Ten ingredients and fifty minutes across a pan of water, a skillet and a hot oven.
There is no cream and no tomato here. The sauce is pesto loosened with broth, and that is all.
Why This Recipe Works
- Pulling the penne early leaves it room to absorb pesto and broth in the oven.
- Browning the chicken in a skillet gives colour that a fifteen-minute bake cannot.
- Half a cup of broth thins three quarters of a cup of pesto enough to coat every tube.
- Penne tubes hold sauce inside as well as around them.
- Fifteen to eighteen minutes melts and lightly browns cheese without drying the pasta.
Ingredient Notes
- Penne
- Twelve ounces, cooked two minutes short. Tubes rather than shapes or shells — that is what the finished dish shows.
- Basil pesto
- Three quarters of a cup, tossed through the pasta rather than spooned on top. It is the entire sauce.
- Chicken breast
- A pound and a half in chunks, browned to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the skillet before it joins the pasta.
- Mozzarella and Parmesan
- A cup and a half and a third of a cup. Both white — the melted layer over the top is not an orange one.
How to Make It
Oven to 400°F, penne two minutes shy
Heat oven to 400°F. Cook penne 2 minutes shy of al dente and drain.
Chicken browned to 165°F in the skillet
Season chicken and brown in olive oil until 165°F, keeping browned surfaces visible.
Pesto and broth through the pasta, then the chicken
Toss penne with pesto and broth, then fold in the cooked chicken.
Cheese on top, fifteen to eighteen minutes
Transfer to a baking dish, top with mozzarella and Parmesan, and bake 15 to 18 minutes until the cheese melts and browns lightly.
Basil leaves — no tomato, no cream, no crumb
Finish with basil leaves. Do not add tomato, cream, or breadcrumbs.
Two Heats, Because One Cannot Do Both Jobs
This pesto chicken is a BAKED PENNE, and the ladder below is how the two appliances divide the work between them.
Penne, pulled TWO MINUTES EARLY2 minutes shy
12 oz cooked 2 MINUTES SHY of al dente, then drained and not rinsed. This is a bake, and pasta keeps cooking in a 400F dish: penne taken to full al dente in the water arrives soft on the table. Pulled early it still has starch on its surface for the pesto to grip and room to take up liquid in the oven.
Chicken browned IN A SKILLET, to 165F165F, taken in the skillet
1 1/2 lb of breast in chunks, seasoned with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and browned in 1 tbsp of olive oil UNTIL 165F, KEEPING BROWNED SURFACES VISIBLE. Two things happen here that could not happen later. The chicken reaches its safe temperature in a pan where you can check it, rather than buried under pasta and cheese - and it gets its colour, because a 15-minute bake under a cheese layer browns nothing beneath the surface. You want browned upper surfaces on the chicken pieces, and this is the only step that can produce them.
Pesto LOOSENED, then tossed THROUGHThrough the pasta, not on top
3/4 cup basil pesto with 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth, tossed through the penne before the chicken is folded in. The broth is what makes 3/4 cup of a thick paste reach 12 oz of pasta - and it is deliberately broth rather than cream, so the sauce stays GREEN THROUGH the pasta rather than turning pale.
Cheese on, 15 to 18 minutes at 400F15 to 18 minutes
1 1/2 cups mozzarella and 1/3 cup Parmesan over the top, baked UNTIL THE CHEESE MELTS AND BROWNS LIGHTLY. LIGHTLY is the endpoint - long enough for the melt and the first colour, short enough that the pasta underneath does not dry out. Both cheeses are white, which is what the melted layer in the photograph is.
Basil, and three refusalsAfter the oven
1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves over the finished dish. Then step 5's three exclusions, each of which would have made this a different recipe: NO TOMATO, NO CREAM (the sauce is pesto and broth), and NO BREADCRUMBS (the top is cheese, not a crumb crust).
Success Tips
- Drain the penne two minutes early and do not rinse it; it finishes in the dish.
- Brown the chicken in a single layer so the surfaces colour rather than steam.
- Take the dish out while the cheese is lightly browned, not deeply.
Serving Ideas
Six servings from a white baking dish, penne and browned chicken chunks in green pesto under melted white cheese, with fresh basil leaves scattered over the top.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from the other pesto chicken recipes here?
By the starch and the bake. The gnocchi version is a pan dish; the roasted-tomato version has no pasta and carries tomatoes. This is penne with pesto folded through it, baked under cheese, with no tomato.
Why undercook the pasta?
It absorbs pesto and broth for another fifteen to eighteen minutes in the oven. Fully cooked penne would come out soft.
Should I add cream to loosen the pesto?
No — half a cup of chicken broth does that job, and step 5 rules cream out along with tomato and breadcrumbs.
