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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
Shrimp + Chicken = Delicious
Shrimp and chicken pesto pasta is a delicious dish that combines plump shrimp, moist chicken, and linguine pasta, all tossed together with a flavorful and aromatic spinach-basil pesto sauce.
Quick and Easy
This shrimp and chicken pesto pasta is an impressive and hearty meal that makes an excellent family dinner. Also, it's really easy to make. Hooray! You're going to love it.
There are a lot of things I love about this pesto pasta dish, so I'm going to go ahead and just list them out:
- You get a healthy dose of fresh spinach because I use spinach and basil in my homemade pesto sauce. Vitamins ✅
- This is such a fragrant dish. Between the seafood smells of cooking shrimp, fresh basil, roasting pine nuts and Parmesan cheese, even if you're not hungry, this gets your taste buds watering.
- Pesto is so flavorful. You could spread it on a slice of crusty bread and eat it just like that. You might want to make extra!
- Pesto pasta is so versatile! I love the shrimp and chicken combination but you could do one or the other, or leave them both out for a vegetarian dish or serve it as a side dish.
- This dish is super easy to prep. I use rotisserie chicken and frozen, de-veined raw shrimp to save time.
- The recipe can be doubled or tripled to feed a large group. Perfect for an extended family or friend dinner party.
- Extra pesto sauce can be stored in the freezer for up to 4 months.
- You can make this dinner even healthier by using zucchini noodles or use spaghetti squash!
I could go on but you get the point. This is a great recipe to have in your regular line-up whether for weeknight dinner or for feeding a crowd.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
This tasty dinner is super easy to make using just a handful of ingredients.
Here's what you need:
- Pasta. Spaghetti noodles or linguine.
- Diced chicken. To save time, I buy this raw but pre-cut.
- Raw shrimp. Fresh or frozen, tailed removed and deveined.
- Fresh spinach. Frozen works, just thaw and squeeze excess liquid.
- Basil. Fresh basil is best. I like to add a bit of dried basil too for texture, that's optional though!
- Garlic. I use garlic paste to save time,.
- Pine nuts. Salted or add your own salt.
- Parmesan cheese. You can freshly grate yours or use shredded or grated.
- Olive oil. You can also use grape seed oil or avocado oil if you prefer.
- Sea salt. Add to taste. You can use regular table salt if that's what you have.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
This delicious pasta dinner is simple to make in just a few steps.
Here's a look at the steps:
- Toast pine nuts, add to food processor with pesto ingredients.
- Blend together pesto sauce ingredients.
- Add pesto sauce to cooked pasta.
- Cook shrimp.
- Cook chicken.
- Add chicken, shrimp and Parmesan cheese to pesto pasta and serve.
Simple as that!
★ Tips & FAQs ★
While homemade pesto is always a treat and arguably much better tasting, store-bought pesto will work and saves time. Look for a high-quality pesto sauce in the pasta or condiment aisle of your grocery store. You can always add some fresh basil to jarred sauce to help freshen it up.
You can use any type of pasta you like for shrimp and chicken pesto pasta, but long, thin varieties like spaghetti or fettuccine tend to work particularly well. Their shape allows the pesto sauce to coat each strand of pasta evenly, resulting in a flavorful dish.
Shrimp and chicken are best cooked fresh, but you can prep ahead to save time. Cook and refrigerate the pasta, and make the pesto up to 3 days in advance. When ready to serve, cook the chicken and shrimp, reheat the pasta (add a splash of water if dry), and toss everything with the pesto.
Yes. Simply omit the chicken (and shrimp if you'd like) and add your favorite vegetables or plant-based protein instead. Sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and spinach are all delicious options that pair well with pesto sauce.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stove or in the microwave, adding a splash of water or broth if needed to loosen the sauce. You can freeze for up to 2–3 months, but note the texture may change and shrimp can get rubbery. Thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat just until warmed through.
★ More Pesto Recipes ★
Want more dinner ideas?
Browse all my easy dinner recipes.
This shrimp and chicken pesto pasta recipe was featured on South Your Mouth!
Shrimp and Chicken Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 16 oz linguine pasta, cooked
- 16 oz jumbo shrimp deveined, tail-on
- 1.25 lb diced chicken breast
- salt and pepper to taste
Pesto Sauce
- 4 cups fresh spinach
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoon dried basil
- ¼ cup pine nuts lightly toasted
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ¼ cup olive oil plus more to grease pan
Topping
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- Cook pasta. Cook and drain pasta as directed on the package. Return pasta to the pot and cover to keep warm. Add a little oil if needed to prevent pasta from sticking to pan.
- Toast pine nuts. Add pine nuts to a baking sheet and bake until light golden brown. About 2-3 minutes at 350ºF. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Prepare pesto sauce. While pasta is cooking, using a food processor, blend together spinach, basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt and oil to create the pesto sauce.
- Combine pesto and pasta. Add pesto sauce to pasta and toss to coat. Cover again to keep warm.
- Cook shrimp. Using a greased cast iron skillet, cook raw shrimp over medium-high heat, for 2-3 minutes on each side or until pink. Season generously with salt and pepper as they cook. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Cook chicken. Using the same skillet, add a drizzle of oil and cook diced chicken over medium-high heat. Season generously with salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about 4-6 minutes or until internal temperature reached 165ºF then remove from heat and set aside with shrimp.
- Serve. To serve, twirl pesto noodles and place several twirls onto each plate. Top with shrimp, chicken and Parmesan cheese.
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