Are you ready for this? Because I wasn’t quite ready for how easy and delicious this meal was. When I sat down to eat my first bowl of these Pesto Chicken and Vegetables I was like, “Oh yes, I’m going to make this every single week.” It’s the perfect light, flavorful, and fast recipe for meal prep. And it’s just SO SIMPLE.
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Vegetable Options
I used a summery mix of yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, green beans, and red onion for this quick sauté, but there are a lot of options when it comes to the vegetables. Here are some other vegetables you could add:
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Grape tomatoes
- Mushrooms
- Fresh corn
- Asparagus
- Spinach
The key thing to keep in mind when using different vegetables is when to add them to the skillet. For this recipe you don’t want to fully cook the vegetables. They should be just tender-crisp. So, keeping that in mind, add sturdy vegetables first and tender vegetables later to make sure they don’t get overcooked.
Can I Substitute the Chicken?
Yes, there are options for that, too! I think shrimp would be absolutely awesome in this recipe, as would tofu. If using tofu, I would do a cornstarch coating and fry it separately (see the technique used in this recipe) before tossing it together with the vegetables and pesto at the end.
How to Serve Pesto Chicken and Vegetables
I ate this dish as-is, just a bowl of flavorful chicken and vegetables. But there are more options! You could eat this over a bowl of rice, stir in some cooked orzo or quinoa, or even add them to a bed of greens. Honestly, I would probably even add them to a flat bread and top with mozzarella as a sort of vegetable pizza!
How Long Does it Stay Good?
I got about four days out of my pesto chicken and vegetables, but this can vary depending on the conditions in your refrigerator, freshness of the ingredients, and how long you cook the vegetables. As I mentioned above, you want to barely cook the vegetables for this recipe. Just make them tender-crisp so they don’t get too wilted. Not only does this give them great texture and a fresh, bright flavor, but they last a little longer in the fridge, too.
Easy Pesto Chicken and Vegetables
Servings 4 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 red bell pepper ($1.50)
- 1 zucchini ($0.60)
- 1 yellow squash ($0.50)
- 1/2 red onion ($0.19)
- 1.3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast ($6.67)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 1 cup frozen green beans ($0.67)
- 1/3 cup pesto* ($0.73)
- 1/8 tsp salt* ($0.01)
- 1/8 tsp freshly cracked pepper* ($0.01)
- 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan* ($0.11)
Instructions
- Chop the bell pepper, yellow squash, and zucchini, and slice the red onion. I like to make different shapes for each vegetable, but aim to make the pieces all around the same size.
- Cube the chicken breasts into ½-inch pieces.
- Add the cooking oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high. Once the skillet and oil are very hot, add the chicken and sauté until the chicken pieces are opaque (3-5 minutes – the chicken will continue to cook as you add vegetables).
- Add the green beans to the skillet and sauté for 1-2 minutes more, or just until thawed.
- Add the bell pepper and red onion to the skillet. Sauté for 1-2 minutes more. If water is beginning to pool in the skillet, turn the heat up slightly. It should be hot enough that the water released from the vegetables evaporates quickly.
- Add the yellow squash and zucchini to the skillet and continue to sauté 2-3 minutes more, or just until the squash softens slightly.
- Turn the heat off, add the pesto to the skillet, and stir until everything is coated. Give the vegetables a taste and add salt, pepper, or more pesto if desired. Top with a light sprinkle of Parmesan just before serving.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Pyrex Glass Meal Prep
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Pesto Chicken and Vegetables – Step by Step Photos
Chop the vegetables first so they’re ready to go. Chop one red bell pepper, one yellow squash, one zucchini, slice ½ of one red onion and measure 1 cup frozen green beans. I like to do different shapes for the vegetables, but aim to keep them roughly the same size.
Cut 1.3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast into ½-inch pieces.
Add 2 Tbsp cooking oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high. Once very hot, add the cubed chicken and sauté just until the chicken is opaque (3-5 minutes – it will continue to cook as you add more vegetables). Next, add the frozen green beans and sauté for a couple of minutes more, or just until thawed.
Next add the bell pepper and red onion. Continue to sauté a couple of minutes more. If you see water pooling in the skillet, turn the heat up higher. The heat should be high enough that any moisture released by the vegetables evaporates quickly.
Finally, add the yellow squash and zucchini to the skillet. Sauté just a couple of minutes more, or just until the raw edge is taken off the squash.
Turn the heat off. Add about ⅓ cup pesto to the skillet and stir until everything is coated.
Give the vegetables a taste and add salt, pepper, or more pesto if needed (I added a pinch of each).
Top with a light sprinkle of Parmesan just before serving.
Perfect for meal prep!!
Quick, tasty, and nutritious. The week night meal trifecta.
I liked this. Although my husband and daughter made it- and I think they may have over cooked it. So it was kinda dry and greasy. Going to give it another go and make it myself. But even overcooked it had some good flavours going on.
How long does this last for meal prep-looking for meal that will last for 4 days?
I’d say 4 days is its max, but it should be good until then!
How do you reheat this?
Regards
Emma
I just use the microwave, 30-60 second intervals until hot, stirring between.
where do you live that a zucchini is only 0.60?
where I live a single zucchini is closer to $2-3 each…
We’re in Nashville. The most important thing with budget cooking is to pick recipes based on what you can get in your area for a good price. So not all recipes will be a good choice for every person. :)
Very nice
Super easy to make and it was a dish I felt good about eating, but the end result was a little bland. I added some cumin to make it taste a little richer. I cooked some white rice to eat with this and added some soy sauce for flavor. I would recommend playing around with additional seasonings to make the flavor pop.
a little bland. Also it’s probably way easier to sauté the chicken and veggies separately because the pan gets way too full and the veggies don’t sauté properly.
Def needed more cook time on the veggies, but that being said, Absolutely LOVE this site! You are brilliant and this was a super easy recipe.
Pesto tousqui! This turned out great. And one great perk of being a grown up is that I don’t even have to put the green beans in at all! Mine ended up as zucchini, bell pepper, butternut squash and broccoli. Bright, colorful and delicious!
I LOVE this recipe. This week I made it for the 3rd time since i found it a few months ago, always as mealprep. Since the veggies are in season, and I always shop on saturday afternoon, when the chicken is marked down due to closed supermarkets on sunday (europe), i get away with about 1.90 per portion.
Perfect meal for a known pesto addict.
Thank you very much for all the amazing ideas!
First meal made from Budget Bytes and it was so affordable, east and delicious! I couldn’t help but snacking on it before putting it aside for meal prep. I added some bow tie pasta just for a little carbs, but is good just as it!
I made this for meal prep for the first time this week. It’s turned out *really* well. I think I’ll make a few changes the next time I make it, but it’s all aesthetics and making sure I time the veggies to my preferred crispness. I did add some leftover pasta to bulk up the dish, but even as I added the pasta I was pretty sure I didn’t need it.
Yummy! Made this tonight. Aldi didn’t have yellow squash, we used two zucchini. Otherwise veggies as per recipe. We had five ice cubes of pesto from last summer. Just add those at the end and let them thaw. I made mashed potatoes because we had potatoes in the house. Like a stir-fry, prepping the vegetables takes longer than cooking. Hubby had a place to be and he got some before he had to leave.
Anyone tried adding potatoes to this? I have some that need using up
I made mashed potatoes to go with it tonight. It was good.
Great recipe! Easy to make, pretty quick to cook once I get everything chopped, and most importantly, it’s tasty :) I had some carrots that needed to be used up so I peeled those and diced them up. At the end I added a package of spinach and let it wilt a bit. As always, I appreciate how versatile many of your recipes are and the suggestions for add-ins :) Already planning on making again for my work lunch next week.
Hi – I recently found your site and this is the first recipe I cooked. OMG – great recipe and oh so easy! I am already thinking lunch prep. I forgot how much I love pesto!! Thank you for sharing such a versatile recipe!!
This sounds amazing! Question: Can I substitute the pesto for another sauce? What do you recommend?
Well, it’s basically a stir fry so I suppose you could use any stir fry sauce! Other than that, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. :)
This dish has been an amazing base in helping me eat well! I make the pesto with kale and eat this pesto chicken and vegetables with some whole wheat pasta. I meal prep it for the week so every time I know I am getting a well rounded meal. Love your page Beth and many other of your recipes too! Thank you!
I made this with tofu and it is so good! Really filling and a great meal prep
Have people reheated this in the microwave or eaten cold?
I reheat it in the microwave. :)
Made this for my work lunches this week. Currently eating it for Monday lunch right now and it’s amazing. It was super quick and easy to prepare, and has a lot of flavour. Will definitely be making this recipe a regular thing. I packed it with quinoa on the side for a little extra sustenance.
I was disappointed with this dish — it turned out quite bland. However, that may be more the fault of the particular brand of pesto that I used than that of the recipe. (I’ve made dozens of Budget Bytes recipes before, and this is my first less-than-stellar experience, so I am inclined to blame the pesto first!)
Very happy with this recipe. My boys love pesto and pasta, but not veges. I made mostly to recipe, but used fresh beans and added 2 cups cooked pasta at end. All said they loved it – despite the veg! Will make again for sure.
This is really good! Will definitely make again.
Loved this! My favorite recipes on this site are just like this – healthy, fast, flavorful. I could see so many variations of this recipe. Different veggies, different protein (in fact I used pork cutlets instead of chicken like another commenter suggested), different sauce. I would love to see a recipe like this using ranch or jarred curry sauce or something else.
Yum! I used the veggies as listed and cut the oil to 1 Tbs. I used reduced fat Bertoli pesto. A delicious, fast, filling and low carb meal.
Made this last night— so good! Why have I never thought to add pesto to squash & zucchini?!?!? Great flavor combination! Tossed out with some (Banza) cavatappi pasta. (I made the recipe vegetarian by subbing “soy curls” for the chicken). I normally dread leftovers, but was so excited for leftovers-lunch today! It was just as good cold today as it was hot last night! Thanks for this! It’s definitely a keeper!
We made this tonight and used up a lot of odds and ends of vegetables: 1/2 a red onion, 1/2 a green pepper, a small tomato, some frozen broccoli florets, 1-1/2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables, 1/3 of a large zucchini, some green beans from the garden, 3 cloves of garlic, and half bag of fresh spinach that needed to be used up. . We added about 1/2 a box of rotini pasts too, but 3 adults pretty much annihilated it. I don’t think there’s enough left for us all to eat it tomorrow. Will be good for my daughter’s lunches.
Forgot to mark the stars.
This was so good and so easy! A much needed dose of veggies after eating like garbage most of the week. Super riffable – I used asparagus instead of green beans. Highly recommend.
The Pesto Chicken and Vegetables is the bomb dot com!!! I used mushrooms, spinach, green bell pepper, and red onion, but I made sure to cook the mushrooms first before the chicken. I added 1/3 cup of pesto, and seasoned the dish afterwards. I served this dish with Orzo pasta on the side, and I am looking forward to leftovers for a few days. Thank you so much for sharing, Miss Beth!! 😋
Skillet heat is definitely key, I used a big stainless steel braiser pan.
I used fresh green beans and added them with the peppers and onion. Wait just until the chicken isn’t pink anymore before adding veggies, so it doesn’t end up overcooked. The chicken does still get browned if your heat is high enough to evaporate the veggie moisture. I let the pesto sit for a couple minutes to soak up that delicious fond on the bottom of the pan. Amazing.
I served with buttered egg noodles to add some carbs. Also, I got my pesto for $1 at Dollar Tree and it tastes the same as Aldi for 1/3 the price!
I used the veggies I had on hand which all turned out to be green, so now we call this Green Chicken!
Used frozen broccoli (in place of green beans), zucchini, and green bell pepper.
Served with a simple side salad over quinoa, mostly for color variety, which I highly recommend:
Spring mix, sliced cherry tomatoes, pickled red onion, a lemon-vinaigrette dressing and a little goat cheese.
I would’ve paid top dollar for this at a restaurant!
Thanks for the inspiration, as always.
Delicious! Made this tonight and it was a huge hit. We have the pesto from Costco, which has Parmesan in it already so didn’t top with any cheese. I also added 2 strips of bacon chopped up and highly recommended it 😋
Thank you for this simple and healthy recipe. Really love “bowl” recipes, especially using pesto. Thank you!
I made this Easy Pesto Chicken Vegetable. dish for dinner last night. When I added the basil pesto, the smell was so strong that I was afraid my husband wouldn’t eat this dish. I was so surprised ! The flavor mellowed and was just right. This dish will be a regular on our dinner table.
Love your recipes! Question: what kind of chicken do you suggest? Is yours always organic or something else?
It really just depends on your preferences and budget. The recipe will work the same regardless of the type of chicken breast. :)
This was so good! Made recipe as-is and served alone for a yummy lunch. I had goat cheese crumbles handy so I topped it with those instead of parmesan—it was a major win!
This was fantastic! I substituted mushrooms for green beans and added in cooked cheese tortellini at the same time as the pesto. Even my 3 young kids loved it and went back for seconds! Thanks Beth! Another winner!
I loved this recipe!! It was so simple and loaded with veggies. I liked that I could control how much pesto to add to keep the fat down. I added extra for my husband and also served it with some Banza pasta.
I love this recipe! I made it last night and I’m currently eating the leftovers for lunch. It’s so simple and healthy – hard to find recipes like that these days (except here on your blog of course). It seems like food bloggers want to complicate things to make them catchy and clickable but this is the sort of thing I love. Simple ingredients, simple technique, incredibly tasty. Gonna add this one to the regular rotation!
Just made this for lunch- would love to know the pan size/volume you used when making originally. I used olive oil and it smoked a ton – I found I needed to saute for longer than recipe stated otherwise vegetables would be almost raw.
Overall very good, I have a hard time personally “sizing up” my pan size for the volume of food (bad at visualizing object in containers). I would definitely make this again. I ended up cooking squash separately to avoid burning the chicken/peppers/onion mix.
This meal was incredibly delicious and such an easy one to make on this hot spring day.
I am happy my picky toddler took some bites, thank you!
My husband, a cooking novice, made this last night and it was PERFECT! Beautiful, tasty, and so easy to adapt to what you’ve got on hand and to your preferences/tastes. Kept it light by eating as is w/o a grain or pasta, and it was perfect for a spring evening. It made a LOT, also- I’m grateful for the leftover lunches coming my way.
Thanks so much, Beth!!!`
This was such an easy and delicious meal. This will definitely be a favorite for me and the hubby.
This was so good! I doctored it up to my liking by adding corn, umami seasoning, garlic powder, dried basil along with the salt and pepper when the chicken was cooking so it can absorb some flavor before adding the veggies. I think I didn’t have enough pesto with the ratio of veggies so those additions helped including a splash of lemon juice towards the end of cooking.
This was supper last night because I had most of the ingredients on hand. No chicken, so I diced boneless pork loin chops, which are always interchangeable with chicken–inexpensive, even more flavorful than chicken, and equally low cal–but be careful not to overcook as pork can be tough. No yellow squash, but more green beans (fresh), zucchini, and a handful of cauliflower florets. I also rely on packaged grated parm from the cheese dept–the shreds are sometimes too large to melt and disappear in a dish, so I give them a rough chop on my cutting board. Confession: I used at least 3 tablespoons of parm. The photos fail to give a real sense of the deliciousness of this recipe–I absolutely adore pesto and any of its versions