Weekend Test Kitchen: Pesto Chicken with pan-roasted potatoes and spinach

I LOVE pesto. I realized today that I haven't had anything with pesto in it in months. It was a quiet Sunday evening so I decided to pull together a dinner from the chicken I had defrosting and the container of basil pesto I bought on Friday. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless chicken breast

1 container of basil pesto (Buitoni all natural)

Sharp Italian cheese or Italian red pepper cheese

2 regular sized potatoes

1 bag of fresh spinach leaves

Seasonings of:

paprika, rosemary, basil, chopped garlic, butter, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil

Preparations:

• Heat oven to 425 degrees
• Shred/grate sharp Italian cheese ( I used Italian red pepper flake cheese that had the consistency of cheddar.) Set aside for chicken in baking process.
• Take 2 heaping tablespoons of pesto spread and cover the breasts generously on both sides, put into a baking dish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• While oven is heating, quarter potatoes and then quarter again until you have small pieces. Put into a pan with 2 tablespoons of butter, rosemary, paprika, sea salt, ground pepper and a pinch of basil. Pan roast, covered until soft in the center and brown/crispy on the outside.
• Tear stems from spinach leaves and get ready to sautee with chopped garlic, extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar.
• Bake chicken in oven for 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Remove, when melted and bubbling. Chicken will be slightly browned.

I placed the chicken breasts on top of the spinach with potatoes on the side.

This dinner was easy to make, cost-effective and was very flavorful. It gets two thumbs up in our house.