Pesto and Mozzarella Chicken

One of my new year's resolutions this year was to try 100 new recipes. When I was baking and cooking for a job, this would have been a piece of cake. ( pun intended, hardy har!) But since my culinary adventures are no longer a job, I thought it was time to learn some new tricks and recipes, as I felt like I was making the same things for dinner every night. 

It's comfortable to make the same recipes often, because you know you'll like them, and after a few times it's pretty hard to screw stuff up. But I am not ready to succumb to meatloaf every Monday, variety is the spice of life right? So I scoured Pinterest, recipe websites and dusted off some of my 57 cookbooks to find some new recipes, and once I've worked the kinks out, I'll have a much more interesting collection of new grub.

Pesto and Mozzarella Chicken

-4 chicken breasts

- 3/4 cup mozzarella

- 1/2 t. salt and pepper

-1 t. garlic powder

-1 T. olive oil

- 6 grape tomatoes for garnish

Pesto:

3 large garlic cloves

1/2 cup pine nuts

2 ounces Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3 cups loosely packed fresh basil

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions: 

Chicken: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dredge chicken breasts in olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder and bake 25-30 minutes or until 165 degrees. While baking, combine all ingredients for pesto in food processor and pulse until desired consistency. During last 5 minutes of baking chicken sprinkle mozzarella on top to melt. Before serving, spread pesto sauce over tops of breasts and garnish with halved grape tomatoes and a small sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Aye chihuahua, this was so good! My spoiled fiance' whose had me cooking almost every night for the past 7 years let his mouth fall open when he saw it, and we had to fight over who got the last piece for lunch the next day.

Delicious chunks of garlic-y pesto and the gooey cheese over the meat, it was a real keeper recipe. And I just love any excuse to make pesto. Pine nuts are almost as expensive as gold, so you can substitute walnuts if need be, but for a real treat go all the way, because the flavor really is something special.

So, the first newbie was a success, now for 99 more! Enjoy!