This DELICIOUS two cheese pesto chicken is tasty yet incredibly simple to make PLUS there are so many keto chicken side dishes that it can be served with.
I love simple roasted chicken breasts, stuffed with cheese. Now add pesto to the mix and you’ll be enjoying a tasty dinner tonight.
Of course, chicken is one of the most budget-friendly proteins around, so when your local grocer has chicken breast on sale…stock up!
How to prepare chicken breasts
Place each chicken breast on a chopping board. Using a sharp knife, carefully slice through the thickest part of the chicken breast but not all the way through. You want to create a pocket ready for the stuffing.
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How stuff chicken breasts
Before you begin, get all your chicken stuffing ingredients ready because once you start to handle raw chicken, you won’t want to touch, or contaminate anything else.
1: Mix – the cream cheese and pesto in a small bowl.
2: Cut – each chicken breast to form a packet that can take the filing and cheeses.
3: Fill – Place slices of your favorite cheese inside each chicken breast.
4: Add the pesto mix – place spoons of the cream cheese and pesto creamy filling inside.
5: Prepare to bake – gently lift each filled chicken breast and place into an oile dor lined baking dish.
Sprinkle with grated/shredded cheese.
Bake as per recipe until completely cooked into the centre.
While your delicious budget-friendly chicken dinner is cooking, prepare some vegetables or a side salad to accompany the dinner.
How to cook in the oven
Simply throw this all together, bake for 30-40 minutes and forget about it. You can vary the type of cheese you add and if you want, even cover the chicken breast with some tinned/canned chopped tomatoes to make a cheat’s cheesy tomato sauce by the end of the cooking time.
Pesto has to be one of the tastiest and easiest condiments to use. Add to tinned/canned tomatoes for an easy pasta sauce, mix with cream cheese for a salad topping or a dip.
How to cook using an air fryer
Using an air fryer to cook creamy stuffed chicken is quick and easy.
- Preheat to 180C/350F.
- Spray the wire basket with cooking oil.
- Gently place each chicken piece into the oiled basket. Ensure there is plenty of space between them.
- Cook for 20 minutes, open the drawer and rotate each piece. Do not flip each breast of chicken because the creamy filling will begin to fall out.
- Cook for a further 5-10 minutes, depending on the size of chicken breasts pieces being cooked. Chicken must be completely cooked into the centre of each piece.
Two Cheese Pesto Chicken Recipe (keto friendly)
Equipment
- Casserole Dish
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 4 tbsp pesto
- 100 g cream cheese
- slices of mature cheese of choice
Instructions
- Mix the pesto with the cream cheese.
- Slice the chicken breasts almost in half.
- In each chicken breast, place a slice of mature cheese and pesto/cream cheese mixture.
- Place in a baking dish and cook at 180C/350F for 30-40 minutes until thoroughly cooked and all the juices run clear when you push a knife or a skewer through the thickest part.
Notes
Nutrition
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Yum, I love pesto!
Thanks Amanda x
I made this last night using chicken thighs and my wife and I ate it with homemade marinara on top of steamed asparagas. Very delicious.
Hi Fredrick, that sound even better with your marinara sauce. Thanks for the feedback 🙂
It is even better as leftovers. Had it for lunch at work yesterday and am looking forward to having it for lunch again today. Quickly has become one of our favorite dishes. And the aroma…………amazing
What’s your mature cheese of choice?
I love “Mature cheddar”. There are so many amazing cheeses out there.
The smell when this was cooking was fantastic. I absolutely love pesto so I knew this recipe would be good 🙂
Delicious with goat cheese!
Just found this recipe recently, bought the ingredients today and will make it for Dinner tomorrow evening. It sounds delicious will let you know how it goes.
How did you get all of your cheese stuffing to stay inside? Mine melted and flowed out, leaving my chicken less than “stuffed”. It still tasted great and my husband devoured it!
Try a downwards cut and maybe angle the stuffed chicken breast upwards? Some cheeses become more liquid when melted than others too (Brie and Camberbert are divine).
Do you just use a store bought pesto
Yes, you can, or I sometimes make my own pesto.
Isn’t marinara high in carbs?
Store-bought marinara sauce, yes, but the spaghetti tomato sauce I link to in this recipe is the one I make with canned/tinned tomatoes. This is a low-carb recipe not a keto recipe and it’s optional. I try to cater for all carb tolerance levels 🙂
The whole family really enjoyed this recipe. The filling was delicious and yes, you were right- the dish really does make its own lovely sauce to keep it from drying out when cooking.
I made a ‘pizza’ version for my youngest son who doesn’t like pesto, it was a big hit with him too.
Awesome, simple recipe that will surely be a staple in our household now.
I love it when I read that kiddos love these whole food recipes. And I especially love your idea of a pizza chicken – genius!