Pesto Zucchini Noodles with Chicken
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One Pot Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles are a delicious, simple dinner. Naturally gluten free, this meal comes together in under an hour!
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Juicy, sweet tomatoes, yummy zucchini, basil…. this Pesto Zucchini Noodles with Chicken recipe is the best way to use all of them up while making a cozy, veggie-packed meal.
This meal has only 10 simple ingredients, including chicken, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and pesto. It’s one of my favorite lighter dinner recipes to make, especially in the summertime.
This dish has 1.5 servings of veggies per serving, is paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and even be keto if you decrease the tomatoes in the dish (although that would just be sad cause they’re SO delicious). Best of all, it’s made in one pan! I’m always looking for ways to do fewer dishes!
If you’re looking for other healthy zucchini recipes – check out these 30 Healthy Zucchini Recipes!
Liz’s top tips to avoid soggy zucchini noodles
I commonly get asked how to avoid watery zucchini noodles. I have two tips for you on how to avoid soggy zucchini noodles.
- REALLY squeeze the water out of them. I use a thick, absorbent (and clean!) dish towel and squeeze the water out of the noodles hard. The towel should be damp when done.
- Lay the zucchini noodles out on a paper towel lined baking sheet. Typically I will squeeze them again and then add them to whatever dish I’m making.
- If you are going to meal prep this dish, I recommend not adding the zucchini noodles to the dish until you are ready to serve. You can place the chicken/veggie mixture into a container and place your raw zucchini noodles on top. When you’re ready to eat, microwave or heat over the stove to avoid mushy noodles.
Ingredients
Substitutions
Chicken: You can use chicken thighs, tenders, or chicken breasts in this recipe
Pesto: You can sub any pesto sauce in this recipe. If you don’t have a TJ’s near you don’t worry – you can use our favorite nut free pesto recipe.
Zucchini Noodles: You can sub pasta for zucchini noodles.
Fresh Herbs: If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can substitute with 1 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Additional veggies: You can add mushrooms, onions, or corn to this recipe for more vegetables.
How to Make Pesto Zucchini Noodles
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Let the chicken cook for 10-12 minutes or until you get a nice golden brown color on the exterior.
- Once the chicken has browned, remove from the pan. Stir in garlic, cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, pepper and salt. Sauté for 5 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.
- Once tomatoes are softened, stir in pesto and return the chicken to the pan.
- Using tongs, gently toss in raw zucchini noodles, coating evenly in tomato/pesto mixture. Sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes over medium heat until zucchini starts to soften.
- Serve warm. You can top with Parmesan if you’d like!
Can I use pasta instead of Zucchini Noodles with pesto?
Sure, you can use pasta instead of zucchini noodles in this recipe! We love this Chicken Pesto Pasta too, Ricotta Cavatelli, or Sweet Potato Gnocchi.
For paleo pasta, I like Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi or Capello’s fettuccine and will sometimes even add them into this dish for extra volume/carbs.
For gluten free pasta, I like Modern Table Meals. You can also do half past and half zucchini noodles. I would just cook the pasta while the chicken is cooking and toss it in when you would toss in zucchini noodles.
Can I make the Pesto nut free?
Yes, typically pesto is made with pine nuts, but you can make this dish nut free by using a nut free pesto. I like this nut free pesto.
Other delicious Dinner Recipes:
Here are some of our favorite easy healthy dinner recipes!
Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in ½ in cubes
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 lb halved cherry tomatoes about 4 cups
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh basil finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup Trader Joe’s Kale Cashew Basil Pesto or homemade pesto
- 2 large zucchini spiralized with water squeezed out – about 4 cups
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan or pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat.
- Add the chicken to the pan and let it cook for 10-12 minutes or until you get a nice golden brown color on the exterior. Make sure to stir occasionally to brown all sides.
- While the chicken is cooking, halve tomatoes, spiralize zucchini and chop garlic and herbs.
- Once the chicken is browned, remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add the garlic to the pan. You can spray the pan with olive oil if the garlic is sticking. Sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, pepper and salt. Sauté for 5 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.
- Once tomatoes are softened, stir in pesto and return the chicken to the pan.
- Using tongs, gently toss in raw zucchini noodles, coating evenly in tomato/pesto mixture. Saute for an additional 1-2 minutes over medium heat until zucchini starts to soften.
- Serve warm. You can top with Parmesan if you'd like!
Video
Notes
- I commonly get asked how to avoid watery zucchini noodles. I have two tips for you for how to avoid soggy zucchini noodles. The first one is REALLY squeeze the water out of them. I use a thick, absorbent (and clean!) dish towel and squeeze the water out of the noodles hard. The towel should be damp when done.
- I then lay the zucchini noodles out on a paper towel lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt until I’m ready to use them. Typically I will squeeze them again and then add to whatever dish I’m making.
- If you are going to meal prep this dish, I recommend not adding in the zucchini noodles to the dish until you are ready to serve. You can place the chicken/veggie mixture into a container and place your raw zucchini noodles on top. When you’re ready to eat, microwave or heat over the stove to avoid mushy noodles.
Made this tonight for dinner and loved it. I made my own pesto with the recipe that you linked. It had so much flavor. My husband is very picky and doesn’t like a lot of things, so he added red pepper flakes to his, which isn’t my thing. But my teenage son and I ate it as printed and really liked it. May have to try it with shrimp next time.
This is fabulous!!! Will use it to serve over noodles next time but simply a great meal. Thank you!
Pesto has cheese which is NOT whole 30!
Did you read anything on the page? Where we specifically call out to use Whole30 friendly pesto multiple times? Feel free to reread the post 🙂
Thank you for a lovely recipe which I’m going to try this weekend. I would like to hazard a suggestion: when converting between fresh and dry herbs, the ratio is 3:1 (T:t). In other words, the 1/4 c of fresh basil = 4 T = 4 t of dried basil — which I admit seems a lot for this recipe. Similarly, the 2 T fresh parsley = 2 t dried parsley.
I hope you like the recipe! I’m not sure where that ratio is from, but I would absolutely not add 4 teaspoons of dried basil to this recipe – I think it will taste awful. That’s not a ratio I would use but feel free to make your own substitutions!
I make this probably once every couple of months it’s so yummy!
Very easy and straightforward recipe. I added mushrooms as well with the tomatoes and it worked great. Very much recommend, especially for pasta lovers! Thanks for a great recipe.
Phenomenal dish and easy to prepare!! I knew it was a winner when my husband, who is pickier than a toddler, devoured his entire bowl!!! Definitely adding this to our meal rotation!!!!
Pretty good, I wish there was a bit more flavour, might add more pesto next time
If this wasn’t flavorful.. it’s probably the pesto you used!
Great meal and very easy to make.
We love this recipe! It’s so easy to make and great for Whole30!
You never say to cut up the chicken breast.
It says in the recipe – cubed.
So easy to make and absolutely delicious!!!
I cook this tonight it was excellent lots of flavor. I used Aldi pesto and only added one large zucchini, used a mandolin slicer to make the noodles and wrapped in paper towel while chicken and other ingredients cooked.
One of my absolute favorite recipes! The vegan pesto is my favorite Trader Joe’s find (thanks to you)! So easy, but feels restaurant-quality. I’ve made it with the zoodles, with gluten free pasta, and a half/half mix like suggested – all so yummy – and 7yo daughter approved!
Love hearing that! This is one of my favorite trader joes meals!