Pesto Tortellini with Chicken {Quick & Easy Recipe}

This Pesto Tortellini with Chicken recipe is the perfect back to school meal that takes five ingredients and is ready in under 30 minutes.

Now that the new school year is upon us, I’m going into full-on preparation mode. One of the biggest parts of back to school time is knowing which days will be my busy days and which will require quick and easy recipes for dinner.

I grocery shop on Mondays and if I’m not ordering online, those days are hard. It’s much harder to have one toddler than two because one is not occupied by the other. Anyone else run into this? Everyone always said I had my hands full with the two that were less than a year apart, but I tell you what, a two year old by himself is a handful for me!

I’m always plum exhausted after I get home and unload all the groceries. The last thing I want to do is slave over the stove for an hour and a half. Once soccer starts and practice days are set up, I’m sure I’ll have to find quick meal recipes for other days in addition to Mondays.

Pasta recipes come to my rescue time and time again.

I find my kids are pretty receptive to pasta recipes. Plus they are filling enough that I don’t have them begging for seconds and thirds and then half an hour after dinner saying they are starving.

This pesto pasta dish is so easy to make because it only contains five ingredients.

Shredded rotisserie chicken can be substituted in the place of the chicken breasts for an even quicker fix.  You can choose different types of tortellini like cheese or spinach, just depending on what your family likes. The pesto I buy has spinach, so I love to put spinach tortellini in this recipe too. Depending on your preferences, you can add a whole jar of pesto or only enough to taste. It’s up to you! I personally believe pesto is my lifeblood, so the whole jar absolutely gets dumped in.

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What you need:

• 2 chicken breasts, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic, diced
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 pkg. frozen tortellini
• 1 jar prepared pesto
• Parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions:

1. In a skillet, cook seasoned, diced chicken until cooked through. Set aside.
2. Cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain.
3. Immediately toss with pesto to your desired liking.
4. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how it turned out and if it was a quick and easy meal that your whole family loved!

Contributor Jenna shared this Quick, Kid Friendly Chicken Pot Pie recipe that looks divine. It’s a quick stir of the ingredients and place in a baking dish to bake for an hour. No hassle at all! Contributor Crystal posted great tips on how to use up leftovers in your kitchen to make Goulash. Not only do you get to save food that might otherwise be wasted, but if you have forgotten to thaw some meat for dinner or you get home later than expected, you can still scrounge up something to make into goulash. I also have an “under 30 minutes” tag on my food blog, if you’re hunting for more recipes.