BAKED PESTO CHICKEN

BAKED PESTO CHICKEN
ANGEL HAIR PASTA WITH HERBS 
FRENCH BREAD

Baked Pesto Chicken Ingredients:


4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ cup basil pesto ( I bought the pre made one by bertolli)

2 plum tomatoes
shredded mozzarella cheese

Basil pest sauce ingredients:
5 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup Bertolli® Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put in Pyrex pan

2. put a spoonful of pesto cover both sides of chicken

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
4. Place slices of tomato on top of chicken and sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake another 3-5 minutes.
6. Serve with a box of angel hair pasta and herbs and French bread.

I only cooked 2 chicken breast so I put the other 2 in a gallon sized zip bag, I froze the reaming sauce, in a smaller bag, put cut sliced tomato in another bag, and the cheese in a separated bag. Then you have another freezer meal ready just pull out the big bag with all the ingredient and let defrost and cook as normal.


note on freezing tomato:

• Slice tomatoes into at least one-half inch slices. Package in a rigid airtight container and fast freeze.
• Or put slices on a cookie sheet and freeze for two hours, or until they are crisp on the outside. Then remove and put them into freezer bags or containers.

To prevent freezer burn, don't leave slices very long in the freezer unwrapped. Frozen sliced tomatoes should be eaten in a near-frozen state for fresh taste. Cherry tomatoes are good on salads if eaten while partly frozen.

note on freezing left over basil sauce:
Here is a quick one on how I like to freeze pesto. The short version is that I put the fresh pesto in a decent Ziploc back, cut a corner of the bag (1/2" size hole) and squeeze like icing into ice cube trays . Freeze the trays and then transfer into freezer bags. I freeze mine with the cheese in there. when we want pesto in the middle to winter, we just pop out a couple of cubes and toss in the dish. Much easier than carving out of a large frozen block... I also do a few tricks to keep it from oxidizing while freezing etc.

I totally spaced the tomato and cheese, duh me, lol