Chicken Pesto Bowls with Summer Salad

These Chicken Pesto Bowls are packed with protein, colour, and flavour for the perfect weeknight meal. My Pan-Seared, Oven-Baked Chicken, Greek Yogurt Pesto Sauce, rice, and summer tomato, corn, and cucumber salad combine into a delicious and nutritious bowl that is great for dinner or meal prep.

Pesto is my summer love language. Make a creamy sauce out of it using Greek yogurt and combine it with juicy chicken, summer salad, and rice? Irresistible!

Bowls are among my favourite meals at any time of the year, but especially during the summer when a) nobody feels like a heavy meal; b) summer vegetables are at their freshest and tastiest; and c) you’re craving something healthy and colourful all the time.

These chicken pesto bowls with summer cucumber, corn, and tomato salad hit the mark on all three points. Packed with protein, fibre, flavour, colour, and a variety of textures, this is a recipe you’ll be making on repeat for the rest of the season, and perhaps all year long once you check out the “Variations” section of this post!

If you love bowls for lunch and dinner, check out my Halloumi Bowls with Chickpeas, BBQ Meatball Bowls, and Tofu and Pesto Bowls.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions and Variations
• Kitchen Tools
• Storage Tips
• Top Tip
• FAQ
• More Chicken Dinner Recipes
• Chicken Pesto Bowls with Summer Salad

Ingredients

This recipe combines Pan-Seared, Oven-Baked Chicken, Greek Yogurt Pesto Sauce, a summer salad with cherry tomato, cucumber, and corn, and cooked grains of your choice, such as rice or quinoa. Ingredients for the chicken and pesto sauce are within their respective posts, so click on the links within the recipe card at the bottom of the post for those elements. For the cherry tomato, cucumber, and corn salad recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Cherry tomatoes: Bursting with flavour, they are one essential ingredient in this summer salad.
• Cucumber: I prefer to use mini Persian cucumbers instead of English cucumber because they are more crunchy and less watery.
• Corn: Feel free to use fresh corn sliced off of the cob or thawed frozen corn.
• Red onion: A small amount of red onion goes a long way to adding a pungent bite to the salad.
• Cilantro or parsley: Adds a refreshing quality and a pop of green colour.
• Extra-virgin olive oil: The base of the simple lime dressing.
• Lime juice: Tangy lime juice pairs well with the cilantro and corn in the salad.
• Salt and pepper: Simple yet essential seasonings for the dressing, they enhance the flavours of the veggies and herbs.

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Substitutions and Variations

• Make it vegetarian: Replace the chicken with the Crispy Baked Tofu or chickpeas.
• Make it dairy-free: Use non-dairy yogurt in the pesto sauce.
• Make different seasonal salads: Enjoy a chicken pesto bowl all year long by creating different salads for every season. In the fall and winter, make a salad with roasted Brussels sprouts and squash and drizzle it with a simple balsamic vinaigrette. In the spring, make a light salad with arugula, radishes, and green peas, and drizzle it with lemon vinaigrette.
• Use a different protein: These bowls would be delicious with another protein such as grilled salmon, meatballs, or steak.
• Simplify: Feel free to use shredded store-bought rotisserie chicken in place of the pan-seared, oven-baked chicken.

Kitchen Tools

• Cast iron skillet
• Glass baking dish
• Mixing bowls

Storage Tips

All of the components of these bowls (rice or quinoa, chicken, salad, and pesto sauce) can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three days.

FAQ

More Chicken Dinner Recipes

• Mole Chicken Bowls
• Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Bake
• Loaded Chicken Shawarma Sweet Potato Fries
• Creamy Chicken Pesto Tortellini Soup
• Moroccan Chicken Pitas with Garlicky Feta Honey Sauce

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