Whole30 Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles are a delicious, simple dinner. Paleo and gluten free, this easy dinner comes together in under 30 minutes!
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Juicy, sweet tomatoes, yummy zucchini, basil…. these are the things I live for! This Whole30 Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles recipe is the best way to use all of them up while making a cozy meal.
Zucchini Noodles with Pesto and Chicken
This Whole30 Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles recipe has only 10 simple ingredients including chicken, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and the real star of the show: Trader Joe’s Vegan Kale Cashew Pesto.
I think that this is one of the BEST Trader Joe’s products out there. Even if you’re not vegan, paleo, or doing a whole30 – this pesto is absolutely delicious and tastes super fresh.
It’s on my Best Whole 30 Trader Joe’s Shopping List, but really it should be on everyone’s shopping list.
Why We Love Chicken Zucchini Pesto Pasta:
When you cook up cherry tomatoes, with garlic, olive oil, fresh herbs, and pesto… It’s automatically going to be delicious.. but throw in some chicken and zucchini noodles and you’ve got the ULTIMATE dinner!
- Veggie Loaded – This dish has 1.5 servings of veggies per serving! It’s one of our favorite ways to enjoy our veggies.
- Diet Friendly – this recipe is paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and can even be keto if you decrease the tomatoes in the dish (although that would just be sad cause they’re SO delicious).
- One Pan-I love any meal that can be made with only one pan. I’m always looking for ways to do fewer dishes!
If you’re looking for other healthy zucchini recipes – check out these 30 Healthy Zucchini Recipes!
Ingredients for Chicken Pesto Zoodles
To make this pesto chicken pasta recipe you’ll need:
- olive oil
- chicken breasts
- minced garlic, cherry tomatoes
- pepper
- salt
- fresh basil & parsley
- Trader Joe’s Kale Cashew Basil Pesto or homemade pesto
- zucchini
- you’ll also need a spiralizer
How to Make Zucchini Noodles with Pesto and Chicken
In addition to being delicious, this dinner is ridiculously simple to make (only 7 real steps). Here’s how to make it:
- Heat olive oil in a pan. Sauté chicken until browned on all sides, about 20 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, halve tomatoes, spiralize zucchini and chop garlic/herbs
- Once the chicken is browned, remove it from the pan and set it aside.
- Add an additional tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan. Heat olive oil, and add minced garlic. Sauté until fragrant.
- Stir in cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper, and herbs into olive oil/garlic mixture. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Once tomatoes are softened, stir in pesto and return the chicken to the pan.
- Using tongs, gently toss in raw zucchini noodles, coating evenly in tomato/pesto mixture. Sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes over medium heat until zucchini starts to soften.
Substitutions
Chicken: You can use chicken thighs, tenders, or chicken breasts in this recipe
Pesto: You can sub any pesto in this recipe. If you don’t have a TJ’s near you don’t worry – you can use our favorite nut free pesto recipe.
Zoodles: You can sub pasta for zoodles but this recipe will not be paleo or whole30
Fresh Herbs: If you don’t have fresh herbs you can substitute with 1 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Additional veggies: You can add mushrooms, onions, or corn to this recipe for more vegetables.
Can I use pasta instead of zoodles with pesto?
Sure, you can use pasta instead of zucchini noodles in this recipe. It will, however, not be whole30. If you aren’t following whole30, we love this Chicken Pesto Pasta.
For paleo pasta, I like Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi or Capello’s fettuccine and will sometimes even add them into this dish for extra volume/carbs.
For gluten free pasta, I like Modern Table Meals. You can also do half past and half zucchini noodles. I would just cook the pasta while the chicken is cooking and toss it in when you would toss in zucchini noodles.
Can I make the Pesto nut free?
Yes, you can make this dish nut free by using a nut free pesto. I like this nut free pesto.
Help! How do you cook a zucchini noodles recipe so they are not soggy?
I commonly get asked how to avoid watery zucchini noodles. I have two tips for you on how to avoid soggy zucchini noodles.
- REALLY squeeze the water out of them. I use a thick, absorbent (and clean!) dish towel and squeeze the water out of the noodles hard. The towel should be damp when done.
- Lay the zucchini noodles out on a paper towel lined baking sheet. Typically I will squeeze them again and then add them to whatever dish I’m making.
- If you are going to meal prep this dish, I recommend not adding the zucchini noodles to the dish until you are ready to serve. You can place the chicken/veggie mixture into a container and place your raw zucchini noodles on top. When you’re ready to eat, microwave or heat over the stove to avoid mushy noodles.
Is safflower oil whole30?
You can read the full article here from the Whole30 team but here is the short answer: Corn oil, rice bran oil, soybean oil, and peanut oil are banned from a whole30.
It is encouraged to limit your use of the other oils like safflower, sunflower, canola, grapeseed, or sesame at home, while not specifically excluding them on the program.Â
There is a very tiny amount of safflower seed oil in this pesto (only used to roast the cashews in it) so you can enjoy this pesto while on your whole30. Of course, you can also make your own and use a great quality olive oil too! It’s up to you!
Other delicious Whole30 Dinner Recipes:
We have a whole category dedicated to whole30 recipes but here are some of our favorite Whole30 dinner recipes:
- Healthy Asian Turkey Stir Fry
- Greek Chicken Zucchini Noodles
- Slow Cooker Chicken Stew
- Crockpot Whole Chicken
- Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken
- We love using Thrive Market when on Whole30 because it is easy to sort by diet to find Whole30 compliant ingredients/products. Check out our full Thrive Market Review!
Whole 30 Pesto Chicken Zucchini Noodles Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cubed
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 lb cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup fresh basil finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Kale Cashew Basil Pesto or homemade pesto
- 2 large zucchini spiralized with water squeezed out – about 4 cups
Instructions
- Heat one tbsp olive oil in pan. Sauté chicken until browned on all sides, about 15 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, halve tomatoes, spiralize zucchini and chop garlic/herbs
- Once chicken is browned, remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add an additional tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan. Heat olive oil, and add in 1 tbsp minced garlic. Sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper and herbs to olive oil/garlic mixture. Sauté for 5 minutes or until tomatoes are soft
- Once tomatoes are softened, stir in pesto and return chicken to the pan.
- Using tongs, gently toss in raw zucchini noodles, coating evenly in tomato/pesto mixture. Saute for an additional 1-2 minutes over medium heat until zucchini starts to soften.
- Serve + enjoy.
- Optional if not whole30 – top with parmesan cheese!
Video
Notes
- I commonly get asked how to avoid watery zucchini noodles. I have two tips for you for how to avoid soggy zucchini noodles. The first one is REALLY squeeze the water out of them. I use a thick, absorbent (and clean!) dish towel and squeeze the water out of the noodles hard. The towel should be damp when done.
- I then lay the zucchini noodles out on a paper towel lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt until I’m ready to use them. Typically I will squeeze them again and then add to whatever dish I’m making.
- If you are going to meal prep this dish, I recommend not adding in the zucchini noodles to the dish until you are ready to serve. You can place the chicken/veggie mixture into a container and place your raw zucchini noodles on top. When you’re ready to eat, microwave or heat over the stove to avoid mushy noodles.
RJ says
Pesto has cheese which is NOT whole 30!
Liz Marino says
Did you read anything on the page? Where we specifically call out to use Whole30 friendly pesto multiple times? Feel free to reread the post 🙂
Jeanne Gold says
Thank you for a lovely recipe which I’m going to try this weekend. I would like to hazard a suggestion: when converting between fresh and dry herbs, the ratio is 3:1 (T:t). In other words, the 1/4 c of fresh basil = 4 T = 4 t of dried basil — which I admit seems a lot for this recipe. Similarly, the 2 T fresh parsley = 2 t dried parsley.
The Clean Eating Couple says
I hope you like the recipe! I’m not sure where that ratio is from, but I would absolutely not add 4 teaspoons of dried basil to this recipe – I think it will taste awful. That’s not a ratio I would use but feel free to make your own substitutions!
Sean says
I make this probably once every couple of months it’s so yummy!
Leslie says
Very easy and straightforward recipe. I added mushrooms as well with the tomatoes and it worked great. Very much recommend, especially for pasta lovers! Thanks for a great recipe.
Shayna Gabor says
Phenomenal dish and easy to prepare!! I knew it was a winner when my husband, who is pickier than a toddler, devoured his entire bowl!!! Definitely adding this to our meal rotation!!!!
Nora says
Pretty good, I wish there was a bit more flavour, might add more pesto next time
The Clean Eating Couple says
If this wasn’t flavorful.. it’s probably the pesto you used!
Regina Liggins says
Great meal and very easy to make.
Alex sohn says
We love this recipe! It’s so easy to make and great for Whole30!
Nancy says
You never say to cut up the chicken breast.
The Clean Eating Couple says
It says in the recipe – cubed.
Patricia Carolin says
So easy to make and absolutely delicious!!!
Jo says
I cook this tonight it was excellent lots of flavor. I used Aldi pesto and only added one large zucchini, used a mandolin slicer to make the noodles and wrapped in paper towel while chicken and other ingredients cooked.
Leslie says
One of my absolute favorite recipes! The vegan pesto is my favorite Trader Joe’s find (thanks to you)! So easy, but feels restaurant-quality. I’ve made it with the zoodles, with gluten free pasta, and a half/half mix like suggested – all so yummy – and 7yo daughter approved!
The Clean Eating Couple says
Love hearing that! This is one of my favorite trader joes meals!