If your dinner routine has been feeling a little uninspired, this Crockpot Tomato Pesto Chicken might be the reset button you need. It takes a handful of simple ingredients and turns them into something that tastes vibrant, comforting, and surprisingly impressive with almost no effort on your part.
The tomatoes break down as they cook, mingling with rich pesto to create a sauce that’s bright, savory, and full of basil-garlic flavor. Meanwhile, the chicken becomes incredibly tender, soaking up every bit of that goodness along the way. It’s one of those meals that feels effortless but still hits like a proper homemade dinner.
Whether you pile it onto pasta, spoon it over rice, or tuck it into a toasted roll, this recipe is flexible, dependable, and exactly what the crockpot was made for: making dinner happen while you do literally anything else.
Crockpot Tomato Pesto Chicken
4
servings30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
6–8 chicken thighs (bone-in or boneless)
1 jar (24 oz) your favorite tomato sauce
½ cup pesto
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt + pepper to taste
Spaghetti noodles
Garlic toast (store-bought or homemade)
Directions
- Build your sauce right in the crockpot:
Add tomato sauce, pesto, minced garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper directly into the crockpot.
Stir everything together until it’s well combined. That pesto is going to give it that rich, herby flavor that takes this to another level. - Add your chicken:
Place the chicken thighs into the sauce and spoon some of the sauce over the top so they’re fully coated. - Let the crockpot do its thing:
• Cook on LOW for 6–7 hours
• Cook on HIGH for 3–4 hours
The chicken should be tender and easy to shred. - Shred or serve whole:
• Shred the chicken right in the crockpot for a saucy pasta vibe
• Leave the thighs whole and serve them over the pasta - Cook your spaghetti + toast:
Toward the end of cooking, boil your spaghetti according to package instructions and prepare your garlic toast. - Assemble your plate:
Add spaghetti to a bowl, top with the tomato pesto chicken and plenty of sauce, and serve with garlic toast on the side.
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