This slow cooker 3-ingredient creamy pesto chicken is the kind of dish that makes people swear you’ve been in the kitchen all afternoon. In reality, it’s a true weeknight shortcut: chicken simmers low and slow in jarred basil pesto and cream until it’s fall-apart tender and cloaked in a pale green, herb-flecked sauce. While pesto itself has roots in Ligurian Italian cooking, here it’s doing double duty—both seasoning and sauce base—so you can get a rich, comforting, book-club-worthy dinner with almost no hands-on time.
Serve this creamy pesto chicken spooned over hot buttered pasta, egg noodles, or a bed of steamed rice so the sauce has something to soak into. It’s also excellent over mashed or roasted potatoes, or alongside a simple green salad and crusty bread to mop up every bit of the basil-flecked cream. For a slightly lighter plate, pair it with roasted vegetables—broccoli, green beans, or cherry tomatoes all play nicely with the garlicky pesto flavors.
Slow Cooker 3-Ingredient Creamy Pesto ChickenServings: 6
Ingredients
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
1 cup prepared basil pesto (from a jar)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Directions
Place the chicken in an even layer on the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. If the pieces are very thick, you can cut them into large chunks so they cook more evenly and absorb more sauce.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the basil pesto and heavy cream until the mixture is smooth, pale green, and evenly combined with visible basil flecks.
Pour the creamy pesto mixture over the chicken, turning the pieces gently with a spoon or tongs to make sure they’re well coated. Spread the chicken back into an even layer so it cooks uniformly.
Cover the slow cooker with the lid and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours, or on HIGH for 2 to 3 hours, until the chicken is very tender and easily pulls apart with a fork.
Once the chicken is cooked, use two forks to shred it into bite-size chunks directly in the slow cooker, or simply cut it into chunks if you prefer more defined pieces. Stir the chicken back into the creamy pesto sauce so everything is well coated.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with a pinch of salt or a grind of black pepper if needed, keeping in mind that most jarred pestos are already well seasoned.
Serve the creamy pesto chicken hot, spooning generous portions of the chicken and the pale green basil-flecked sauce over your choice of pasta, rice, or potatoes.
Variations & Tips
If you prefer a slightly lighter dish, you can swap part of the heavy cream for half-and-half, though the sauce will be a bit thinner. For a deeper, richer flavor, use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts; they stay especially juicy after hours in the slow cooker. To make this more family-friendly for picky eaters, shred the chicken very finely so it almost disappears into the sauce—kids tend to like it over small pasta shapes. If you enjoy a more pronounced basil punch, stir in an extra spoonful of pesto right before serving to brighten the flavor. For entertaining, plate the chicken in wide, shallow bowls and finish with a sprinkle of freshly cracked black pepper and a few torn basil leaves (if you have them on hand) for a restaurant-style look without adding to the core ingredient list. Finally, if you need to hold the dish for a crowd, switch the slow cooker to WARM once the chicken is done; the sauce will stay silky for about an hour as long as you give it a quick stir now and then.
