Keto 7 day meal plan

Keto Pesto Chicken

by KetoFocus.com
12 Stars (4.9 Reviews)
easy kid friendly
25 Mins
Print Recipe
Nutrition Facts

4

Servings

485

Calories

33g

Fat

47g

Protein

0g

Net Carbs

An easy keto chicken dinner recipe that takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. Keto Pesto Chicken is a low carb dinner you can enjoy on a busy weeknight.

Keto Pesto Chicken Ingredients

Keto Pesto Chicken Directions

  • 1
    Place the chicken thighs, pesto, rice vinegar, salt and monk fruit in a large bowl or ziploc bag. Mix or shake until the marinade is combined and chicken is evenly coated. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.
    pesto and chicken in a bowl
  • 2
    When ready to cook, remove chicken from the refrigerate. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Align chicken in a 8 x 12 casserole dish. Pour remaining marinade over the chicken thighs.
    marinaded pesto chicken in a casserole dish
  • 3
    Bake chicken at 425 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
    baked pesto chicken in a baking dish
Print Recipe

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Low Carb Pesto Chicken Recipe

slicing pesto chicken on the dinner plate This recipe is one of the easiest keto dinner recipes. As long as you remember to marinade the chicken a few hours or even the night before, the rest takes 2 minutes of your time and you let your oven do the rest. But I have even forgotten to marinade the chicken before and just threw everything in a pan. It was STILL delicious! Definitely, give the flavors time to meld together if you have the time though.

Keto pesto chicken only requires four ingredients and it’s prepared in one dish (if you are using a plastic bag or marinade the chicken in the baking dish), so clean up is easy too! This easy keto dinner recipe is one I often turn to on week day nights.

The chicken is juicy and a balanced flavor between the pesto and the vinegar.

Chicken on the Keto Diet

chicken thighs in a bowl

On the keto diet, the best cuts of chicken are the darker meats like chicken thighs and drumsticks since they have a higher fat content compared to white cuts of chicken meat, like the breast. I prefer chicken thighs to chicken breast since the thighs tend to have more flavor than the breast meat. Remember fat = flavor! However, if chicken breast is all you have, you can use them in this recipe. You may have to adjust the cooking time as chicken breast meat tends to be thicker. Chicken breast needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees fahrenheit as well.

Pesto on the Keto Diet

mezzetta pesto

Most pesto is considered keto friendly since it is mostly made up of basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and olive oil. I do recommend looking at the ingredient list and carbohydrate count since some manufacturers like to sneak in sugar in their pesto. My favorite brand of pesto is by Mezzetta. It contains no added sugar and is zero net carbs per serving.

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Rice Vinegar

When selecting a rice vinegar for this recipe, look for one without an sugar in it. Some brand add sugar to the rice vinegar. The brand of rice vinegar I like to use is by Marukan. It is the green labelled one and is sugar free.

chicken marinading in pesto and vinegar

Ways to Use Leftover Keto Pesto Chicken

I like to make a bunch of keto pesto chicken and use the leftovers in other low carb recipes throughout the week. You can add leftover pesto chicken to zoodles and pasta sauce to make a chicken spaghetti or top it on fathead dough to make Keto Chicken Pesto Pizza (recipe coming soon!).

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Annie Lampella

Annie Lampella

I strive to find meals that your whole family can enjoy (kids and relatives too) while you are on your keto quest. You can still have your favorite foods on the keto diet, you just have to be creative with how you make them.

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Keto 7 day meal plan