Baked Pesto Chicken Parmesan takes minutes to prep and just 30 minutes to bake. This comforting, flavorful chicken dinner is a winner!
Got a case of the Mondays, aka busy busy and no time to think nor prep ahead for dinner?
I’ve got you covered with Baked Pesto Chicken Parmesan!
This simple yet flavor-packed chicken dinner requires just 4 ingredients, 5 minutes of prep work, and 30 minutes of baking time. It’s a busy weeknight dinner dream come true!
Cheesy Pesto Baked Chicken Thighs
Baked Pesto Chicken Parmesan is boneless, skinless chicken thighs tossed in prepared pesto, topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, then baked. So unbelievably simple! Like I said, five minutes to prep then 30 minutes to bake.
If you need a quick and flavorful dinner idea – this is your recipe.
Start with trimmed, boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8 thighs) seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper.
Boneless skinless thighs are not only less expensive than chicken breasts but they’re incredibly tender and juicy — especially when baked.
Place the seasoned thighs into the bottom of a 8×8 or 9×12 baking dish then add prepared pesto and turn to coat with your hands.
You can absolutely use your own fresh pesto though, in the spirit of keeping this meal extremely quick and easy, jarred pesto works great.
Next spread marinara sauce over the thighs then top with sliced fresh mozzarella. Shredded mozzarella is fine too.
Cover the baking dish tightly with foil then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove the foil then cook for 10 more minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly, and the chicken is cooked through. That’s it…dinner is served!
You will adore how tender the chicken is, and how delicious each bite of pesto mixed with marinara and mozzarella cheese is. Pure, easy comfort food — enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, about 8
- salt and pepper
- 1/3 cup prepared pesto
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper then add to a 8x8" or 9x12" baking dish. Add pesto then use hands to evenly coat.
- Spoon marinara sauce over top of thighs followed by mozzarella cheese then cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil then bake for 10 more minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and cheese is golden brown and bubbly.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
I made this tonight with chicken tenders as opposed to thighs because it’s what I had on hand. It was delicious and so easy! Thanks for the flavorful, quick weeknight recipe!!
This was really good. Only wish that my one pound of chicken thighs had 8 (only 4) and that I had made pasta to go with it. Seems like a waste for all that amazing pesto/marinara sauce sitting in the pan!!
The thing I don’t like about chicken thighs is how greasy they always are and then the whole dish seems to be swimming in grease. Ugh. I keep trying them but I just can’t love chicken thighs. I don’t know if you are an Aldi girl, but I have been shopping there for the last year and have been pleasantly surprised by some things. There are definitely some things I can’t get there, but they have all the basics at super cheap prices, which I like, and they have some good fun stuff. They have some fun pastas, and they have a pesto and sun dried tomato pesto that are so good. My picky child loves the sun dried tomato pesto, and it is about $2 a jar which is a great price.
I’m with you on the chicken thighs…especially because the Classico pesto is oily; yet, very tasty!
I love this dish with Empire brand boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Costco, Classico pesto, Classico four cheese marinara, and fresh mozzarella. Everyone in my house liked this better than fried/breaded chicken park. Thank you!
parm not park!!
Thank you for the recipe. Will try it this week and see if I can figure out how to prep it for camping. We meet up with family and everyone takes a turn fixing dinner for the group. It looks amazing and would be an easy dinner to do.
I want to stuff this in my face.
Yum! I made this tonight for dinner. We both loved it, a true hit! It’s an easy but, super tasty weeknight recipe. I love the flavor the pesto adds. Thanks so much,
This is my first time posting a comment but I just want to tell you how much I love your blog. I try almost all of your recipes (last week was the power protein salad) and all of them have been a hit. My husband also loves all your recipes and usually all I have to tell him is it’s iowagirleats and then he knows he’s going to like it. Thank you for all the great food and great stories!
Love to hear that, Tiffany! :)
We use chicken thighs all the time. Like you said, they’re a fraction of the price, nice and juice, and just the right size for easy portion control. Although, I think I’d have to have seconds of this tasty dish!
Looks terrific, can’t wait to try! I wanted to mention, I’ve taken a package of bone-in, with skin, chicken thighs to the meat counter and asked them to debone the chicken many times. They’ve always been great about doing so and don’t charge for it either. I’ll usually drop it off and continue shopping, then swing back by before checkout.
Good tip!
Definitely going to have to make this! I will have to try my hand at your homemade pesto. I am all about the homemade stuff these days. As much as possible, anyway.:) xo
Looks yummy! Can I ask about how you do those potato logs? So simple I’m sure but something different to feed the fam.
Thanks!
There’s instructions above the last photo in the post, but detailed photos here! https://iowagirleats.com/2013/02/24/parmesan-garlic-chicken-with-roasted-potato-wedges/
Thank you so much for admitting to your chicken thigh phobia. I have one too and it’s good to know that I can overcome this ;).
Seriously though, if you didn’t write about being not so excited about chicken thighs in the past I totally would have just used chicken breasts. I’m going to use the thighs and see how it goes.
Your blog is really just so awesome. I made your BBQ chicken sammies for our sandwich themed supper club last week and they went over very well.
So glad to hear! :)
Um…where’s the parmesan?
Shouldn’t it be baked pesto chicken mozzarella?
Usually chicken parmesan is made with breaded chicken with a parmesan breadcrumb mixture, topped with marinara and mozzarella. Instead she used pesto which has parmesan cheese in it.
Chicken Parmesan just means meat (usually breaded and fried) layered with sauce and cheese – not necessarily Parmesan.
I was wondering the same thing and why there isn’t any Parmesan in the recipe. I think the cooking style (breaded, fried) you referred to is “Parmigiana” (wiki-ed it), which originates from Parma, Italy. Chicken Parmesan on the other hand is an American cooking style and *should* have Parmesan in it