Mediterranean Chicken and Mushrooms in Pesto

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This Mediterranean Chicken and Mushrooms in Pesto is a take-off on one of my favorites chicken in pesto recipes. This is a light dish yet full with all the good fats you want to consume on a low carb high-fat diet. The pesto has nuts (originally pine nuts) and olive oil. The Chicken I cook with grass-fed ghee. We also have the kalamata olives which is another great source. The combination of boneless chicken and mushrooms baked in pesto sauce is just delicious.

I’m using pasture-raised chicken that is fed organically. I mentioned many time the importance of the chicken quality.  You can read more about it here on Dr. Mercola fantastic blog and the post about pasture raised chicken.

I think it’s a wonderful dish even for those who follow the low carb diet. This is a typical Mediterranean flavor recipe that can give some new tastes to your meals.

Similar to most of our Mediterranean dishes, this is an easy recipe but it takes a little more preparation. You need to make the pesto, cook the chicken and the mushrooms and then combine everything together and put it in the oven. It takes about 50 min to prepare everything. The nice thing about this dish is that you can make extra and eat the leftovers the next day it still tastes wonderful.

How to make the Chicken and Mushrooms in Pesto

There are a few steps to prepare the Chicken and Mushrooms in Pesto.

1. The Pesto: I like to start with the pesto. You can see the full pesto recipe here. This is a traditional pesto recipe. I start by grinding a cup of basil with nuts. Usually you’ll use pine nuts but lately, I could only find pine nuts from China so I decided to use local walnuts which taste great. Then I add garlic and parmesan Reggiano to it, salt and pepper and then the olive oil. I add the olive oil slowly not all at once and grind between each TBSP. I keep adding olive oil until it all become a beautiful single texture green pesto. Mix the pesto with sour cream or coconut cream if you’re making a vegan dish
2. The Chicken – I cut boneless chicken into bite-size pieces and cook them in grass-fed ghee. Don’t overcook them because they will also be baked in the oven
3. Mushrooms, I like to cut the mushrooms coarsely so, I can feel the taste in every bite. I love to use Shitake mushrooms but you can use any or mix a few types. It’s possible to cook it in the same pan as the chicken but I prefer to cook it in a different pan. I mix olive oil and grass-fed ghee and cook the mushrooms just a little bit. You don’t want to cook them too much because they are going to the oven next.
4. Combine ingredients – Take the chicken and mushrooms and add them to proper cookware. Add Kalamata olives and spread some feta (this is optional, skip if you make a vegan dish). On top of everything pour the pesto and cream cover evenly and to the over at 400 f (200c) for about 20 min.

I love serving this dish either on cauliflower rice (you can make vegetable buckwheat if you’re not following low carb diet) or roasted broccoli and cauliflower with a nice salad.