Basil Pesto & Garlic Chicken Pasta

If you need a super quick, easy and delicious dinner… you have found it! The pesto and chicken are prepared in the time that the pasta is cooking, talk about multi tasking! You can even make a double or triple batch of the pesto so you have some for later.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Big handful of basil, stalks and all (approx 15g)

30g parmesan cheese

25g pine nuts

1.5 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for chicken preparation)

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 chicken thighs

Salt & pepper

Pasta (enough for two people, we used fusilli & gemelli shapes)

Method

Fill a large pot with water and salt the water generously. Place the pot on high heat until boiling. Place the pasta into the pot and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a food processor (or mortar and pestle), add in the basil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whizz up all the ingredients until it forms a smooth paste. Taste the pesto and adjust for flavour accordingly if you like!

Drizzle the chicken thighs with olive oil and massage all sides with crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Place a pan on a medium high heat and drizzle the pan with olive oil. Place the chicken thighs on the pan for about 5-7 minutes each side. Ensure that the chicken thighs don’t stick to the pan by moving them occasionally, and adding more olive oil to the pan if needed. When cooked (should not be pink inside), take off the pan and let rest for a few minutes. Slice each thigh horizontally, into smaller pieces.

Drain the pasta and stir through the basil pesto. If the pesto is not incorporating, adding a little bit of olive oil/butter can help pesto to pasta adhesiveness.

To serve, divide the pesto pasta into two and serve with a chicken thigh each.

Cooking Notes

You can always double or triple the ingredients needed for the pesto and store the spare pesto in the fridge until needed.

If you are time poor, basil pesto can be store bought and substituted for the fresh version. However, the fresh homemade pesto always flavour trumps store bought in my opinion! ;)

This could also be served with freshly sliced tomatoes and a drizzle of lemon juice. An afterthought after taking the recipe photo!