Recipe for Cilantro Lime Pesto Roasted Chicken

I love all the fun pesto concoctions you can find these days!  Different nuts, different herbs...  I have my standby pesto recipe that I adore but I found a locally produced cilantro, lime, macadamia nut pesto here on Maui and wow is it good!  I had a nice organic free range chicken in the fridge and tried the pesto out in my usual roasted chicken recipe.  This was a flavorful, easy dish. 

This roasted chicken technique turns out perfect every time.  I did, however, almost drop this one transferring it from the pan to the cutting board.  Hence the torn up skin where I clamped down with the tongs!  Never fear, the chicken made it to the table just fine!



Here is the basic recipe and technique for the chicken.  Use your favorite pesto under the skin and rubbed all on the outside and in the cavity.

This roasting technique always turns out juicy and tender chicken, no matter how you season it.

Do a search in the upper right column for chicken and see some other ways I've made this.  Enjoy!

Recipe for Scallops with Creamy Pesto Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

The blog I got to snoop around on this month for the Secret Recipe Club was Lisa's Cook Lisa Cook.  Lisa and her family (husband and daughter) live in the Atlanta area, near where I used to live and where I still have family.  She's a transplant from New England, her hubby from across the Atlantic, and their daughter all the way from China.  Lisa also writes another blog about their life as an adoptive family.  But on to this recipe-it comes together pretty quickly so best to be organized.  I used a commercial pesto sauce and it was fine but I do think this would be amazing with the fresh taste of homemade pesto-next time!  Lisa also used lemon pepper pasta which I could not find so I used my favorite multi-grain and added a generous squirt of lemon to the sauce.

Yield: 2 servings

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8 large scallops. dried very well
• 2 servings of your favorite pasta (I used whole grain linguine)
• Peanut oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 1/2 cup minced sweet red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup basil pesto
• 1 1/2 cups fat free half and half
• Juice from 1 large lemon

Method:

• Cook pasta according to package directions.
• Generously season the scallops with salt and pepper.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, and add just enough oil to coat the bottom.  Heat until very hot.
• Heat enough oil over medium high heat to coat the bottom of another pan and add the shallots, cooking for a minute or two until softened.  Then add the red pepper and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.
• While the veggies are cooking, sear the scallops 2 minutes per side (don't overcook, they should be slightly translucent in the center).
• Stir the pesto and half and half in to the veggies and cook over medium until warmed through and gently bubbling.  Stir in the lemon juice.
• Combine the sauce and cooked pasta. 
• Serve the pasta topped with the scallops.

I think this would also be good with shrimp.  Thanks to Lisa for a creative recipe idea!


Check out all the recipes from this month's Secret Recipe Club reveal through the links below.

Printable recipe

Original recipe on Lisa's blog