chicken was cooking I heated up a few bags of Green Giant Riced Cauliflower on the stove top as well. All I added to the cauliflower rice was the leftover lemon juice and some salt. I am personally more of a fan of the cherry tomatoes over the sun-dried tomatoes, so next time I might decrease the sun-dried tomatoes and increase the cherry. Other then that note, I thought the meal turned out great! Not a lot of ingredients, didn't take long to make, and it came out tasting delicious!

​One-Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies 
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pound chicken thighs or breasts
• ⅔ cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 pound asparagus
• ½ cup basil pesto (see recipe below)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, add sliced chicken, season chicken generously with salt, add half of chopped sun-dried tomatoes - and cook everything on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, flipping a couple of times, until the chicken is completely cooked through. Remove the chicken and sun-dried tomatoes from the skillet, leaving oil in.
2. Add asparagus (ends trimmed), seasoned generously with salt, remaining half of sun-dried tomatoes, and cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the asparagus cooked through. Remove asparagus to serving plate.
3. Add chicken back to the skillet, add pesto, stir to coat on low-medium heat until chicken is reheated, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add halved cherry tomatoes, mix with the pesto and the chicken. Add chicken and tomatoes to the serving plate with asparagus.

Original recipe found here


Basil Pesto
Serving: 1 Cup
Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only (about 1-2 cups)
• ⅓ Cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 Tablespoon pine nuts (toasted)
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest (about half a lemon worth of zest)
• 1 ½ Tablespoons lemon juice (one lemon gets you about 2-3 Tbsp worth)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt 

Directions:

1. Preheat a frying pan until hot and cook the pine nuts for 1-2 minutes until browned slightly, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
2. Place all ingredients in a blender or a food processor and puree until smooth and well combined.

Original recipe found here