Pesto Baked Chicken

This is what we had tonight (per request from my 10 year old). I like this because if you make your own or look really hard, you can find pesto sauce which is SCD compliant for my 17 year old. It is also VERY EASY to make, which you will like. I would also say that it is a nice enough dish to make for company. So, all pluses and no minuses.

I got it from this site (they have a picture too)....
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2010/09/easy-recipe-for-baked-pesto-chicken.html

Pesto Baked Chicken

Ingredients: 4 boneless, skinless chickenn breasts
salt and fresh ground black pepper for seasoning chicken
1/2 cup basil pesto
2 oz. (1/2 cup) grated low-fat mozzarella cheese

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.Cut each chicken breast lengthwise into 2 or 3 pieces. 

Spray a 9" x 12" baking dish with non-stick spray, then spread 1/4 cup basil pesto over the bottom of the dish. Lay chicken strips over the pesto, then spread 1/4 cup more basil pesto over the chicken.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake the chicken for 30 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. (Don't cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.)

When chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and sprinkle chicken with 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 minutes more, just until cheese is melted. After the cheese is melted for 5 minutes, switch oven to broil and broil for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.

Serve hot. There will be some flavorful juice in the bottom of the dish when this is done, so you may want to serve with rice, couscous, or quinoa to soak up the juice, but if you're eating this for phase one, just spoon the juice over the chicken.

 

I bought a container of pesto and didn't measure it all out. I put half on the bottom and spooned the rest over the top of the chicken. I then grated cheese over the top until it was all covered. So don't worry about measuring it all out, it will still turn out yummy.