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Chicken Pesto Pasta with Mushrooms is pure comfort food and an easy-to-make family friendly dinner! Perfect any time of the year but especially during the Summer, when fresh basil abounds. The delicious creamy pesto sauce is made with milk, basil pesto, red pepper flakes.
I love pesto, and cook a lot with it in the Summer. I've been making this chicken pesto pasta for years, and only now finally posting the recipe on my blog. It combines some of my most favorite flavors: basil pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh basil, red pepper flakes. And, the whole recipe takes only 30 minutes from start to finish. Perfect amount of time since you want to spend most of the time in the Summer outdoors and not cooking, right?
Types of pasta to use with creamy pesto sauce
- I use penne because pesto sauce covers more surface with short pasta like penne.
- Long strands of spaghetti pasta are also perfectly suited for a creamy and oily sauce like basil pesto sauce.
- Angel hair pasta is an excellent choice for this sauce, as thin noodles will be perfectly smothered with this creamy pasta sauce.
How to make basil pesto from scratch
There are lots of great recipes for homemade basil pesto, and below are my favorites from trusted sources:
- This beautifully green basil pesto is everything that a pesto should be: pine nuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.
- Another classic recipe is this fresh basil pesto.
- And this recipe for homemade pesto is amazing!
- There is always option #4 - purchase a pre-made basil pesto in the store!
How long can you store basil pesto
- Store freshly-made pesto in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 1 week. Add a thin layer of olive oil on top of the surface of basil pesto - this will help prevent the pesto from turning brown.
- You can freeze fresh basil pesto for up to 3 months. It freezes really well.
Can you freeze basil pesto?
For long term storage, use ice cube trays. Fill clean ice cube tray with basil pesto. Allow the basil pesto to freeze. Release basil pesto "ice cubes" from the ice cube tray. Add basil pesto "ice cubes" into small baggies and keep them frozen for up to 3 months. This way, when it's time to use pesto in a recipe, you don't have to thaw a whole container of basil pesto. Just take an ice cube or two and use them for your recipe.
How to defrost pesto
- Allow frozen pesto to sit at room temperature for about an hour or until it's completely thawed.
- Place frozen basil pesto in the refrigerator in an air-tight container overnight so that it gets defrosted.
- If you use basil pesto in the sauce, like in this recipe, you can just add basil pesto "ice cube" directly to the sauce and stir on medium heat, allowing the heat to defrost the pesto.
I use skinless and boneless chicken thighs in this recipe and highly recommend you do too! They are so flavorful, moist, easy to chop and perfect for this kind of recipe.
How to make chicken pesto pasta:
Below are some step-by-step photos and instructions demonstrating the key steps for how to make this delicious pasta dish.
First, heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken (chopped up) with sun-dried tomatoes (chopped into smaller bites) to the skillet, sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Saute for about 1 minute on medium heat.
Next, add sliced mushrooms (add another 1 tablespoon olive oil if needed):
and saute for about 2 more minutes (or a little bit more), until chicken is cooked through and mushrooms are softened:
Then, add garlic, pesto, milk, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to boil, immediately reduce to simmer and simmer, stirring until everything is well combined. Remove from heat. Taste, and add more salt, if needed.
Finally, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain. Add cooked pasta to the sauce, reheat.
Top with chopped fresh basil.
Other chicken pasta recipes featuring basil:
Tomato Spinach Chicken Spaghetti with Basil
Chicken and Zucchini Tortellini with Basil Pesto Sauce
Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Sauce
Chicken Pesto Pasta with Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ lb chicken thighs , boneless, skinless, chopped
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes , drained of most oil, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 oz mushrooms , sliced
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- ½ cup basil pesto
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt and more
- 8 ounces penne pasta (use gluten free for gluten free version)
- fresh basil chopped
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken (chopped up) with sun-dried tomatoes (chopped into smaller bites) to the skillet, sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Saute for about 1 minute on medium heat.
- Add sliced mushrooms (add another 1 tablespoon olive oil if needed) and saute for about 2 more minutes (or a little bit more), until chicken is cooked through and mushrooms are softened.
- Add garlic, basil pesto, milk, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to boil, immediately reduce to simmer and simmer, stirring until everything is well combined. Remove from heat. Taste, and add more salt, if needed.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain. Add cooked pasta to the sauce, reheat.
- Top with chopped fresh basil.
- Want to make basil pesto from scratch? Here is a super flavorful and creamy 20-Minute Homemade Basil Pesto Recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This recipe was originally published on June 14, 2016 and republished with updates, cooking tips in May 2018.
Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe. I tweaked mine a bit by adding mozzarella cheese and onions
Mozzarella cheese and onions sound like a great addition!
I made this tonight, it was super fast to make, looked good and tasted amazing!!!
Loved it! I always add some wine when frying chicken but other than that i followed the recipe to the letter. Thank you so much!!!!
Adding wine is wonderful!
That sounds great. What's the best wine to use?
This is a fantastic Chicken dish! Easy and quick to make with ingredients that I have in my pantry. One thing I really liked about it was it is creamy without using cheese. I sent this recipe via Pinterest to all my friends! I will be making this again.
What can I use instead of pesto?
Highly allergic .
1/4 lb chicken that serves 4?????
What can I use to thicken the sauce? It is very watery.
Hi I made the above recipe once exactly as shown and my sauce was watery as well. The second time i made it i used fresh tomatoes which generated more liquid so instead of boiling my pasta separately i simmered it in the sauce until it was tender. You can always add more milk while the pasta is cooking in the sauce is it become dry.
I used chicken broth with cornstarch-it was perfect- I didn't use any milk
What would be a good nondairy substitute for the milk? Thanks!
coconut milk has been my go-to for substituting. It has worked beautifully in every recipe I have tried... I am going to try it in this one as well.
I used chicken broth with cornstarch
Horrible recipe!!! too much pesto
Made this for dinner tonight- my husband and I loved it! I switched out the tomatoes for roasted red peppers and topped it with grated Parmesan cheese. So good! Thanks for a great recipe! 🙂
Red pepper flakes cant find can i use fresh capsicum
Do you have a recipe for the basil pesto?
This pasta looks so good and I am going to make it on next weekend. I think fresh pesto will make it more flavorful so I'll make some fresh pesto first which I can use for some other recipes too. Anyways I like chicken with mushroom kind of my favorite pizza topping so this is also nice way to incorporate my favorite ingredients in a nice pasta dish.
In the chicken , mushroom and sun-dried tomatoes and pasta recipe , what sort of pesto is used in it ?
It's basil pesto - I updated the ingredient list to make it more clear. 🙂
Hey, what kind of milk do you recommend?
This looks yummy. I am going to make this recipe this week for the kids.
This pasta looks delicious, Julia! Love easy and quick recipes, can't believe the dish takes just 30 mins to make! 🙂
Thank you, Jess!