This easy Slow Cooker Pesto Mozzarella Chicken is a meal the entire family will enjoy!
This new recipe for Slow Cooker Pesto Mozzarella Chicken is a spin-off from a freezer meal I made a few months ago called Lemon Pesto Chicken. Looking back at that recipe I wish I would have done this to it from the start. Adding the pasta and parmesan in the slow cooker at the end of the cooking time THEN topping with mozzarella cheese turned that basic recipe I made a few months ago into a meal I want to make weekly now.
For this recipe I tried the Mezzetta pesto, It did well in this recipe! Of course homemade pesto would be better but I don’t have time for that! Besides topping the chicken with the pesto I also add fresh lemon juice and butter. The way the butter tastes with the pasta can’t be beat.
Start with chicken breasts, salt, pepper, lemon juice, pesto and butter. Yes, that is all you put in at first. It’s that easy.
After the chickn is cooked I add a pound of cooked pasta and top with mozzarella cheese.
This meal is beautiful enough to have dinner guests over! Just add a salad and French bread for sides,
I was afraid my daughter wouldn’t like this meal because of the green stuff on it. She didn’t even blink an eye and ate a whole plate! What I love about this meal is how there is not much prep to do to get this in going in the crock pot. Putting the chicken and sauce ingredients in the crock pot takes less than 10 minutes.
I hope you enjoy this pasta recipe! Have a great week!
Equipment
- Slow Cooker- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1 cup jarred pesto I used Mezzetta
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 1/2 lemon
These items don’t get added until the end
- 1 lb. rotini cooked and drained
- 1/2 cup parmesan
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1/4 tsp. dried basil to garnish
Instructions
- Add the chicken to the slow cooker. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Spread over the pesto, squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken. Cut the butter into slices and lay over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- Near the end of the cooking time, cook the pasta according to the package directions and drain well.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks. Add the cooked pasta and the parmesan cheese, stir everything until the pasta is coated with the buttery pesto sauce and the chicken is evenly dispersed throughout the pasta. Add the mozzarella cheese over the pasta. Cover for about 15 more minutes or until the cheese has melted.
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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If I want to add fresh mushrooms (to be cooked) when would you add?
You can add them in the beginning! Or even half way through if you want them more firm.
I actually made it in a pan and it still tasted delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
I saw in the comments that it was pretty dry so i added 1/2 cup of milk. It was pretty Creamy.
Per other comments, if I’m going to add whole milk to it to add some creaminess (since I don’t have cream), at what point should I do that?
Made this tonight and wanted to convert recipe to WW points because it tasted so delicious!! It says serves 8….how much is one serving size?
The servings are approximate. I make a guess how many people it will serve after I serve my family dinner. I can’t say how much exactly each serving is. So sorry!
I loved this dish. I chose to use sundried tomato pesto instead and everything else the same. I will be making this meal again.
This is delicious, easy, and hearty! Thank you so much for sharing.
Can it be done without lemon my daughter is allergic?
I am going to make this tomorrow! Looks delicious! Do you think 4 hours on high untouched/unopened is an adequate cook time for the chicken? I’ve never cooked chicken in my crockpot on low- only 4 hours high always.
Then thinking I will do last 15 minutes with pasta and cheese on low?
should be fine!
Just made this for dinner. Only cooked the chicken on high for 2 hours. Added 8oz of cream cheese…. it was amazing! Thank you
Cream cheese sounds really good. Thanks for sharing!
I will have to try the 8oz. Of cream cheese next time. I definitely needed a creamy component. Thanks for the idea! (:
So good I added some pasta water and sour cream also topped it off with Italian bread crumbs and used less cheese.
Great tips Denise!
I’m confused on the shredded cheese. There are discrepancies. Is it mozzarella or Parmesan cheese at the end and are the amount correct? The directions say add two cups of mozzarella at the end but the ingredients say to add the Parmesan cheese at the end.
I updated the recipe. There are items that get added after the chicken cooks. The parmesan gets stirred in with the pasta. The mozzarella gets sprinkled on top.
Also, the video directions do not match up with the written directions.
It was very tasty. Will def make it again. Should I drain the pesto before cooking cuz it was pretty oily? Or will that affect the flavor?
The oil from the pesto adds a lot of flavor so I would leave it. You can give it a good stir to mix everything back together if it’s separated.
For purposes of calorie and macro tracking, do you know what the breakdown for that is?
Hi Jennifer, I just updated the recipe card to have the nutrition. I’m slowing updating my recipes starting this week. I hope that helps.
Awesome, thank you! Also, just as a reference point for you: somewhere between the 4.5 and 5.5 hour mark, my pesto started started to burn… I’m not exactly sure when because I was at the gym, but do you have any recommendations to stop that from happening? Or should I just assume that, for my crockpot, just to cook it for five hours?
We did not like this dish . It was very blan and will not make again.
Just made this absolutely delicious. I was concerned after reading the comments so I made one tweak. When cooking the chicken I coated the bottom of the crockpot with low sodium chicken broth. Will definitely make again!
Great tip, thank you Cynthia!
This recipe was delicious. I like the suggestion for cream cheese- also may add some red pepper next time.
Can you make this in the Instant Pot?
Trying this now! I’m so excited. I’m using orzo pasta because that is what I have on hand. I will respond as to how it turns out.
It was a bit on the dry side, wished I would have read the reviews, would have added some Alfredo sauce or something, overall it had great flavor.
This is my FAVORITE recipe for chicken. I have made this 12 times in a month 1/2
Do you cook it based on the recipe? Some of the reviews say about it being dry
This came out amazingly well. My whole family loved it!
I made this tonight and my family and I all loved it! Based on some of the earlier comments, I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and in addition to pesto, I added a jar of Alfredo sauce. Also, I only used half of the butter since the Alfredo sauce made it creamier. and only used 1 cup of mozzarella. Also, I made this in in the pressure cooker instead of the crockpot since I was short on time. I followed the recipe, but cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker for 10 minutes. It turned out delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi. My husband can’t eat a lot of pasta,he is allergic too egg. Can i make the Pasta and keep it seperate and just add it to mine as i make my plate? Or is there anything I can sub in its place or use wheat pasta? Thank you
I made this tonight and it was delicious. I didn’t have jarred pesto, but had a packet of Knorr’s pesto sauce that uses water and olive oil. I made up the sauce and poured that over the chicken so it was very moist after cooking in the Crock Pot all day. Also did not have pasta so put the chicken over rice. Even my picky 10 year old liked it!
All great ideas Kelly!