Phenomenal Chicken and Pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce

Even though this was a lot of work I give it a 5 because it was awesome. You can taste the different flavors separately, and thogether they blend perfectly. I followed this recipe to a T and it came out super. I didn't have any issues with the sauce not thickening, but if you're worried about it, I suggest a) either not adding all of the cream at the end which I suspect wouldn't change the flavor that much, or b) before adding the cream mix into it 1 or 2 TBSP flour, mix it up and then pour it in and cook for a few minutes. Loved it!

I thought this was A delicious recipe! A few reviewers had said they had a hard time getting the liquid to thicken up, but I had no problem. As with most cream pastas, the thickening takes place when you remove it from the heat and set it aside for 5 minutes or so. I served this meal with caeser salad and garlic bread. I will be making this again for sure. I loved making that fresh pesto, and this dish will definetly need salt. I added three teaspoons, and then put the salt on the table for everyone else to add to it if they wanted to. Even after 3 teaspoons, it needed more. The flavor comes alive once you put the salt in, it will seem bland without it.

The title says it all - Phenomenal! For a healthy alternative, I used 2% milk instead of heavy cream and the sauce still turned out great. I definitely recommend this dish.

This is a great recipe. I made a couple of changes to reduce the fat content and to increase the amount of sauce. I substituted 15 oz of chicken stock for the heavy cream and then thickened the sauce with half and half and grated Romano cheese.

Really, really good. It makes a ton--at least 6 GIANT servings. I followed the recipe, except I used a heaping teaspoon of chicken base paste (like bouillon, from Sam's) instead of broth or water. I then added sauteed mushrooms at the end (after tasting), and I really loved the addition. I don't know how thick the sauce is supposed to be, but it was a bit thin, easily swiped up with crusty bread. I'd bet slightly underdoing the pasta, and then cooking it a while in the sauce, would thicken it by soaking into the pasta. Last but not least, I had to use a big pot, NOT a skillet. I'm surprised no one else commented on this. Anyway, YUM!!

This was awesome. I made it like the recipe said but accidentally doubled the sun-dried tomatoes. I think I'll do that on purpose next time. In addition, I'll probably add a few more pine nuts at the end because I like the flavor and the crunch. Like others noted, it says it will feed 6 but the truth is it will feed them not only dinner but lunch as well! :) The one thing that surprised me was that I was using a super larger skillet and by the time I got to the last step there wasn't enough room. I had to dump it all in the large pot I had used to cook the pasta. So keep that in mind if you make the 6-serving recipe. The leftovers were great for lunch the next several days. I'm recommending this recipe to all the cooks I know.

I signed up for ALL Recipies today just to rate this recipie. Made it after getting a cuisinart Food Processor for Christmas. Man it was absolutley fantastic. I sliced the chicken into small pieces and only used 4 breasts after seeing the amount of chicken I had piled up. I followed the rest to the letter. I would suggest it makes about 12 servings (possibly more). The flavor was fantastic and my wife was very impressed. This WILL be a recipie I will use when we have special guests come over for dinner! Thanks.

Made this recipe as written with one exception. Instead of heavy cream I used fat free 1/2 & 1/2. This is a wonderful product and the recipe turned out very well with many compliments.

This was great! It was fairly simple to make but came out wonderful. Worked really well with a caeser salad and crusty bread to soak up the sauce. I definately recommend.

This recipe is amazing - I followed the pesto recipe once and later used some frozen pesto my Mum had prepared in the summer. Every bite has something different, and delicious - the tomatoes are tangy, the chicken is satisfying and the nuts are crunchy. As you eat it - you ask "what next"... and are not dissappointed. A nice winter dish to warm you up.

This was amazing! Such great flavours. I won't change a thing, but be careful if you change the serving size. The second amount of white wine changes in the ingredients but NOT in the directions.... This is a definate 'do'er again' for hubby and me!

Fantastic! I made it exactly as the recipe said and it was amazing. I did have to add the chicken mixture to the pasta (instead of the other way around) b/c it makes quite a large amount. **Made last night with shrimp and it was even better if possible. Just reduce cooking time to two minutes instead of eight.**

Loved it! The creamy and rich sauce was just perfect! I was serving this for two-days-in-a-row-dinner because husband liked it a lot :) Thanks for this recipe!

This was good but I doubt I will make it again.

i'd give it more stars if i could! this was amazing. i was a little scared of all the wine going in it, thought it might make the dish taste too alcoholy for my liking but it didnt. it was perfect. prep takes a while but it is soooooo worth it.

This was a really good recipe, made it last night everyone loved it. Nice texture with the pine nuts. For a healthier pasta I used rice pasta, no gluten, no bloating!

This dish was amazing, the girlfriend and I really enjoyed it. I used almonds in place of pine nuts and thought it was very good.

Loved it! I used 2% milk as well and thought it turned out fine.

Excellent Dish! Taste amazing. Make sure to have people over for dinner it makes a TON. I will make this again...and again.

Yummy!!!!!!

I've prepared this dish several times. I've used store bought pesto instead of preparing it myself, even with store bought it came out great. I've also tried it without the chicken, I just added more sun-dried tomatoes. Just delicious. We serve this recipe with the white wine we use in it, always compliments it beautifully.

I don't often use guests as guinea pigs when trying out new recipes, but this got me huge points! I found the prep time to be longer than stated, but in the future I will prepare the marinade and pesto ahead of time and refridgerate. The ONLY thing I will alter when making this again is I will use the entire can of sundried tomatoes. Also warms up wonderfully the next day in a covered casserole dish, baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. Fantastic recipe. Thank you for sharing!

I would not call this phenomenal. Thankfully I only made half a batch. That said, a half a batch is huge, and enough for 4 people.

I was certain that I had a box of pasta, but couldn't find it anywhere! I did have arborio rice though, so I made the recipe as it was and served it over the rice. It was awesome!

This recipe was good, with plenty of leftovers for lunch. I did make changes though. I used different pesto since I had some leftover, the recipe is on this website, Vegan Sun-dried tomato Pesto. Additionally I used fat-free half and half instead of the heavy cream,and added some fresh spinach at the end. It made this recipe far less fattening and I thought it still had a rich creamy taste. Recipe was great with some garlic bread. Will be making again.

YOWZA....A little (big) dish of heaven!! I had every intention of following the recipe but time got away from me so I used purchased pesto and it still came out wonderful! My husband is a vegetarian so in a separate pan for him I sauteed onion, the tomatoes, and pine nuts. I then added the pasta and with some wine and cream, his turned out wonderful too. I made the chicken portion for 2 people so I didn't use the full amount of wine and cream as suggested for the full serving, I just eyeballed it until I got the consistency I wanted so ours was super creamy, not runny at all. That's what I liked about this recipe, it's all about your own taste, you don't have to measure it exactly. The salt is also key, normally I forgo it but it really made the flavors come out. Great dish!

This was so delicious! I didn't want to buy pine nuts (too expensive!) so we left those out, and it was still wonderful!

This sounded like a great recipe and it was even better than I thought! I made it for my husband's birthday and we both loved it. We are on a low cholesterol diet so I exchanged the cream for 1% milk and I also exchanged the wine for vinegar because I forgot to buy white wine.

This dish was not one of my personal "favorites", but my Husband loved it. I followed the recipe exactly, and I felt like it was lacking something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I will admit that I did like the flavor of the sauce better the next day as opposed to freshly made. I'm not sure if I will be making this again. Good recipe, just not for me :~)

Sooooo delicious. I don't usually like sundried tomatoes but they balance out the flavors perfectly in this dish.

Nice recipe. I didn't have the sun dried tomatoes, so i think that would add even more flavor. It was a bit heavy on the oregano for my taste, so i will try and reduce next time. I felt it over powered the pesto a bit. This would be great for a crowd bec it makes a lot!

This recipe was excellent. To make it healthier I substituted the cream for 1/2 cup of soy milk. I added artichoke hearts as well!

I made this recipe to the T so many times and had to write something and recomand this recipe to all. Always so delicious- served several time to guests and always really good response! If you are in a hurry you can always buy the pesto small jars at the grocery store and still very good for an easier recipe! In my favorite recipes for sure!

Hi from New Zealand. Wonderful recipe. I made half the quantity and it made enough to feed my husband and myself for two meals. I did however substitute the cream for fresh milk, mainly because I didn't actually have cream on hand, but now pleased I didn't because it was certainly rich enough made with the milk. I did boil the bones from a roast chicken we'd had previously which made good chicken stock. I also was lucky enough to have basil growing in the garden, so it was lovely and fresh. We think this was scrumptious dish and will definitely have this on the 'must make again' list. Yummy and thanks to the submitter.

I loved this although I did make a few changes which made it a really quick, healthier meal. I marinated the chicken for a few hours, then because I didn't have an onion I skipped that step, I also didn't add the extra wine as I felt there was enough liquid and flavour in the marinade, my tomatoes weren't in oil which cut the calories a bit more and instead of cream I used a few tablespoons of light sourcream - just enough to make it creamy without loads of fat, I also used a good quality store bought pesto and added a few marinated artichokes at the end because I thought they'd go nicely with all the other flavours. My 8yr old liked this and she is not a fan of pesto usually so next time I will add some baby spinach to it to get a few more veges into her!

This was "okay" when first made, but it did get better after a day or so in the fridge.

Just a friendly reminder to people mentioning about this making a "ton" size helping.. Use the SERVING Calculator to scale down for your family.. Hope this helps Also ..for those mentioning about the recipe needing more salt. Please know that you need to cook pasta in water that has salted to taste like the sea before cooking your pasta..this also makes a difference

EXCELLENT. I had ready made pesto I bought at the farmers market, so the prep time was reduced. Tasted great...I even posted it on facebook....then someone pointed out the per serving calorie count. I enjoyed every calorie and reducing the recipe to a single serving as it was just myself I was cooking for, I actually have lots left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow! LOVED IT.

Very good. For added colour i put in some thinly sliced roasted sweet red pepper strips with a bit of the oil from from the jar. I added a few sliced mushrooms as well when sauteing the onions. I didn't have the pine nuts and i used 3/4 of a small jar of boughten pesto sauce rather than making it. WHen serving i thinly sliced some real parmesan cheese on top.

I added chopped mushrooms, and used ricotta cheese instead of heavy cream. I forgot to add the wine to the sauce and it was still awesome!!

This recipe was hands down PHENOMENAL!!!! Sadly I had no sundried tomatoes so I went with regular tomatoes, but it turned out just as wonderful!!!! You can do this with shrimp/prawns as well and it still tastes fantastic!!! Definitely lived up to it's titled name! Thank you for this recipe!

This pasta is delicious! My family loved it. I always like an extra kick, so I added some ground red pepper in the end and a little extra virgin olive oil at the end for an extra zing!

WOW....couldn't get any better than this...A+

Great recipe! Like others I found that it overloaded my large skillet and had to switch it to a very large pot. Also I made some substitutions, I only added a 1/4 cup of wine at the end and I omitted the cream completely. My pesto was creamy enough that when I mixed with the wine and chicken mixture, it made a nice creamy, thicker coating on the pasta. I will probably go out and buy a much larger saucepan before trying this one again, but my husband and I loved it! Ton's of leftovers!

I have no idea how well it works in a skillet, but I know sauce always takes way longer to thicken in a skillet than a wok, so my advice is, if you have a wok, use it!

This was really good. I wish I hadn't added the chicken though, wasn't necessary and I didn't like it in there.

wow. so much flavor

I prepared this for my husband and daughter and they both loved it. It is very flavorful. It takes a little while to prepare but well worth the end result. I would definitely prepare tihs for my family again.

My husband said it tasted like paste. All that money to make it and it was a total waste. Will never make this again.

Amazing!

Delicious! I forgot the sun-dried tomatoes, but it still turned out really well. And like another user recommended, wait until before serving to cut up the chicken breasts into smaller pieces so it remains moist and doesn't dry out.

This was good but not phenomenal. I was really expecting a big punch of flavor and it just wasn't there. It did make a nice diner and great left overs, but lacked a "wow" factor that I want when there are this many ingredients and that much work involved. If you are a big pesto fan I would absolutley recommend this recipe.

More pesto next time. It wasn't a very strong flavour.

I was disappointed in how this turned out. I was very excited to make this and ultimately disappointed. Sad as all the ingredients looked very good. I will keep the pesto recipe I absolutely loved that.

I made just the creamy pesto sauce for pasta. I did not use the tomato or pinenuts, but did add cream and it came out really good. I will make this again.

outrageous. restaurant quality!!

A keeper! I didn't have the sun dried tomatoes on hand, so I couldn't include them, but definitely will next time. Even without them, everyone cleared their plates - even the kids!

I don't know if it's really fair that I rate this recipe, because I didn't stick to the direction whatsoever. The directions just looked too long & complicated for me, so I just did it my own way. First, I cooked the chicken in olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper. Once lightly browned I added pine nuts & sun dried tomatoes and simmered together. In a seperate pot I added 1 pint of heavy cream, 1/2 a jar of pesto, & between 1/2 cup & a cup of swiss cheese and boiled together. Then I boiled the penne for 10 minutes, then drained. Next I added everything together in a big pot & stirred. Viola! That was it. Much simpler by my standards. If this had been served to me in a restaurant, I would have been very pleased.

Good flavor - on the light side - makes alot!

very good. I made the pesto sauce as per the recipe....was an interesting twist with the tomato in it. This makes a lot: I only used three chicken breasts and that made plenty with all the pasta! I only used half an onion as my daughter is not a huge onion fan/scaled that back to suit her taste. In the store I had my choice of plain or smoked sundried tomatoes. I went with the smoked/figured it was add a bit more depth to the flavor. My last change was to use half the pine nuts...I made the pesto as instructed but left em out of the second half where you add more pine nuts. I like pine nuts just fine....they are just really expensive/I didn't want to use 6 dollars worth of pine nuts in one dish. With the large amount of fresh basil, the cream, chicken, GOOD Parm cheese and sundried tomatoes this was getting to be an expensive dish to make. Overall it was really good but just a tad bland so I added 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes...I wanted a *little* more zip....not to make it "spicy"

Good recipe. Used milk instead of heavy cream because it was what I had. Cream would definitely help it out. Rather mild but a good middle of the road dish that my whole family liked.

Made a half batch (3 servings) and added about 2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar at the end. Sauce thicked up with no problem in 5 minutes. I probably could have marinated the chicken much longer since it's somewhat tasteless in this dish.

Yummy!! I used chopped pecans as I didn't have pine nuts and it worked great. Also, I used fat free half and half to make it a bit more healthy. The only thing I might do differently is sear the chicken for better flavor. I can't wait for the left overs tomorrow!

This was great! Made it exactly like recipe said except used 1 container of pre made pesto instead of making from scratch (saving myself cleanup time). Next time will try making with milk instead of cream like others said and will not add the extra pine nuts at the end (just isn't necessary). Will definitely feed 6 adults. My two boys, 3 years old and 10 months old (cut up in small pieces and no whole pine nuts for the little one) both loved this.

Wow! This is incredible! I always wondered how Macaroni Grill always made everything tast so good. Now I know, and can cook at home for much less money! Cooked per the recipe.

I followed the recipe exactly, except I used Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2 cream. The meal was delicious, with many compliments. Next time I plan to use some of the sun-dried tomatoes in in the pesto sause.

I didn't have sun-dried tomatoes so used fresh instead...my family loved this!

This is phenomenal! Only changes: more fresh tomato and I used spaghetti instead of penne. Wouldn't change anything else!

Too much work and didn't like the flavor. Plus pine nuts are expensive! My family ate it but the leftovers were not eaten. I wont make again and can't recommend this recipe

The name of the recipe says it all! I made this for my family last night and surprisingly my 12 month old son couldn't get enough of it! He had about six helpings and kept grabbing the serving bowl wanting more. I made it exactly as the recipe stated only I used an already prepared basil pesto - much easier on me and it tasted great!

Oh my goodess, this takes some preparations, but boy it was worth it. This is a awesome filling meal!!!

Really good recipe. The sauce may seem a little thin but I found that it soaked into the pasta a bit - I actually used a bit of the pasta water to give a little more sauce. I have never made a pesto with a tomato added to it before - it was really tasty. Definately one that we will be making again...and probably again!

I love all of the ingredients but unfortunately I didn't find this recipe phenomenal.

My famioly of 5 loves this! Even my two picky eaters (they pick out the sun dried tomatoes). We use pesto from a jar to speed up the prepe time. One of my favorites

Instead of making the pesto I used a jar of store bought pesto. The dish was absolutely gorgeous though. Definitely a keeper!

Very good, but a lot of work! This dish gets better the next day. Leftovers are awesome.

I cheated and used store bought Pesto because I was in a time crunch, but this is a fabulous recipe. I do want to make it with my own pesto next time though!

This turned out great! It makes a lot though so if you're not feeding a crown plan on eating it for days.

I made this recipe tonight and it was wonderful... I made it exactly as written... with all of the fresh ingredients I knew it had to be good. I appreciated the specific order of the steps which were easy to follow, and the reminder to put the 2 tbsps of olive oil on the pasta after it cooked so it would not stick together. Next time, I will use a bigger pan as well. We are looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow!

Made this tonight knowing it was a bit more complex of a recipe than I prefer to make after a regular workday. This is awesome! Totally tastes like something from a restaurant. Given pine nuts are not inexpensive, this is certainly not a "budget" recipe. While the prep time is a lot, in my opinion, it's not a hard recipe AND the big plus is that inbetween steps/cooking, I was able to clean up so that by the time it was ready, the clean up was not much. This recipe results in a lot of food, so if you are cooking for 2, be sure to adjust the servings down. I'm refridgerating the leftovers and am hoping they are good tomorrow. If so, then even though the prep is 45 minutes, it'd be worth it to get 2 nights of dinners from it. I should add that both my 4 year old and 16 month old loved this as did my sister who stopped by to sample.

My first homemade pesto. So easy, I don't know why I haven't done it before. This was quite a tasty pasta, but a bit too oily. I'm going to cut back next time. I served it with spaghetti instead of penne, and I'm glad. I strongly prefer noodles. I also replaced the pine nuts with walnuts since I have a bunch and love, love walnuts. So good! Thank you. And yeah, it makes a bunch. It's just my boyfriend and me, so we'll be eating this for dinner for a few days. =)

This was took a bit of time to make, and it didn't look so good while making it, but OH MY GOSH it was delicious. Even my picky boyfriend couldn't stop raving. I only made two edits: I added a tablespoon of oregano instead of 2 teaspoons and I used tortellini instead of regular pasta. This was amazing, I'll definitely be making it again.

This was okay, but I wasn't blown away. I think it will be better the next day, when the flavors meld and the sauce thickens more.

Great Flavors! However I would suggest deseeding the tomato or using a little less. The pesto was a little runny which is one of the reason why the sauce was probably a little runny at the end. I ended up thickening the sauce with cornstarch.

This pasta is incredible. I've made it several times and we LOVE it! I use a jarred pesto sauce to speed things up and omit the extra 1/2 cup of white wine (seems to make thickening the sauce difficult).

Delicious! I didn't give 5 stars ONLY because I didnt make this as the recpe is written. Still outstanding. I left out the chicken and mixed the sundried tomatoes in oil into the pesto

This is a keeper. I made changes to reduce fat and calories and it was still wonderful. I used fat free 1/2 and 1/2, low sodium chicken broth. Everyone enjoyed it and wants it again. There was enough left over for lunch the next day.

Very good! I did not use white wine, only the chicken broth. Plus, I did not add the 1/2 of wine/chicken broth towards the end of the recipe after reading other reviews stated that their dish did not thicken up. Plus, I used a 8 oz of sun dried tomatoes. Great cold as a pasta salad. Next time I think I will add shrimp and chicken to the dish. Bravo!!!

Oh my gosh - this was SO SO good! I added sliced mushrooms with the onions and substituted roasted red peppers for the sun-dried tomatoes because that's what I had in the fridge. This tasted like something you would get at a nice Italian restaurant!

This is a good recipe, but it's not a great recipe. Considering all the reviews, I was so excited to make it and took the risk of preparing it on Father's Day. It wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. As a few other reviewers said, something is missing.

I was not hugely impressed with this dish. I added 1 T of both the seasonings and upped the garlic. I seasoned as I went, but it still just seemed to be lacking something in flavor. It never really thickened up (even after adding a handful of parm cheese at the end) until it was ready to be put away. This makes ALOT, there were 5 adults eating this, and we have over half leftover.

I followed the directions, with the exception of toasting the pinenuts to bring out the sweetness. I put half of the pine nuts into the pesto to be crushed in the food processor and the other half I left whole. I also made this for the children and I do not cook with wine when I do so. I added half and half more chicken and vegetable broth. I cannot tell you if it affected the receipt significantly. I will make this just for my hubby and me without the children and let you know. It was fabulous, just fabulous. A definite "go to" recipe for anytime. I don't happen to think this was a difficult dish to make. Great fun in the kitchen. Go for it.

Very tasty, but WAY too much pasta in it. I served it for 5 people TWICE and we still have leftovers. Ends up pretty dry. I would only use half a 16 oz. package of pasta and more cheese.

This was excellent! I didn't change a thing. Definitely a keeper. My kids, who are really picky, kept going back again and again! Thanks for sharing.

Excellent dish! To simplify I just used store bought pesto and it worked beautifully!

I just didn't enjoy it that much. Since it took a lot of work, I'm glad it made a lot because then I didn't have to cook for a couple days (I even froze some!). I won't make it again.

My family loved this recipe! I made it for Christmas eve dinner. This will probably become a tradition for us. I added mushrooms when cooking the onions and added artichoke hearts at the end. I also needed to keep it warm and ready to serve so when the "sauce" was all put together I put it in the crock pot on low for a couple of hours & it worked out great. Then I cooked the pasta when we were ready to eat. Thanks for sharing the recipe this is yummy!

I used jarred pesto, pinto grigio for white wine. I used the sugar with the onions the first time, but ended up burning! So I scrapped that and didn't use sugar and it turned out fine. I used half and half instead of heavy cream. No pine nuts also. This was a great dish!

Did the recipe to a T. Simply awesome loaded with flavor!!!