Pesto Chicken Rolls with Chopped Tomato and Spinach Salad…
He and his sister were playing “restaurant” and setting up their little table with play food for dinner. I then overheard Sammy say to Gina…”Wait wait wait…I have to get my camera so I can take pictures of the food!”
As a food blogger, I just thought that was the funniest thing ever!! Kids are the best.
Dinner the other night was the best too. I felt so good after eating this…it was full of lots of lean protein and plenty of good for you vegetables. Healthy food can be so delicious people, it really can.
These chicken rolls are so versatile too. It’s more of a technique than a recipe, once you get the steps down, you can get really creative with the stuffing. I think next time I will try a spinach pesto, feta and kalamata olive combination.
Print
PinIngredients
- 1.5 lbs of chicken breast
- 6–8 tsp of prepared pesto (I used Buitoni for a shortcut)
- 1 cup sun dried tomatoes (I prefer the ones not in oil, but either will work)
- shredded parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1–2 tsps olive oil for pan
Instructions
- Take each chicken breast and place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a mallet (tenderizer), gently pound chicken till to about 1/4 inch thick cutlets. Cut each chicken cutlet in half into same size pieces. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Drop approximately 1 teaspoon of prepared pesto onto the center of each chicken cutlet, spread pesto. Lay a few pieces of sun dried tomatoes over pesto. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan cheese over the sun dried tomatoes. Starting from the smaller side, roll cutlet being careful to keep filling inside. At this time you can seal the opening with a toothpick if you’d like. These can be made ahead up until this point. Place in dish and wrap in plastic wrap, store in the fridge for a few hours until ready to cook.
- Heat 1-2 tsp olive oil in an oven proof skillet and gently place each chicken roll in hot pan. Cook each side until golden brown, using tongs to gently turn rolls. Once all sides of chicken are seared to golden brown, place oven proof skillet into pre heated oven of 375 degrees. If you do not have an oven proof skillet, just transfer chicken into a baking dish greased with nonstick spray.
- Cook chicken in oven for appoximately 20 -25 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked through. This recipe made 6 chicken rolls, 1-2 for each person.
- Serve chicken rolls with salad, veggies or pasta!
(for a printable version of both these recipes click here)
I recently received the Butterfly Award from my friend Barbara over at Barbara Bakes! Her blog is full of yummy food so go over there and check her out! While I’m on the ball today, I think I ‘m going to pass this award to a few of my new favorite blogs!
Erica of Itzy’s Kitchen – Erica is the sweetest gal, and is always cooking up something delicious and health conscience in her kitchen. And her dog Frank is the CUTEST!
Paula of It’s All Gouda – Paula’s blog is just comfort to me…I love reading her posts about her family and everything she cooks makes me hungry!
Cathy at The Tortefeasor – Cathy is a busy mom, but still finds time to cook up great stuff!! She makes me laugh and hers is a blog I always look forward to visiting!
Have a great weekend!!
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I love dinner with all those fresh ingredients. Kids can say such funny things!
Too cute about your son! And this looks delicious AND healthy!
First of all- I think that is so cute that your son did that!
Dinner looks amazing! I have done something similar before via a Giada recipe and it was fabulous. I love your idea of switching up the ingredients to create new combos- I must try this soon!!
Thank you so much for the award – you’re too sweet! I feel honored 🙂
That was so cute! Everyone in my family asks if the picture has been taken before touching the food! LOL… 🙂
It’s cute how our little ones try to copy us 🙂 The chicken rolls look yummy!
I wish I was having this for dinner tonight! It looks great! Your next one with feta and kalamatas….omg…i’m in heaven!
LOL at your little son’s remark about getting the camera! So cute — you have a budding food blogger on your hands for sure!
And everything about this dinner looks fabulous! I feel better just looking at it — this will be showing up on our menu SOON!
And thank you for the award, Aggie! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog, and am so flattered that you like mine too!
I am putting this on the menu for next week. It looks wonderful!
Oh the home life of the food blogger! haha. Your recipe is great!
Those look amazing! Congratz on your award. 🙂
Wow, what a delicious meal and how cute is your son? Can’t get enough of pesto. Have a great weekend!
Sammy’s comment was definitely a winner. Too funny.
Nice job with the chicken. I love it stuffed/rolled like that, I just wish Steve did – to be fair, he MAY, but the two times I tried it were early on in my cooking career and they sucked hahaha. I should give it another go.
omg your son is too cute!! i did something similar this week (not posted yet) that was fantastic 🙂
This is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S… You are such a PRO!!! I really like to eat chicken, I might have to improvise and skip the sun dried tomatoes (can’t give into the 1200yen price this week) Isn’t that expensive here?
OH my.. Aggie you really out did it…
Oh my gosh, Aggie, your photos are terrific! I love the step by step instructions that accompany them, and the recipe itself is wonderful! I think both versions, the one you made and the one you’ll make next time, are great! That salad is the perfect accompaniment, I love all those flavors.
How sweet your little fella is all set to blog! I love that your kids play together, too.
Thank you so much for the award. It was a lovely surprise, and I’m truly humbled. It means a lot, especially coming from you! Have a great weekend!
Oh Aggie, these look so delicious. I love every ingredient used.
My kids love playing restaurant too – your boy is so funny.
So excite dto make this next week!!!
Aggie this looks sooo good and so easy to prepare. I mean I could make this ahead of time and freeze it till ready.
And I love that your son did that, very sweet.
Oh that looks too good!
Funny about the camera too – my daughter reminds me when we leave the house “do you have your camera?”
That’s so funny about your son! This recipe looks great, and my oldest just might be interested, since he really likes pesto.
That’s a cute story for sure. My son would likely do something similar!
This recipe looks delicious! And pretty too 🙂
Hope you’ll enter my Super Bowl recipe contest… you can win a $250 gift card!
That is adorable what your son said, it’s funny how they like to be just like mommy! Your dinner looks beautiful!
What a meal! Looks like it had so many wonderful flavors in it.
Love kids and what they pick up on! Mine are always telling me I need to blog about whatever I’ve made.
What a great meal!
We made a variation of this chicken last night and thought it was AMAZING! I'd never stuffed chicken before and now i'm like okay… what CAN'T we stuff in chicken?! Amazing! I linked to your blog of course – thanks so much for helping us mixup our menu… and add to our 'kitchen tools' with a meat tenderizer!