Easy Chicken Pesto Pasta

This is post nine in the series that started with the crockpot whole chicken. Just finding out about this great series? Start here to catch up.

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Here’s another one of my easy weeknight (or weekend) meals. I had a little of my crockpot whole chicken left and I was trying to figure out what to cook quickly Saturday night. I scanned my fridge and saw that I had a jar of pesto from Costco. I also had a pack of penne noodles and some cut up mushrooms from my last Imperfect Foods delivery. Voila – Easy supper idea that I knew the kids would love! Don’t have mushrooms? This dish would still be delicious without them.

Ingredients:
Cooked chicken, chopped (from your whole chicken)
1/2 cup of diced or sliced mushrooms
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup of pesto (more if you prefer)
1 lb package of your preferred pasta (I used penne, spaghetti and fettuccine noodles would work well too)

Steps:
1) Boil the noodles according to the directions on the package. While the noodles are boiling, cut up your chicken from the crockpot whole chicken. (I had about 3/4 of a chicken breast left, so that’s what we cut up into bite sized pieces).

2) Add extra virgin olive oil to a pot (about 1 Tbsp) at medium heat, then add chicken and mushrooms. Stir occasionally. This will warm up the chicken and cook the mushrooms.

3) When pasta is done, drain and set aside. Add pesto to the pot of chicken and mushrooms, stir well. Add pasta, mix well. Enjoy! It’s that simple.

This was not a planned recipe, by any means. It was simply an idea from the ingredients I already had on hand, but it was a complete success!! I avoided a trip to the grocery store, which saves me time and money. (#winwin) Plus, I really like to avoid food waste, and this meal did just that for us this week. How can you creatively use what’s left in your fridge to feed your family this week?