Marinated Pesto Chicken

Submitted by Chrissyo

"A friend of mine brought this recipe back from her travels to the Mediterranean. She actually cooks the chicken on a barbecue. She roasts the vegetables while the chicken in marinating if she hasn't marinated the chicken overnight. The chicken in cooked on the cooler part of the barbecue."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 25mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 100 g firmly packed fresh basil
• 4 garlic cloves
• 50 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 50 g toasted pine nuts
• 80 ml lemon juice
• 250 ml olive oil
• 4 chicken breast fillets

directions

1. Place the basil, garlic, Parmesan, toasted pine nuts and lemon juice in a food processor and process until combined.
2. Gradually add the olive oil, with the processor still running, and process until smooth.
3. Reserve 3/4 cup of the pesto.
4. Coat the chicken fillets with the remaining pesto and marinate for at least 1 hour, or overnight if time permits.
5. Place the chicken on a tray and cook under a medium grill (broil) for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked, brushing with any remaining marinade during the cooking.
6. Serve with roasted vegetables, (such as eggplant, capsicum, red onion) and the reserved pesto.

Reviews

[Leta8076]

Oh so good! Marinating the chicken overnight allows the flavor to go all through the meat. The pinenut in the pesto...wonderful. I served it with an Italian side salad. Definitely a five star recipe.

 

[PetsRus]

Love Pesto, and this is another way of using it, will definitely try this on the barbeque.I doubled the parmesan cheese wich, in my opinion, was not enough compared to the amount of basil in the recipe, I also used less olive oil. This makes more pesto then you need for the chicken, a bonus I think, so we can enjoy the rest of the pesto with some pasta this week.

 

[gailanng]

For me? A plate of Marinated Pesto Chicken, a hug and a clean fork? Well, how nice of you! (Getting older has its advantages. )

 

[jolyn421]

I also used a store bought pesto but this was fantastic. It will be on the menu often:)

 

[GinnyP]

I didn't have the ingredients to make the pesto, but I had store-bought pesto which I needed to use (Buitoni in U.S. is gf). I also had 2 chicken breasts. So when I came across your recipe, ChrissyO, a lightbulb went off in my head. LOL It turned out so wonderful. We loved it, and next time I'll be trying my hand at homemade pesto as I'm sure that's the only way it could get even better. Thank you!