Creamy Pesto Chicken Skillet with Homemade Pesto

Creamy Pesto Chicken Skillet with Homemade Pesto
Serving of Thick & Creamy Chicken Pesto

Homemade Pesto

Before anything else, have you ever tried making homemade pesto? It’s really easy! Just follow the entire process below.

Ingredients

Ingredients for Pesto Paste
  • 1 & 1/2 cups of fresh basil
  • 1/3 cup salted peanuts
  • 1/3 cup toasted cashew nuts
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 2-3 tbsps of parmesan cheese
  • Pepper
  • Olive oil
  • 1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed

How to Make Homemade Pesto

It has always been a challenge to grow and maintain herbs. However, of all the herbs, basil has surprisingly been one of the easiest to keep alive. This is what fresh basil looks like.

Basil
  1. Combining ingredients: In a food processor, combine all ingredients. Firstly, chug in all your nuts and about 2 tbsps of olive oil. Your first choice might be pine nuts, but you can use several alternatives without changing the taste.
Chugging in nuts to the blender

2.  Adding basil: Add your garlic and fresh basil leaves. Rinse your basil leaves and dry them with a paper towel before adding them.

Adding garlic
Adding basil

3. Adding more ingredients: You should achieve this look and consistency after adding in your parmesan cheese, pepper, lemon juice, and a bit more olive oil. You can add more oil depending on the consistency you want. Likewise, you can add water, salt, or oil if you want it to feel like sauce and not paste.

Blending the ingredients

4.  Storage: This mixture makes over one heaping cup of authentic homemade pesto. After processing, put your pesto inside an airtight container or jar and store it in the fridge.

Other Ways to Use Homemade Pesto

As a bread spread

Use 1 tbsp of homemade pesto mixed with 1 - 2 tbsps of salted butter, soft and melted.

As a pasta sauce

Slather 1tbsp or less onto one serving of cooked pasta, add some olive oil, and mix.

As ravioli filling

Using small amounts of pesto is perfect! You may also mix it in with some ground chicken or beef.

As a veggie dip or dip for chips or nachos

Just mix it in with cream cheese.

As a replacement for gravy with mashed potatoes

Your homemade pesto will be perfect because of its creamy, herby taste. Likewise, you can add butter, salt, and lots of freshly ground pepper for the best results.

If you’re a pesto lover, you want to use your homemade pesto on or with many other dishes.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Skillet

Now that you’ve made your homemade pesto, you can start cooking creamy pesto chicken skillet.

Ingredients

Ingredients for Thick & Creamy Chicken Pesto
  • 1/2 kg of chicken
  • 250mL of all-purpose cream
  • 1 onion (sliced thinly)
  • 1 bulb of garlic (minced)
  • 7 cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
  • 1 green bell pepper (sliced thinly)
  • 1 red bell pepper (sliced thinly)
  • 1 big potato (sliced thinly, then cut in half to make smaller slices)
  • 1 to 1&1/2 cups of pesto paste

How to Make Creamy Pesto Chicken Skillet

1.  Seasoning the chicken: Season your chicken with equal parts of salt, chicken powder, and ground black pepper.

 Salt, chicken powder, and ground black pepper.

2.  Marinate: Let that sit for about ten minutes.

Seasoning the chicken
Seasoned chickens

3.  Frying chicken: Fry all your chicken, skin faced down, in a heated pan. Drop in all your sliced red and green bell peppers and onions along with your chicken. Flip your chicken once the other side turns golden brown.

Adding chicken, red and green bell peppers, and onions
Fried chicken

3.  Adding potatoes: You may now add your potatoes and about half a cup of water. Cover your pan and let it simmer. You can also use chicken stock instead of water. Without chicken stock, you may use chicken broth cubes or season with salt, making your chicken more tender and flavorful.

Adding potatoes

4.  Open the pan:  Once your potatoes are soft enough, you may leave the pan open to let the liquid evaporate more quickly.

 leaving the pan open to let the liquid evaporate more quickly.

5.  Add all-purpose cream: Once the liquid has been reduced, you may pour in your all-purpose cream. Mix well.

Adding all purpose cream
Resembles a creamy chicken casserole

6.  Add homemade pesto: Add as much of your pesto as you wish. Typically, you can use about 1&1/3 cups of homemade pesto.

Adding homemade pesto paste

8.  Pepper and tomatoes: Add your pepper and cherry tomatoes last to retain the juicy crunch from the tomatoes.

Adding tomatoes

9. Enjoy! You’re now ready to serve.

Serving Thick & Creamy Chicken Pesto

If you want a thick and creamy pesto chicken skillet, this recipe is good. However, if you prefer your sauce to be more smooth and runny, you can gradually add water and stir until you’re done.

Add a new hit recipe to your repertoire and impress your family and friends!

Subscribe for daily recipes. No spam, just food.