Sheet Pan Pesto Chicken

All-in-One Sheet pan Dinner

This sheet pan pesto chicken recipe is perfect for busy weeknights when you want a wholesome and delicious meal for your family but you don’t have the time for making a protein and sides separately.

This recipe was inspired by another of our favorites, sheet pan honey balsamic chicken with vegetables. Using pesto instead of a honey balsamic glaze gives this recipe an entirely new spin. Marinating the chicken with pesto helps it remain tender and juicy in the oven, all while adding that irresistibly bright basil flavor.

Pesto Chicken Dinner

Packed with veggies. The colorful medley of vegetables adds a variety of textures and flavors. If you have trouble working vegetables into your day, you will appreciate that this dinner is veggie heavy! You could add a grain or starch too, but it’s so bulked up with vegetables, you really don’t need to.

Easy to customize. You can easily swap in your family’s favorite vegetables or what’s in season and strikes your fancy at the farmers’ market. Change this recipe up with a different pesto variety to suit your preferences. Try my cilantro pesto or arugula pesto recipe, which is nut-free.

Minimal cleanup required. No one enjoys doing dishes after dinner, and it’s always depressing to finish your meal and look over at a sink full of pots and pans. With this sheet pan pesto chicken recipe, all you need is one large sheet pan for cooking, which makes cleanup a breeze.

Ingredient Notes

• Chicken breasts or tenders: Cut the raw chicken into 1-inch cubes, making sure the cubes are all roughly the same size, so all of the chicken finishes cooking at the same time.
• Pesto: You can use homemade basil pesto or your favorite store-bought pesto. I keep a jar of pesto in my pantry beccause it can be used in so many ways. Add it to mayonnaise for a wonderful dip or spread; stir it into soups to boost the flavor; add it to vinaigrettes; spread it on sandwiches, and so on.
• Vegetables: I like to use red onion, broccoli, red bell pepper, zucchini or summer squash, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms, sort of a primavera blend.
• Olive oil: A little olive oil is essential to coat the vegetables so they brown, caramelize, and get crispy on the edges. Delicious!
• Dried basil: Although there is plenty of basil flavor in the pesto, I like to roast the vegetables with an added boost of dried basil.
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper: Freshly cracked black pepper adds a little more oomph than pre-ground. If you use fine salt instead of coarse kosher salt, you likely won’t need as much.
• Fresh basil (optional): A handful of fresh basil, thinly sliced, makes a perfect garnish.

How to Make Sheet Pan Pesto Chicken

Marinate the chicken. Combine the chicken and pesto in a resealable bag or baking dish. Stir or seal the bag and toss to coat all the chicken pieces evenly. Marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Roast the veggies. After the chicken has marinated, preheat your oven to 400ºF. A preheated oven is essential to the success of sheet pan dinners. Toss the vegetables with the oil, basil, salt and pepper on a large rimmed sheet pan. Put the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Finish. Add the chicken and the marinade to the pan, along with the tomatoes. Toss or lightly stir to coat the other vegetables with the marinade. Evenly arrange the chicken and vegetables into a single layer, and bake 20 minutes more (or until the chicken reaches 165ºF). Some of the tomatoes may burst; some won’t. Both are delicious!

Serve. Garnish with fresh basil, and serve a portion of chicken and vegetables to each person.

Tips And Variations

• Use a good-quality pesto. Since pesto is a key flavor in this dish, using a high-quality store-bought option or making your own will ensure that the fresh basil flavor really shines through. I often use Classico pesto because it’s nut-free, but there are many brands to choose from (and I don’t necessarily think Classico is the best, but it works for our family).
• Cut vegetables evenly. Just like the chicken, you’ll also want to ensure all the vegetables are cut into similar sizes for even cooking.  
• Don’t overcrowd the pan. Spreading everything into a single, even layer helps the chicken and veggies roast properly and develop caramelized edges. Overcrowding can lead to steaming instead of roasting, which isn’t nearly as delicious!
• Try different vegetables. You really can mix and match the vegetables in this recipe. Use what you happen to have or what you like best. If you don’t happen to have every vegetables on the list, that’s okay!
• Use a different protein. I think shrimp would be amazing in this recipe. Adjust the cooking time because shrimp will get done more quickly than chicken. Boneless pork, cut into 1 inch cubes, would be tasty too. Cook the pork until it reaches 145ºF.

Serving Suggestions

Crusty bread. Sop up the mixture of sweet, caramelized tomato juices and pesto from the pan with no knead whole wheat bread or dutch oven bread. Don’t forget some bread dipping oil!

Rice or quinoa. Serve the chicken and veggies over a bed of Instant Pot brown rice or quinoa to make your meal extra filling. 

Pasta. Toss the roasted chicken and vegetables with your favorite cooked pasta, along with a little bit of olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Green salad. A simple green salad with mixed greens, a light white wine vinaigrette, and shaved Parmesan would be perfection.

Storage & Reheating

Refrigerate: Transfer leftovers to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Freeze: With all the roasted vegetables, this sheet pan pesto chicken isn’t ideal for freezing, as the veggies will be quite a bit softer the second time around. But if you’d still like to freeze this dish, store it in a zip-top bag with the air pressed out or in an airtight container and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating. 

Reheat: I recommend transferring the leftovers to a sheet pan or baking dish, covering with foil, and warming at 350ºF until the chicken and veggies are heated through. Microwave reheating works too, though it may result in softer vegetables and tougher chicken.