Have you discovered Pesto Chicken?! These chicken pesto roll ups are stuffed with cheese, juicy tomatoes and pesto sauce! This pesto chicken tastes like fine dining with Tuscan flavors but they are so easy to make.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This is my sister, Svetlana’s pesto chicken recipe. She sent me a photo of her dinner last week and I set out to recreate it right away. My Mother (who was trained in the culinary arts), was particularly smitten with this recipe. Mom’s rave reviews are especially valuable to me. 🙂
Chicken Pesto Roll Ups Recipe:
These chicken roll ups are simple enough for weeknight cooking but are also special occasion worthy!
Ingredients for Pesto Chicken Roll Ups:
The list of ingredients in this pesto chicken is short and uncomplicated: Chicken, simple seasoning, shredded mozzarella and tomatoes. P.S. We fell in love with homemade pesto sauce but the one from Costco also works really well.
How to Make Chicken Pesto Roll-Ups:
1. Preheat oven to 425˚F. Cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise so you have 8 thin chicken cutlets. Pound each cutlet in a quart sized ziploc bag or between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to 1/8″ thick. Season both sides of your thin cutlets with garlic salt and black pepper.
2. Spoon and spread 1 Tbsp pesto in the center of each cutlet, top with 2 thin slices of tomato and sprinkle with 2-3 Tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese. Roll the chicken up as tightly as you can and seal ends with a toothpick.
3. Preheat a large oven-safe skillet over medium/high heat with 1 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp butter. Add chicken roll-ups and sear on both sides until golden (4 min per side for a total of 8 minutes on the stove).
4. Sprinkle tops with remaining cheese and scatter 1 cup of baby tomatoes over the top. Place the oven-safe skillet on the center rack of your preheated oven and bake 425˚F for 13-15 minutes (13 minutes for these medium chicken breasts and 15 minutes for larger chicken breasts, or until internal temperature of chicken reaches 160˚F on an instant-read thermometer.
To serve, remove toothpicks then plate chicken pesto roll ups, spooning pan juices and roasted tomatoes over the top and garnish with freshly chopped basil. Serve with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus for a fancy (but simple) dinner!
Watch How to Make Chicken Pesto Roll Ups:
Is your mouth watering yet??
⬇Print-Friendly Chicken Pesto Roll-Ups Recipe:
Chicken Pesto Roll-Ups (VIDEO)

Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts, (4 medium/large chicken breasts)
- 1 tsp Garlic Salt, (or to taste)
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, (or to taste)
- 1/2 cup Pesto sauce, (about 8 Tbsp total)
- 8 oz Mozzarella cheese, shredded,, (reserve 2 oz for topping)
- 2 tomatoes (medium), thinly sliced into 16 rings
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, optional
- 1 Tbsp Fresh basil leaves, shredded, optional garnish
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425˚F. Cut chicken breast in half lengthwise so you have 8 thin chicken cutlets. Pound each cutlet in a quart sized ziploc bag or between 2 sheets of plastic wrap into 1/8" thick cutlets. Season both sides of chicken with garlic salt and black pepper.
- Spoon and spread 1 Tbsp pesto in the center of each cutlet, top with 2 thin tomato slices and sprinkle with 2-3 Tbsp mozzarella cheese. Roll the chicken up tightly and seal ends with a toothpick.
- Preheat large oven-safe skillet over medium/high heat with 1 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp butter. Add chicken roll-ups and sear on both sides until golden (4 min per side or 8 minutes total on the stove).
- Sprinkle tops with remaining cheese and 1 cup of cherry tomatoes. Place the skillet on the center rack of oven and bake 425˚F for 13-15 minutes (13 min for these these medium chicken breasts and 15 min for larger chicken breasts, or until internal temp of chicken reaches 160˚F on instant-read thermometer.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Q: Have you tried Pesto Chicken?
P.S. These chicken pesto roll ups reheat really well if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers! I hope you and your family love these easy, excellent chicken pesto roll-ups.
If you love chicken, check out this popular one-pan Chicken Madeira and all of our favorite chicken recipes HERE.
Lilia,
I’m so very impressed with your ingenuity…it inspires me to expand my horizons! But I must admit that Natasha’s original recipe is pretty hard to beat!!!
Stay cool,
Don
Hi! Just thought you might want to fix a couple grammatical errors…
You have “re’creat” for ‘recreate’, and particular should say particularly 😊
Oh dear, I must have been half asleep or something. That’s a whole lot of typos in one section! Thank you so much for pointing that out! Fixed 🙂
I love this recipe! Started making it but realized my pesto in fridge was expired 😡 so I made it with some fresh chimichurri I had left over from the night before. I also did not have cherry tomatoes so chopped up some fresh orange and red pepper with onion and threw on top. Thank you so much for this great recipe as well as all your others!
You’re welcome Lilia! I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
can you add the nutritional value for this recipe
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Marion!
Made this last night and it was AMAZING and SO EASY! I did tweak two small things. I do not like fresh tomatoes so I used sun dried tomatoes inside the chicken and it was so good. Also from another reviewer I added Prosciutto, wow it added a perfect level of salt and flavor. This again was so easy and is a great weeknight dinner. I served it with spinach and we gobbled it up
That sounds delicious, what great suggestions! I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your excellent review with other readers Megan!
Where do u buy your chicken breast ? Thank u
Hi Irina, I buy organic chicken breast either at Costco or Fred Meyer. We usually make a weekly trip to Costco and buy the big pack and freeze until needed.
Hello Natasha,
Like your blog very much for collection of delicious recipes! Recently decided to make Salmon cakes and they’re came out to full satisfaction for me and my family.
But it’s always open question: what to serve with? Open for suggestions. Also, think about to make pesto chicken wraps and again with what as side dish.
Would like your professional opinion.
Thank you,
Viktor
Hi Viktor, I’m so glad your family enjoyed the salmon cakes!! I would serve those with a fresh green salad such as the shrimp avocado salad, or most green salads. For the pesto chicken, it would pair really well with roasted asparagus or any steamed vegetables.
Hi Natasha, I stumbled across your site through Youtube and have made several of your recipes – they are all amazing! Keep up the good work!
The chicken pesto roll ups are no exception. I made this last night and it was so delicious! I did overcook the chicken a bit (totally my fault) so they were a little dry but nonetheless the flavors were amazing.
I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe Lauren! Thanks for following and sharing your excellent review!
do not have an oven safe skillet so can i cook on stove and transfer to a casserole dish? am thinking that would be OK
Hi CS, I think that would still be ok, just pour the juice over the chicken that is in the skillet while cooking so you don’t lose any flavor :).
Can I use a Dutch oven for this recipe?
Hi Hannah, yes that would work fine as long as it is at least 5 1/2 Qt. If it is too small to fit everything in a single layer, you can brown the chicken in 2 batches.
Hey natasha!! The recipe looks amazing!! Might I just ask, why do you slice the tomatoe into 12 slices? Won’t that only be enough for 6 chicken peices, since you need 2 slices per chicken cutlet? Just wanted to clarify !!
Oh goodness, I’m so glad you caught that! Slice into 16 rings. I did go to college and have 2 degrees and I know that 8 cutlets x 2 slices =16 slices. lol. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. 🙂
Hello Natasha,
littel Question, did you show in one of your recipe videos how to dry celery leaves and parsley in the oven. I think it was you were i saw it but coundn’t find it anymore. By the way your recipes are great, never miss a post.
greetings from germany
Hi Florian, I don’t have anything like that, sorry! Maybe it was on another website. I’m so glad you enjoy our recipes!! 🙂
Hi Natasha, I made the chicken pesto roll ups for dinner on Sunday. They were awesome. My husband loved it. This recipe is a keeper.
Hello Rhonda! I’m glad to hear you both love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Hi, Natasha. This looks good, going to make this 4 dinner. is their a recipe for the green stuff u spread?
Hi Olga, yes, I do have a pesto recipe here. If you want things to go quicker, the one at Costco is also very good 🙂
Thanks! Love to try new things. Thanks 4 your wonderful recipes. May God bless u & ur beautiful family. (:
My pleasure Olga! Thanks for following! God Bless 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Great looking recipe. I’m going to go a step further and add a slice of smoked prosciutto to each chicken cutlet before I add the pesto et al. I use Stockmeyer Prosciutto from Trader Joes almost exclusively and it’s awesome. Can’t wait to try this one because I know it’s gong to be great! Thanks!
I’ve never tried their prosciutto so thank you for the recommendation!! I do love your idea of adding prosciutto – the thought of it makes me so hungry!!
This recipe sounds amazing 😋. I will be trying it this week. I also get pesto at Costco when I don’t have my homemade pesto.
It’s the best store-bought one we have tried :). We didn’t make pesto this year since we didn’t grow basil (completely forgot to plant it!) 😉
Where is the thumb for the thumb’s up?
I don’t see it anywhere.
Hi Alan! This is the same as our youtube video so it makes sense more on Youtube :). Sorry for the confusion but I’m glad that you would give us a thumbs up if there was a thumb. 😉
This looks delicious! What brand name of skillet did you use? I was trying to see the name but couldn’t =). I need a pan like this but not sure what to get.
Thanks!
Mary Theresa
Hi Mary, this was the Staub braiser and we LOVE it! It’s very versatile 🙂
It looks absolutely awesome I cant wait to cook this, I will post my reply after making it. I also tried one recipe with egg and it was awesome too, so I hope this will be as good as the last one.
Hi Veronica, I hope you love the recipe!
Hi natasha,
Just wanted to say that i love this recipe! I cooked it for the first time tonight and it turned out awesome!
Also love your chicken pesto pasta and creamy herb mushroom chicken.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Rothnie!
Hi Natasha,
I love this recipe. Simple but stunning.My question is can I just bake chicken without searing?
Hi Cookie, I always sear first to seal in the flavor and I just haven’t tested it that way to say for sure. From a quick google search, I am coming up with recipes that show to bake at 425˚F for 25 minutes without the initial searing, so I’m guessing it could work well.