Macadamia Kale Pesto Chicken and Squash

Nov 28, 2018 | Chicken, Vegetables

Macadamia Kale Pesto belongs on everything — especially this chicken and squash skillet! This pesto is dairy-free and full of bright flavors. 

pesto chicken

Reality is hard! Thank goodness for coffee and dogs. It’s been such a long week already. My mom flew back to CT yesterday morning, and now I’m back to my usual routine and loneliness. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy being single, but it’s hard to go from having your mom around to coming home to an empty house. No matter how old you are, you need your mom. Fact.

Not only was it awful to have my mom leave, but then I accidentally sent a newsletter at my job to 600 people with the wrong subject line. So that was fantastic and basically sucker punched my self esteem. I have only cried two times in 2018… until yesterday. I sat on the floor with Hudson and cried it out for a solid five minutes. I’ve been emotionally exhausted ever since then, but I also feel like it was good to let everything out. Now I’m going to go back to being a stone fortress of zero emotion for four months or so.

pesto chicken

Speaking of emotion, I put up my Christmas tree tonight and I seriously love it. I got a three foot tree from Target for $15 and its the perfect size for my apartment. I didn’t have a tree in college due to extreme poverty and general depression, but I’m still a strong believer in Christmas decorating. I’ve been planning this years decor for some time now. The only problem was that I couldn’t find a Christmas movie to watch while I decorated! Between Netflix, Prime, and Hulu there isn’t a single good Christmas movie. Why are they always cheesy plots with low level acting? The Holiday and Elf are among the few winner Christmas movies, but those aren’t the ones on Netlix. No, Netflix has instead decided to insult us with nonsense like the Christmas Price or whatever it’s called. How pathetic do I look? Do I need to cry even less to be taken seriously and served decent movies? Honestly.

Thank goodness for the bits of sanity in life. For example, this pesto. Go try it, and all will be right in the world again.

pesto chicken

Macadamia Kale Pesto Chicken and Squash

PREP TIME 5 minutes
COOK TIME 25 minutes
TOTAL TIME 30 minutes
SERVINGS 4

INGREDIENTS

For Pesto

  • 2.5 cups loosely packed kale leaves no stems
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup macadamia nuts you could use cashews or almonds
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic
  • 1/4 - 1/2 tsp sea salt

For Chicken

  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts.
  • 1 delicata squash halved, seeded, and
  • sliced.
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp rosemary
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Combine kale, olive oil, garlic, salt, and lemon in a food processor and process on high for 1 min to break down kale. Add macadamia-nuts and process for an additional 1-2 minutes until smooth.
  2. Preheat oven to 425 F and grease a large skillet with coconut oil. Coat chicken breasts in about 1/3 of the pesto, and save the rest for serving.
  3. Toss squash with olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
  4. Place chicken breasts in the skillet and add the squash around them. Bake at 425 F for 25-30 minutes, depending on how thick your chicken is.

  5. Enjoy!

pesto chicken

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MEET THE AUTHOR

Hey! I’m Moriah– a commercial and editorial food photographer and creative entrepreneur who is perpetually drinking coffee and covered in dog hair. I write this blog from New York City where I run my creative agency, The B Edit. I write this blog in the hopes that you can one day have your creative dream job, too!   

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