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.
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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.
These are delicious. Seriously. Like the best recipe with chicken. You have amazing recipes, Natasha.
I’m happy to hear how much you love this recipe Olga! Thanks for following and sharing your excellent review!
Hi Natasha, I’m on Ketogenic diet and I make this recipe every week. It’s so good. Even my non-keto hubby loves it. Looking forward to more keto/low-carb recipes. Thanks.
I’m glad to hear how much you both love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!
Can I use chicken tenderloin? Would that alter the baking time?
Hi Anneta, the chicken tenderloins will likely be smaller in size so they will probably bake up a little faster. I suggest cutting into one to check for doneness to be sure.
Mouth watering delicious!!! I will definitely be making this recipe again. I added yellow pepper slices . Thank you
You’re welcome Crystal! I’m glad you love the recipe, thanks for sharing!
Delicious! Instead of sliced tomato I added Roasted Red Peppers on the inside! Fantastic!!
Yum, that sounds good Sue! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Natasha, your recipe sounds awesome! I love pesto anything and bought some premade @ Costco too. It’s so so good! One question though. Vine-ripened tomatoes are not in season yet so am wondering if I could substitute well-drained strips of sun-dried tomatoes in the chicken instead? I don’t want to overpower the flavors. I will make the real-McCoy when tomatoes come into season.
Hi Pj, I haven’t tried that but it sure sounds like a tasty substitution! Let me know if you experiment 🙂
It was extremely wonderful, definitely a keeper, super easy thanks.
You’re welcome Spring, I’m glad you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing!
I made this tonight and just finished dinner It was outstanding. Thank you for posting this recipe
You’re welcome Rick! I’m glad you enjoy the recipe so much. Thanks for sharing your great review!
I plan to make these for 8 people…I’m thinking of making them ahead about an hour and putting them on a jelly roll pan to finish baking right when I plan to serve them? What are your thoughts or cooking time suggestions? These look amazing!
Hi Melissa, if they are not going to be refrigerated in between, I would keep the baking time the same. You could double check for doneness with an instant read thermometer or by cutting one of them in half.
Hi Natasha, My only challenge has been cutting the chicken thin enough for rolling. I decided to have the butcher at my grocery store cut the chicken according to your recipe. They turned out much better! This recipe has become a family favorite! Always enjoy your recipes!
That is so smart to have the butcher do it! Thank you for that tip! 🙂
Love your recipes and have done several. Wondering if you could butterfly the breasts to stuff instead of halving?
Hi Diane, I hope I am understanding your comment correctly. I suppose you could butterfly a halved piece of chicken breast, but just butterflying a whole chicken breast would give you a very large and thick roll-up which would take much longer to cook through.
Thanks Natasha. Thank you also for your recipes, I follow them on Facebook. I believe over half my go to recipes are yours!
My pleasure Diane! 🙂
Will you gave me the recipe for the pesto sauce, I want to make my sauce
Hi Carmen, here is the recipe. I hope you’ll love it 😀
We have fix the Chicken Pesto Roll Up. Its very good and its also a conversation piece at our dinner table tonight. Cant stop talking about it.
I’m glad to hear the recipe is such a hit! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review!
I am from India….and I love your recipies….. these are soooo good…. I make them quite often…. my family loves them…
Thanks for all your video recipies… love love them
My pleasure! I’m happy to hear how much you and your family are enjoying the recipes. Thanks for following!
Tried this recipe tonight after watching your video and it was super easy and my family said it was definitely a repeat…hoping to see some more recipes for the Instant Pot I also received for Christmas.
Hi Carol, I’m loving my instant pot also! Have you seen our current instant pot recipes?
I made this with a red pesto from Aldi. Very good. Will make again.
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Jenn! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Made this for the Government, she loved them! She said I can stay another week.🙂
I’m glad to hear that, thanks for sharing!
Can u include nutrition information
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 Margie!
My family loves this dish! I added fresh garlic and spinach to the roll ups! So yummy! Thanks for sharing ☺
You’re welcome Christy! I’m glad to hear the recipe is such a hit. Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
This reciepe is now a week day dinner staple. Love it! Thank you.
You’re welcome Patricia! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for sharing! 🙂