Pesto Mushroom Chicken (Recipe 149 of 150)

Photo from The Girl who
Ate Everything

Pesto!  MMMM. A friend and colleague moved to another state over the summer. In their attempt to get rid of food they had been hoarding, he asked if I wanted to take some of their pantry and freezer food. Of course I did. So I went over to his house and walked out with several grocery bags of really useful food. In those bags were three...count them THREE...jars of Kirkland brand Pesto (Costco's brand). He had frozen them so they'd keep. I, in turn, dumped them in my freezer. 

Since I've been trying to eat through my freezer I pulled out a jar last week for another recipe. And, well, since it's out, I gotta use it up. 

Enter this recipe. I searched my recipe list for "pesto" and came up with several. This one looked the simplest and sounded yummy. 

And it was yummy. The only thing I didn't do was put the provolone cheese over the chicken. I didn't have provolone so I used mozzarella instead and I think it was WAY better. 

I served this with a side of spaghetti noodles drenched in pesto. 

Pesto Mushroom Chicken

Recipe from The-girl-who-ate-everything.com

Serves 6

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 c butter , melted
• 1/2 c Italian breadcrumbs (or regular)
• 1/4 c prepared basil pesto
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
• 6 slices provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Brush chicken with butter and coat completely with bread crumbs.

Place chicken in baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

While chicken is baking heat olive oil in a skillet and sauté mushrooms until they give up their juice.

After 20 minutes of baking, spoon pesto sauce evenly over chicken breasts and top with mushrooms.

Cover each breast with a slice of provolone cheese and bake in the oven for an additional 10-20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Serve with a side of pasta tossed in additional pesto if desired.