Baked chicken slathered in pesto and lemon zest
Posted in Food, Main Course, Poultry, Recipes on September 8th, 2009 by monicajaneWandering Coyote gave me the idea of basil and lemon for flavoring chicken yesterday.
I had some chicken breasts in the freezer which I took out yesterday and I decided to modify the recipe WC had because I needed to make another huge batch of pesto today, just like I did here.
So today once the pesto was complete I took out a couple two or 3 tablespoons before freezing the rest and added the zest of one large lemon and some lemon juice. Probably about 1 tbls of lemon. I mixed it up into a paste and smeared it all over the chicken. I added some fresh black ground pepper.
Stuck them in the oven and this is what emerged later:

I’m don’t think this picture can begin to suggest how delighted I was with the flavor of this chicken. The lemon zest in concert with the basil and garlic (and cheese and pine nuts!) was to die for. I have never used this flavor combination with chicken. And the pesto made a very good paste that stuck to the chicken so that the flavor was very rich. YUM! Thanks Wandering Coyote you just grew my chicken world!
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Sweet…I’m first
I love a roasted chicken and this looks wonderful. Can you imagine not liking chicken? It’s not too awfully expensive and you can do sooo much with chicken. So many possibilities.
yup…chicken is very versatile…I just visited your site and caught your Marsala..YUM!
Beautiful job!
I think I’m going to make a mushroom, thyme, lemon, goat cheese, & chicken pasta this week, inspired by your shiitake/chicken/goat cheese recipe!
yay…it’s like playing cooking ping pong…
Wowow this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing your recipe
uno di questi giorni provo a farlo – Mua` – papa`
That looks so pretty! When I bake pesto on chicken it always turns black
Tastes good, though!
hmmm…making it was the volume of pesto I put on it…lots of it??
I like charred chicken myself…nothing like grilled chicken that is blackened!! Of course it’s not good for you…