This Easy Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two looks and tastes great but couldn’t be easier to throw together.
I feel like it’s been a long time since I last posted a creamy, cheesy pasta recipe. I looked back in the archives and my last was my Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese , four months ago, and my Mac and Cheese for One months before that. That’s too long!
So today, Easy Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two With Oven-Roasted Tomatoes.
You should make this pasta for dinner tonight. It’s really good.
Like, really, really good.
Also really easy.
Like, really, really easy.
This is my very favorite sort of dish, the sort that looks and tastes so good that the world is going to be convinced you have your life together, but really it’s faster and more delicious than getting takeout delivered.
How to Make Pesto Chicken Pasta
Here’s the process: slice a cup of cherry tomatoes in half. Use this method; it will take you 30 seconds. Then you mince a clove of garlic, 30 more seconds. Chop up a chicken breast–it doesn’t have to be pretty, and you can do it on the same cutting board as the garlic because they’re going to be cooking together in a minute anyway. You have now finished all the cutting there is to do.
Then you roast your tomatoes while you boil your pasta, and you boil your pasta while you cook your chicken and sauce. Stir everything together in the end, and done! 20 minutes, and now you are tucking into a fab pesto chicken pasta for two. You’re welcome. 😉
More Easy Pasta Dishes
- Creamy Sausage Pasta
- Chicken Francaise
- Baked Ziti
- Buttered Noodles
- Fettuccine Alfredo for One
Pesto Chicken Pasta Recipe Notes
- As written, this Pesto Chicken Pasta recipe serves 2. To change the recipe yield, hover over the number of servings in the recipe card (or click if you are on mobile) and slide the slider–no cooking changes are needed.
- If you have leftover pesto after making this recipe, check out my post What to Do With Leftover Pesto for ideas for using up the rest. And for leftover half and half: What to Do With Leftover Half and Half .
Ingredients
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- ▢ 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- ▢ 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Pasta
- ▢ 4 ounces ( 1 1/3 cup) penne pasta
- ▢ 8 ounces (about 1 small) boneless skinless chicken breast cubed
- ▢ 1 clove garlic minced
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- ▢ 1/2 cup half and half
- ▢ 2 tablespoons pesto
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 1oz ) shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
Instructions
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease. Toss cherry tomato halves with olive oil and spread out in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until nicely roasted.
Pasta
- Once your tomatoes go into the oven, bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions and set aside.
- While your pasta is cooking, lightly grease a medium skillet with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add chicken, garlic, salt, and pepper and cook until the chicken is well-browned.
- Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, until thick and saucy and chicken is cooked through. Stir in drained pasta and then gently stir in roasted tomatoes. Top with additional Parmesan cheese if desired, serve and enjoy!
Adapted from Buzzfeed
If you’ve had a long, tiring work week, a good movie, a glass of wine, and a bowl of this Cinnamon Bun Popcorn is the very best way to celebrate its end!
For Christmas this year, family on the East Coast sent a big box of gourmet popcorn. It was basically the best Christmas gift ever because I love popcorn, and I love choices, and this was just a giant box of different popcorn flavor choices.
There was everything from jalapeño-flavored kettle corn to chocolate-covered kettle corn with crushed potato chips (POTATO CHIPS!). But my favorite flavor of the bunch was some fabulous cinnamon bun popcorn, and since I love making kettle corn, obviously I was going to try and recreate it here on the blog.
How’d the homemade version turn out? A++. I actually kind of wish I didn’t know how to make this now because I want to make it all the time…
But since I do know, I’m sharing it with you so we can all eat over-the-top popcorn together. The recipe is really simple. It’s just kettle corn made with cinnamon sugar instead of plain granulated sugar and then drizzled with white chocolate, but it’s about a thousand times more decadent.
If you’ve had a long, tiring work week, a good movie, a glass of wine, and a bowl of this Cinnamon Bun Popcorn is the very best way to celebrate its end!
As with regular kettle corn, there are a couple of things to keep in mind while cooking to avoid ending up with burned sugar and a scorched pot.
Kettle corn is not hard, BUT it’s easy to burn, so if you haven’t made kettle corn before, read over the notes below before you start, follow the instructions carefully, and don’t use a perfect pristine new pot to make your first batch in. 🙂
(If you are curious about the why behind some of these instructions, check out my post How to Make Homemade Kettle Corn Without Burning the Sugar for more details.)
Cinnamon Bun Popcorn Notes
- Use a large pot, at least 3 quarts. It’s going to seem much too big, but this gives the popcorn space to move as you shake the pot, so no sugar is trapped at the bottom burning.
- If your pan has a very tightly fitting lid that doesn’t allow steam to escape, pop the lid open just a fraction of an inch so steam can escape (I cover the lid handle with a towel and hold it on with my left hand while I shake the pan with my right). If you find your stove-top popcorn isn’t as crunchy as you’d like, it’s probably trapped steam making it soggy.
- Finally, have a tray ready dump your popcorn onto before you start. The popcorn should be poured out of the pot as soon as it’s done popping since the residual heat can still cause the sugar at the bottom of the pot to burn if left sitting.
You might also enjoy Brown Sugar Kettle Corn , The Best Snickerdoodles , and Cinnamon Sugar .
Ingredients
- ▢ 1 tablespoon coconut oil*
- ▢ 2 tablespoons unpopped popcorn
- ▢ 1 heaping tablespoon granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 2 tablespoons chopped white chocolate high-quality chips are fine
Instructions
- Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil (for easy clean up) and place on the counter.
- In a small bowl, stir together granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- To a large heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, add oil (if oil is in its solid state, melt over medium heat before proceeding) and 3 kernels of popcorn. Cover and heat over medium-high heat (medium if your stove runs hot) until you hear all 3 kernels pop.
- Add the rest of your popcorn and shake pan for about 5 seconds to coat the kernels. Sprinkle sugar mixture over the popcorn as evenly as you can. Cover and shake for 3 seconds, rest for 3 seconds, repeat, until popcorn begins to pop steadily.
- Once that starts, shake pan mostly continuously, pausing occasionally to listen for breaks in popping. Once there is about a 2-second break between pops, pull from heat. Transfer popcorn immediately to your prepared baking sheet.
- In a small bowl in your microwave, heat white chocolate for 30 seconds and stir until smooth. If necessary, continue to heat in 15-second bursts and stir, until smooth.
- Drizzle over popcorn–for the most even distribution, you can transfer the mixture to a plastic bag, snip off an edge and “pipe” the chocolate on. Allow chocolate 10 to 15 minutes to set, transfer to a bowl and enjoy. (Keep an eye out for unpopped kernels as you eat!)
Notes
This Small-batch Chocolate Mini M&M Cookies recipe makes a half dozen perfect chocolate cookies.
How do you feel about back-of-the-box recipes? You know, the recipes that come printed on food packaging. Do you ever make any of them?
We were devoted users of the Nestlé back-of-the-bag chocolate chip cookie recipe in my house growing up, and as you might remember, my Sharp Cheddar and Broccoli Chowder was adapted from the recipe on a butter box pulled out of my recycling bin. So I’m all for trying these recipes because sometimes they turn out to be great .
A couple of years ago, I pulled out a bag of mini M&M’s to make cookies (don’t you think that mini M&M’s make better cookies than full size? I don’t know why, but they do!) and found a recipe for CHOCOLATE M&M cookies printed on the bag. I gave it a try, and long story short, they instantly earned a spot on my favorite chocolate cookies list.
Since you know I love small-batch cookie recipes (have you tried my No-chill Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies or Small-batch Buckeye Brownie Cookies ?), I adapted that original recipe to make just six cookies.
And the great thing about this recipe is you can make it with just a couple tubes of mini M&Ms, which is so good for me because I’m incapable of keeping a bag of M&Ms in my kitchen without eating them by the handful.
These Chocolate Mini M&M Cookies are a little soft, a little chewy, plenty chocolatey, but not so rich you couldn’t get away with eating a second one.
Next time you’re standing in the grocery store checkout lane next to the candy bars, you should totally grab a couple tubes of mini M&Ms, come home and make some of these cookies! 🙂
Ingredients
- ▢ 1/2 cup 1 tablespoon ( 68g ) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 2 teaspoons natural cocoa powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 4 tablespoons ( 2oz ) unsalted butter very soft*
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 13g ) brown sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg yolk
- ▢ 1 teaspoon milk
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1/2 cup mini M&M’s or chocolate chips or ( 2 1-ounce mini M&M tubes)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Whisk in egg yolk, milk, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in M&Ms or chocolate chips.
- Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour, up to 24.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Divide the dough into 6 rounded mounds on the baking sheet and bake for 9 to 12 minutes, until centers just look set.
- Cool cookies on the baking tray and enjoy!
Notes
This Easy Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two looks and tastes great but couldn’t be easier to throw together.
I feel like it’s been a long time since I last posted a creamy, cheesy pasta recipe. I looked back in the archives and my last was my Bacon Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese , four months ago, and my Mac and Cheese for One months before that. That’s too long!
So today, Easy Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two With Oven-Roasted Tomatoes.
You should make this pasta for dinner tonight. It’s really good.
Like, really, really good.
Also really easy.
Like, really, really easy.
This is my very favorite sort of dish, the sort that looks and tastes so good that the world is going to be convinced you have your life together, but really it’s faster and more delicious than getting takeout delivered.
How to Make Pesto Chicken Pasta
Here’s the process: slice a cup of cherry tomatoes in half. Use this method; it will take you 30 seconds. Then you mince a clove of garlic, 30 more seconds. Chop up a chicken breast–it doesn’t have to be pretty, and you can do it on the same cutting board as the garlic because they’re going to be cooking together in a minute anyway. You have now finished all the cutting there is to do.
Then you roast your tomatoes while you boil your pasta, and you boil your pasta while you cook your chicken and sauce. Stir everything together in the end, and done! 20 minutes, and now you are tucking into a fab pesto chicken pasta for two. You’re welcome. 😉
More Easy Pasta Dishes
- Creamy Sausage Pasta
- Chicken Francaise
- Baked Ziti
- Buttered Noodles
- Fettuccine Alfredo for One
Pesto Chicken Pasta Recipe Notes
- As written, this Pesto Chicken Pasta recipe serves 2. To change the recipe yield, hover over the number of servings in the recipe card (or click if you are on mobile) and slide the slider–no cooking changes are needed.
- If you have leftover pesto after making this recipe, check out my post What to Do With Leftover Pesto for ideas for using up the rest. And for leftover half and half: What to Do With Leftover Half and Half .
Ingredients
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- ▢ 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- ▢ 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Pasta
- ▢ 4 ounces ( 1 1/3 cup) penne pasta
- ▢ 8 ounces (about 1 small) boneless skinless chicken breast cubed
- ▢ 1 clove garlic minced
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- ▢ 1/2 cup half and half
- ▢ 2 tablespoons pesto
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 1oz ) shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
Instructions
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease. Toss cherry tomato halves with olive oil and spread out in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until nicely roasted.
Pasta
- Once your tomatoes go into the oven, bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions and set aside.
- While your pasta is cooking, lightly grease a medium skillet with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add chicken, garlic, salt, and pepper and cook until the chicken is well-browned.
- Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, until thick and saucy and chicken is cooked through. Stir in drained pasta and then gently stir in roasted tomatoes. Top with additional Parmesan cheese if desired, serve and enjoy!
Adapted from Buzzfeed
Easy Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two With Oven Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Pasta
- 4 ounces ( 1 1/3 cup) penne pasta
- 8 ounces (about 1 small) boneless skinless chicken breast cubed
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 2 tablespoons pesto
- 1/4 cup ( 1oz ) shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
Instructions
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease. Toss cherry tomato halves with olive oil and spread out in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until nicely roasted.
Pasta
- Once your tomatoes go into the oven, bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions and set aside.
- While your pasta is cooking, lightly grease a medium skillet with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add chicken, garlic, salt, and pepper and cook until the chicken is well-browned.
- Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, until thick and saucy and chicken is cooked through. Stir in drained pasta and then gently stir in roasted tomatoes. Top with additional Parmesan cheese if desired, serve and enjoy!
