Crockpot Garlic Pesto Chicken is a wonderful restaurant quality meal that you can easily prepare at home using your slow cooker!
I love pesto pasta chicken and have never made a dish like this in the crockpot. So glad I tried this! Super easy and so delicious. I made the chicken in the crockpot during the day and then made the sauce while the pasta was cooking just before dinner!
We included this meal in our 40 Meals in 4 hours. It’s a fantastic freezer meal – and you know we LOVE our Freezer meals at Who Needs a Cape? Dinner made easy is my kind of dinner. Dinner with yummy chicken and pesto? Easy? Yup we LOVE LOVE LOVE Crockpot Garlic Pesto Chicken. It’s definitely on our rotation whether we have it frozen or whether we put it together fresh – either way it’s a must have!
I think I’ve talked about it before, but my husband’s favorite dinner is chicken. Any kind of chicken makes him happy, but I can’t eat the same chicken dinner every single day! (ps my husband totally could). So I like having recipes like Crockpot Garlic Pesto Chicken because it’s not your typical chicken dinner – it let’s me change up the weekly menu a bit! I need that! I need change in the rotation 🙂
Do you want some more ideas of how to change up the chicken dinner in your house? I have them ready for you!
Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese
Adapted from: [Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Cream Penne|http://cdargis.tumblr.com/post/18818836004/garlic-pesto-chicken-with-tomato-cream-penne]
Crockpot Garlic Pesto Chicken with Pasta in a Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients
For the Chicken
For the Sauce
Instructions
For the Chicken
For the Sauce
Great flavours in this beautiful pasta dish! Thank you for linking it to Simple Supper Tuesday
Visiting from Simple Supper Tuesday. This sounds really good!
Was wondering what happened to the skillet version of this. I am marinating the chicken right one for this recipe and came onto the site for a read thru and the recipe has changed in the last few days! Please replay the original! It looked awesome!
Hey Kirsten! There is a link at the top of the recipe now! I forgot to link back! Thanks for letting me know… Enjoy.
Any ideas on what to use instead of the bottled marinade? Also… Considering Alfredo sauce instead of tomato and cream… Thoughts?
Hello! I was getting a shopping list ready for this recipe to do as a freezer meal and I’m a bit confused on the pesto part. Total there is 6 T of pesto in the recipe? That seems like a lot. Is it a type-o and I’m only supposed to put it in the ‘For the Chicken’/Freezer half or just in the ‘For the sauce’/Prepare day of half? Could you clear this up for me? Thanks! Looking forward to trying this one 🙂
No, not a typo. The marinade has 3T and the sauce has 3T. Sorry for the delay, family in town this past week. I hope you enjoy it!
When you say 3T does the T refer to tsp. or tbsp.? Thank you!
T = Tablespoon
T= tbsp, t= tsp
Do you make your own pesto or do you use store bought? If store bought what brand? Never cooked with pesto before
Very delicious! Used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream to help with calories/fat and sauteed onions & fresh parsley with the sauce.
Curious about how to make this a freezer meal. Do I throw the “chicken” part of the recipe in a bag and throw that in the freezer, then just defrost and throw in the crock pot? If so, doesn’t the lemon juice in the marinade start cooking the chicken or is that process stopped b/c it goes right in the freezer? Thanks! I’m eager to make 40 meals!!
I too was wondering this, then I went back and read the post by Bevin above the recipe. Then I felt silly.According to Bevin, we make the “chicken” part for the freezer (then take out the night before we want it, let it defrost in the fridge, pop it in the crockpot in the morning, go about our day), then prepare the “sauce” in the evening.
If I find that it doesn’t work for our busy nights, I may try preparing the sauce and noodles, freezing them, and then either nuke them or throw them in the crockpot an hour before the meal is ready.
Hugs
Only issue I see with that Tera – is that sometimes noodles don’t freeze great 🙂 that is why Bevin suggested making them fresh 😉
Good Luck!
Haven’t tried this yet. Sounds good and simple though. I agree with another comment that the picture doesn’t do it justice. Needs some color to break up the yellow. How bout spinach, kale or even peas? Just a thought. Suggestions?
The photo was taken the first time the recipe was made in poor lighting at that (late afternoon a bit too direct). I think kale or spinach added at the end would be a wonderful addition. I like sauteing up some fresh zucchini to toss in with it.
Can you use the skillet version for the crockpot or should one use the crockpot recipe you listed above? I was wondering because I thought maybe if I used the skillet version for the crockpot I could less pesto/oil and herb and garlic marinade to get 2 batches out of it (one for tomorrow and one for the freezer). 🙂
If not, that is okay. I thought maybe the crockpot version needed more oil, pesto and marinade because it would be cooking all day. Thx for sharing!
You are welcome to cook it either way. I prefer the skillet myself. 🙂
This was yummy! Thank you! I only used a packet of pesto which was just over 3T and the flavor was good for me. Also didn’t marinate, just threw the chicken in the crock with some seasoning and lemon juice. Turned out pretty good.
The pasta with this dish was delicious…almost like a penne vodka, but more flavorful. We had lots of left over chicken, so we used it to make a chicken salad. Best chicken salad EVER!!
This recipe was delicious!! Entire family loved it! Even my picky 5 and 3 yr olds! My daughter said she wanted to do a back flip! Haha
What would you say the serving size is of this recipe? Needing to feed
Total of 6 adults.
I think you could feed 6 with this if there were a couple of younger children.
I’m looking for the freeze ahead version of this! I made it, oh, a year ago, and can’t find this recipe again ANYWHERE! (It was half freeze ahead, half skillet version). If you happen to know where the link to that went, please, please, please send it my way. My family said it was the best meal they had EVER eaten.
This is part of a freezer meal and could easily be made into a skillet meal instead of slow cooker meal. The original link is no longer working, so I can’t direct you to the page we modified the recipe from.
How many servings does this make?
This made enough for my family of 4 for 2 nights. My two kids are younger school-age.
Hello this recipe sounds great i just have a few questions! When you put “T” are you talking about tablespoons or teaspoons. Also should i marinade overnight before i freeze it? Also since the sauce and meat and pasta are prepared seperately is the only thing that gets frozen the chicken?
Hi Becca,
Only marinade overnight if you are cooking fresh the next day, otherwise you can just toss it in the freezer. The chicken would be the only thing that gets frozen unless you want to make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it separately and just thaw and heat for the meal. I hope this answered your question(s)! Let us know how you liked it.
Hi Bevin,
I am researching all your recipes in preparation for making the 40 Meals in 4 Hours for my daughter and son-in-law when their first child is born. I’m very excited but have a question- I just read your September 13, 2015 post that indicates you and make the sauce separate from the chicken in order to freeze them (separately) but I wondered if you add all the liquid (cream and broth) and freeze or do you add when ready to cook the meal? In particular I worry how the cream will unthaw and was curious if you had tried it before. Thanks.
Not Bevin – 🙂 But I never had a problem with how the cream thawed – however – I am NOT fussy with stuff like this. If you are 😉 then yes don’t freeze it – just add it the morning you are cooking 🙂