Pesto Chicken Recipe

Pesto sauce is suitable for many dishes such as grilled chicken, scallops, brochettes, fish, tomatoes salads or fried vegetables. This recipe will show you how to use pesto sauce for other dishes than just pasta, using a Pesto chicken as an example.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (about some 4 ½ lbs)
4 ½ lbs potatoes
1 lemon
1 teaspoon of Rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Paprika powder
Nutmeg

For the sauce you will need:
1-2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste
a cup of fresh basil
3 tablespoons of grated parmesan
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of pine nuts

Directions

First of all, while boiling the potatoes (add the lemon to the potatoes while boiling – this will contribute to a fresh flavor), start preparing the chicken: Wash it and make sure that it is ready for getting stuffed. Slather it with some olive oil, now season the chicken with some salt and pepper, (sweet) paprika powder and a little bit of nutmeg. Season the chicken also with some rosemary, just a little bit will do it. Do this also from the inside.

Wait until the potatoes are ready. They should not be overdone – try it from time to time with a fork. If the fork enters easily, but the potatoes still stick rather than break apart, they are ready for our purpose. Now drain them, take the lemon and put it into the chicken.

Now bake the chicken for about 20 – 30 minutes in the preheated oven at some 400 degrees F (about 200 degrees Celsius), then, add the potatoes let them bake with the chicken for another 20 – 30 minutes. Check every now and then, and if it is the case, add half a cup of water into the casserole, so that the chicken and the potatoes will not dry too much.

Meanwhile you can prepare the pesto sauce. Crush the basil leaves using a mortar and pestle (you might use also a blender), add step by step the crushed garlic, pine nuts and salt and pepper to taste.

Give the paste into a bowl, add the olive oil and parmesan (another grated hard cheese might do it) and continue to mix until the sauce is getting creamy.

After the chicken is baked, put the pesto on it and serve it with potatoes, green salad with lemon juice.

Tips

Usually, we recommend some kind of wine, but there are restaurants that serve this dish with a beer, so enjoy it!