Chicken breasts made in the slow cooker with pesto and butter then made into a cheesy pasta casserole with mozzarella cheese and parmesan.
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 chicken 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!
You may also like:
- Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Pasta
- Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
- Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken and Pasta
- Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Spaghetti
- Slow Cooker Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti
Slow Cooker Pesto Mozzarella Pasta
Equipment Needed:
- Slow Cooker- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients:
- 1½ lbs. chicken breasts
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 cup jarred pesto I used Mezzetta
- ¼ cup salted butter
- ½ lemon
These items don’t get added until the end
- 1 lb. rotini cooked and drained
- ½ cup parmesan
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- ¼ 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!
We did not like this dish . It was very blan and will not make again.
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?
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.
Also, the video directions do not match up with the written directions.
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.
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!
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! (:
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!
Can it be done without lemon my daughter is allergic?
This is delicious, easy, and hearty! Thank you so much for sharing.
I loved this dish. I chose to use sundried tomato pesto instead and everything else the same. I will be making this meal again.
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!
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?
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.
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.
Why add lemon juice? Just wondering
Lemon is great with chicken and adds flavor to the whole dish.
I made this last night. I added a can of chicken broth and used real parm cheese. Then took it out of the crockpot, and into a 9×13 pan, sprinkled with the mozzarella cheese and placed it in the oven to get the cheese brown and melted. Husband still thought it was dry. IF I make it again, I will use 2 cans of broth and maybe some red pepper flakes. It had a good flavor. Just seemed like it was missing something.
We thought this was good but too dry. I added a jar of Alfredo sauce
to it and that made it creamier.
I cooked this for our family tonight. I used my pressure cooker instead of my crock pot. I would not recommend that to anyone. Chicken creates a lot of it’s own juices at it is, but even moreso in a pressure cooker, and it did not have the creaminess I hoped for. It was more of a buttery, pesto soup instead of sauce. I also need a lot more cheese.
I’ll try this again in my crock pot next time.
We added a jar of Alfredo sauce and it was amazing!
did you add in the alfreado sauce in addition to the pesto? if so when did you add the sauce?