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Pesto Chicken Bruschetta

This pesto chicken is cooked to perfection, topped with fresh mozzarella and juicy, garlicky fresh chopped tomatoes that’s basically everything you love about bruschetta, minus the bread.

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Pesto chicken bruschetta with cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate

Cheesy Baked Pesto Chicken Is Everything You Love About Summer.

We know it sounds like a hoax. A boneless, skinless chicken breast recipe that people will not just like, but LOVE? Yeah, it’s that magical. Why? Because for this baked pesto chicken we’re breaking out the big flavors—homemade pesto, fresh mozzarella, and juicy, garlicky fresh chopped tomatoes that’s basically everything you love about bruschetta.

a bag of pine nuts on a counter along with, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese
basil, parmesan, salt and pepper, pinenuts and olive oil in a food processor for homemade pesto

Easy Pesto Chicken Starts With An Easy Homemade Pesto (Duh!)

For this post, we are in full on weeknight dinner mode and hoping that this recipe is one you’ll add to your rotation and make over and over again (just like we do). For this dish we had so much fun working with Diamond of California’s pine nuts! What a treat it was ripping into those packages of tiny buttery nuts. There is something particularly magical about pine nuts. And while, yes, you can totally use store bought pesto for any recipe—we get it, busy times call for desperate measures— we oh-so-highly suggest making your pesto at home if you can. What we like about homemade pesto is that you can taste all the individual ingredients in each bite. We literally eat it by the spoonful (and you will never hear us say that about the store bought stuff).

We wanted to get creative with this recipe, but couldn't bear to stray too far away from a classic pesto. There is nothing better than sweet basil, salty parmesan, and rich pine nuts all blended into one stunning pesto. You're going to love it paired with fresh mozzarella and ripe, juicy garlicky tomatoes as much as we do.

Pesto chicken with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate

How To Make A Baked Chicken Breast That’s NOT DRY (We Swear)

Yeah, boneless, skinless chicken breast can be a little dry. Especially when you bake it. But! This pesto chicken ensures that you won’t have a single dry bite of chicken in a few different ways:

  1. Pesto sauce! That dollop of freshly made pesto is way #1 that we make sure that no chicken bite is dry.
  2. Ripe tomatoes! Ripe tomatoes are juicy enough as it is, but we took a hint from classic Italian bruschetta and tossed our ripe tomatoes with garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil so that they’re even juicier. No dry bites!
  3. Fresh mozzarella. When in doubt, mozzarella. It makes everything taste like a treat. Also, we love that the colors of the Italian flag are all represented here—red tomatoes, green pesto and white mozzarella.
Pesto chicken with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate
Pesto chicken bruschetta with cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate

Basil Pesto and All the Other Herb Sauces.

We’ve officially entered into the summer garden phase where we are trying to use up everything we've grown. With fresh herbs sprouting up everywhere, we can’t help but want to make all the herb forward recipes like...now! If you’ve been following along lately, you know how much we love our herbs this time of year. (We talk about them a lot!)

We’ve recently put them to good use in..

  • This chimichurri to slather all over our steaks and EVERYTHING ELSE.
  • This gremotata for all of our roasted potato needs.
  • This green goddess sauce - perfect for grilled cheese, crudités, or you name it!
Pesto chicken with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate

Tools You’ll Need:

A Few Things We Love To Do With Pesto.

Fresh basil pesto is easy to make and comes together quickly, way more delicious than the store bought stuff (see above) and not to mention, it's easy to freeze! (A thousand times YES to this one.) Make a big batch and save yourself time in the future. Here are some more things you can slather it on!

Pesto chicken with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and pine nuts on a plate

Baked Chicken + Pesto + Mozzarella = A Winning Combo

If you make this dish, we’d love to hear about it! Be sure to snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper if you do. Also, feel free to leave a comment on the post and be sure to tell your friends where you discovered the recipe!

This sponsored post is written by TMP on behalf of Diamond of California The opinions and text are all ours. Thank you for supporting the brands we love.

Pesto Chicken Bruschetta

  • Serves: 6
  • Prep Time:  20 min
  • Cook Time:  40 min
  • Calories: 528

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 4 slices fresh mozzarella
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Basil Pesto

  • 2 cup basil leaves
  • 1 cup Pine Nuts
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Tomato Bruschetta

  • 10 oz cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 4 leaves fresh basil, cut into thin strips

Method

  1. Heat oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle position. Alternatively heat your outside charcoal or gas grill to medium-high heat.
  2. Place all ingredients for the pesto into a small food processor and pulse until combined. We like pesto a little bit "chunky" but tastes differ, so feel free to make it as smooth as you'd like. Also feel free to add more olive oil a little at a time if necessary. Set pesto aside**
  3. In a small bowl, toss together all ingredients for the tomato bruschetta. Set aside to let the flavors mingle.
  4. Pat the chicken dry and rub with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper.

5. For baking the chicken in the oven: Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish and bake until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165° F. About 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your chicken breast. When the chicken is almost done baking, place a slice of fresh mozzarella on each breast. Remove from oven when it is slightly melted but not dripping down the sides of the chicken.

For grilled chicken: Place the chicken on the grill and cook until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165° F. When the chicken is almost done being grilled, place a slice of fresh mozzarella on each breast. Remove from the grill when it is slightly melted but not dripping down the sides of the chicken.

6. Top the mozzarella slices with a scoop of pesto and a scoop of bruschetta. Serve immediately.

**Pesto will keep for 1 week in refrigerator if in an airtight container. Pesto also freezes nicely!

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories528
  • Protein31 g
  • Carbohydrates9 g
  • Total Fat46 g
  • Dietary Fiber1 g
  • Cholesterol46 mg
  • sodium754 mg
  • Total Sugars2 g

Pesto Chicken Bruschetta

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

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  • Josephine Rogers

    can this dish be frozen

    Sure.

  • Mary Achziger

    Very delicious! I used chopped roma's, which was the only tomato I had on hand. I will definetly make this again - next time for a family gathering. Thank you for creating something so yummy!

    Thanks Mary, we are so happy you loved it!

  • Deb

    Very good and flavorful! My neighbor gave me some homemade pesto and I wanted to find a good receipe to use it in (so I didn't have to make the pesto!). My partner isn't big on baked chicken dishes, but he loved this one. I didn't have fresh basil, so I used fresh thyme in the bruschetta and it was still very good. The other thing I did differently is I put the pesto and bruschetta on the mozzerella so they heated up while the cheese was melting.

    Thanks Deb, we are glad you enjoyed this!

  • Deb

    delicious! didn't change a thing

    Thanks Deb, glad you loved it!

  • Christina Mcneilis

    Delicious! A new staple in our household.

    Wow! We love to hear when something becomes a staple, thank you! Happy your family enjoys it!

  • Janet

    This is one of the best recipes we have tried in a while. My husband loved it.. It was fresh and just right for a summer dinner. The tomatoes were sooooo delicious. I’ll admit I snacked on them while I waited on the chicken. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe. This is probably in our top 10 of all times!

    WOW! That is such a compliment! Thank you Janet, we are so glad you loved it!