Pesto Chicken, Tortellini, and Veggies – healthy, easy-to-make Mediterranean-style dinner that is good for you and it tastes like comfort food!
This recipe uses 2 of my favorite ingredients: basil pesto and tortellini – and you can buy both in most grocery stores. Which makes this recipe a great and healthy choice for a weeknight dinner, when you don’t have that much time to cook. Just buy some tortellini and pesto (plus chicken and veggies) in the store, and quickly make this pesto chicken tortellini with veggies.
This easy chicken recipe is packed with colorful vegetables: red and yellow grape tomatoes, asparagus, and sun-dried tomatoes, combined with the delicious cheese tortellini. Everything is generously smothered with basil pesto and olive oil. I love how well-balanced this dish turned out to be thanks to the combination of the veggies, healthy oils (olive oil and basil pesto), protein (chicken), and a moderate amount of carbs (tortellini).
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Everything is cooked in one pan – which means quick and easy clean up after you’re done eating this deliciousness!
Next time you see tortellini and basil pesto on the shelves of your local grocery store, be sure to keep this recipe in mind!
Mediterranean style dinner packed with colorful vegetables: red and yellow grape tomatoes, asparagus, and sun-dried tomatoes. All these veggies are combined with the delicious cheese tortellini and generously smothered with basil pesto and olive oil.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb chicken thighs boneless and skinless, sliced into strips
- salt
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained of oil, chopped
- 1 lb asparagus ends trimmed, cut in half
- 1/4 cup basil pesto or use more
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes yellow and red, halved
- 1 cup tortellini uncooked
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, add sliced chicken thighs, season chicken generously with salt, add half of chopped sun-dried tomatoes - and cook everything on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, flipping a couple of times, until the chicken is completely cooked through.
- Remove the chicken and sun-dried from the skillet, leaving the oil in.
- Add asparagus (ends trimmed), seasoned generously with salt, remaining half of sun-dried tomatoes, and cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the asparagus is cooked through. Remove the asparagus to a serving plate.
- Cook tortellini according to the package instructions, drain.
- Add chicken back to the skillet, add pesto, stir to coat on low-medium heat until the chicken is reheated, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tortellini, halved cherry tomatoes, mix with the pesto and the chicken. Add more pesto if desired. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Add chicken and tomatoes and tortellini to the serving plate with asparagus.
I’m thinking of trying this in the next couple days. It looks absolutely delicious. Wish me luck!!!
I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂
Not sure how you can consider this “healthy” with 52% total daily fat and 41% daily total of cholesterol.
Not to mention all of the “generously add salt” to everything. I’ll probably try something LIKE this, but with some alterations to actually make it “healthy”. She needs to remove “healthy” from her description or alter her recipe so her readers are actually making something good for their families.
I have made this for several dinner parties with homemade pesto and it is a big hit. I like that lots of prep can be done ahead. (I have already chopped the chicken and wrapped it, made my pesto and chopped the dried tomatoes for a dinner tomorrow night.) When I have not had good asparagus available I have subbed fresh green beans. Great recipe!
Thank you, Mary! So glad you’ve been enjoying this recipe! Homemade pesto sounds delicious – I used to make my own homemade pesto all the time, which is how I fell in love with using pesto with pasta. And, yes, green beans taste amazing in this recipe in place of asparagus.
My family doesn’t care for asparagus, is there a substitute you would recommend?
Try zucchini.
Just made this dish for a group of 5, cooked everything seperate to speed up cook time, chicken/sun dried tomatos tortellini on the go boiling and asperigus in a seperate pan. I had a few helpers chopping tomatoes and asperigus while I made the pesto. This took 25 minutes from start (with frozen chicken) to sitting down eating. It was AMAZING!! We ate every last crumb, thank u!!
You’re very welcome! Sounds like you were quite efficient with your cooking strategy! 🙂 So glad you liked it and thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment!
I made this tonight! It was a HUGE hit with my picky eaters!! I have a very small kitchen so I love the fact that I can keep reusing the same pan!
Thank you!!
You’re very welcome! So glad your family enjoyed it!
This is delicious! It was a big hit with my family. Once the asparagus was doneI just added back the chicken, cooked tortellini, and remaining ingredients to the pan to finish it.
Thank you, Jennifer, for stopping by and leaving a comment. I am glad your family enjoyed the recipe!
Winner winner chicken dinner. My family and I absolutely LOVE this dish.
So happy to hear this! 🙂