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.
Never write reviews…BUT this is amazing! Saved to my “keepers” file.
Made as written…tweeked by putting seared chicken on top of halfway cooked spaghetti (in oven proof bowl) and adding the sauce…then cooking in 375degree oven as stated. Added basil and about 3 T. Of olive oil to pasta.
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
Hi Natasha. This recipe looks amazing. I would love to recreate your masterpiece; however, my family is anti-tomato. I personally love tomatoes. In order to please everyone, do you think I can substitute tomatoes with mushrooms? Or will that ruin the pesto flavor? I know someone earlier mentioned roasted red peppers. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks again.
Hello Sarah, we love this recipe with tomatoes and haven’t tried without it yet but others commented and shared this. “Didn’t have regular tomatoes but substituted baby spinach leaves. Used fresh basil from the garden and homemade pesto. It smells wonderful. Thanks for this recipe!” I hope that helps.
I would like to make your chicken pesto rollups for a dinner party, when they will be the third course and I have the following two questions:
1) Could I substitute goat cheese for the mozzarella inside the rollup and continue to sprinkle mozzarella on top? Or use goat cheese within the roll-up and on top.
2) Could I prepare the chicken up to Step 3 and then do step 4 (bake in oven) later?
Please advise.
Hi Nonna, I haven’t tried this with goat cheese inside, but if you test it, please let me know how it goes. You can prep them ahead and bake later. That would work great.
So I didn’t have tooth picks and really dont trust I have fully cooked rolled meat. Instead I fried the chicken cutlets flat then added the pesto and cherry tomatoes and put it in the oven until the tomatoes began to burst. Once that happened I sprinkled it all with cheese then put it in the broiler to brown it a bit. Served on side of plain spaghetti with butter. This was so good! Thanks for the inspiration ☺️
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe!
Tried your chicken pesto roll-ups last night and served them to 3 good friends. They were a bit tricky to roll but were absolutely delicious and looked lovely , I will make them again
Hello Bev, thanks for sharing that with us. I am so glad that you and your friends loved this pesto roll!
Great recipe !! I have made this dish about 5 times so i decided to mix things up a little bit by adding stuffing to each roll up and extra in the pan in the oven. Great results my son and i loved it and decided to keep it Try it its a fun new enjoy Natasha’s dish
That’s just awesome! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Made this last night, so good. I have made a couple other of your recipes. They are always so delicious!!
I’m so happy to hear that Pam!
I made this tonight. It was delicious. It had all our favorite things in it. Will surely make it again. So glad I have found your videos and recipes on Facebook.
Awesome! So happy to know that you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! I served it over PARMESAN, SUN-DRIED TOMATO, AND BASIL RICE – found on Pinterest.
That is great! Thanks for your good feedback.
They are so good and excellent as leftovers. Don’t let the recipe intimidate you, it is easy!!!
I love it! Agreed, it looks intimidating but it’s easy once you get how it works. Thanks for sharing that with us, Debbie.
Tried this recipe for the first time tonight, and it was delicious!! Outstanding is more like it and two thumbs up from my family! I think I may have “overstuffed” my chicken breasts (LOL!). Not seeing your photo first Natasha, I rolled the breasts up, and literally had 3-4 toothpicks in each one so you can imagine how hard it was to brown them, not to mention when I took them out of the oven, I had to be real careful where I was cutting!! I used a large red heirloom tomato from a farmers market along with heirloom cherry tomatoes, and I used your homemade pesto recipe!! What a great flavorful recipe!!! Yum!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe, Maureen! I’m so glad you enjoyed that!
Just had these and they were so good! With so much flavor, they were like a dish at a fancy restaurant. I followed your recipe and again, love that you list amounts in the instructions so I don’t have to scroll up & down. 5⭐️
Thank you so much for your great comments, Bonnie. We appreciate it!
Your recipes are great and your radiant personality only adds to them. I added sundried tomatoes to the chicken breasts instead of fresh ones and it was perfect. Thank you
Love it, Mary! Thank you so much for sharing that with us, we appreciate it!
I love this chicken dish! Super easy and delicious! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Tina!
I made this dish tonight The Pesto stuffed chicken roll ups I changed it a little by adding Stuffing in the middle and used 4 inch bamboo pics VERY GOOD Yum
Thanks for all ur work cooking great food !!
That is a good idea. Thanks for giving this recipe a try and great feedback!
Delicious! I added garlic powder and more pesto to the drippings and served it over cooked whole wheat pasta.
Sounds yummy! Thanks for sharing that with u.
I’m making meals for the freezer. What is the best way to prepare this chicken? Should I prepare it right up to the baking time, then freeze and do the baking when ready to use?
Hi Nancy, I haven’t tried freezing them so I’m not 100% sure how they would work after thawing and reheating. It will have to be an experiment :-). Let me know if you test that out! It sounds like a good idea!
Another one I’d give more stars to! This was fantastic! I made it just as written and it was great. I already can’t wait to make it again-hubby loved it too. I’ve been cooking for almost 50 yrs but I can never have too many recipes, lol.
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Brenda!!
I have another comment-I’ve made this 2 more times but I changed it a bit: instead of the roll ups, I just put the breasts in a skillet and cooked them, then I topped with pesto and mozz cheese and tossed some cherry tomatoes in the pan and covered it until cheese melted. It’s still the same great taste but much easier to make. Thanks again for the recipe
Can this be made in a slow cooker?
Hi Luke. I haven’t really tested that to advise but if you decide to experiment on it please share with us how it goes.
Absolutely amazing! So much flavored packed in these. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed that!