Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Pesto Pasta is perfect for summer! Simple ingredients, but tons of flavor thanks to grilling and the pesto lemon sauce. Serve it warm or cold for a delicious and healthy weeknight dinner!
A pasta recipe that’s perfect for summer! This Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Pesto Pasta turned out even better than I thought it would. The best part, other than it’s easy to make and doesn’t use too many ingredients, is it can be served warm or cold.
Grilling the chicken and asparagus for this pasta adds a ton of flavor. Grilling asparagus is my favorite way to prepare it. This Lemon Parmesan Grilled Asparagus is one of my favorite side dishes to make when we need a vegetable on our dinner plates. The grill gives the asparagus a hint of smoky flavor and it only takes about 3-5 minutes to cook.
In my opinion, grilling asparagus is the easiest method for cooking it. If you’ve never tried grilling it, here’s how you do it.
How to Grill Asparagus
- Heat the grill to high. Mine is usually around 425°-450° when I add the asparagus.
- Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus then lay them out in a single layer on a foil lined sheet pan.
- Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Toss them around until they are all coated.
- Place the asparagus horizontally on the grill grates, cover with the lid and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Use tongs to roll or flip them over once they have nice grill marks, then cook another 1-3 minutes depending on the size. The asparagus should be tender, but not mushy.
On top of it being easy to grill asparagus, there’s also very little to clean. Especially if you line your baking sheet with foil.
The grilled chicken is also quite simple. All it needs is salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. The reason the asparagus and chicken don’t need much added flavoring is because of the pesto that will become the sauce for the pasta. I used one of my favorite store bought pesto, but feel free to use homemade.
Along with the pesto, there is also fresh lemon juice and shredded Pecorino Romano cheese. Pecorino Romano is a sheeps milk cheese. It’s similar to Parmesan cheeses, but has a sharper and saltier flavor. It’s also less expensive than Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, which is always what I recommend buying when you need parmesan cheese in a recipe.
This Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Pesto Pasta is delicious when eaten warm for dinner. However, you can also serve it cold like you would a pasta salad. It would be a wonderful addition to a barbecue or picnic. Want to make it vegetarian? Skip the chicken and add more grilled asparagus or cannellini beans. If you’re gluten-free try using a chickpea pasta such as Banza, that’s what I used. Enjoy!
More Summer Pasta Recipes
Tomato Basil Pasta with Balsamic Grilled Chicken
Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 pound asparagus, woody ends cut off
- Olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 12 ounces rotini pasta, gluten free if needed
- 1/3 cup pesto
- 1/2 of a lemon, juiced
- 3 tablespoons shredded Pecorino Romano or parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- Fresh chopped basil and more Pecorino Romano for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and put into a large serving bowl.
- While the pasta cooks, preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
- Season the chicken with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. On a baking sheet lined with foil lay the asparagus out in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat.
- Grill the chicken for approximately 4-6 minutes then flip over and grill another 4-6 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160°-165° F. Let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting it.
- While the chicken cooks place the prepared asparagus onto the grill grates horizontally. Grill for 2 minutes then roll or flip them over with tongs and grill another 1-2 minutes. Cut into approximately 2 inch pieces.
- Add the chopped chicken and asparagus to the bowl with the pasta. Add in the pesto, lemon juice and shredded romano or parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper and toss everything together until coated. Taste for seasoning. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and chopped fresh basil if desired. Serve warm or cold.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 404Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 59mgSodium: 229mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 4gSugar: 2gProtein: 31g
Wow! This tastes as wonderful as it looked in the pictures. Even better, it was a winner for the whole family – all the way through to our pickiest of eaters. Our only changes were to pat some Italian seasoned breadcrumbs on the chicken, then pan fry the chicken and saute the asparagus as I didn’t have the grill going. Thank you for sharing it because we are adding it to our dinner recipes rotation.
I absolutely love this recipe. I’ve been making it for a couple of years and it’s such a crowd please and absolutely delicious. It’s one of my favorite summer go-to’s on the grill. I usually use the ingredient measurements as a base and adjust to taste. I love a lot of lemon juice and typically like to double the asparagus since it’s just so good on the grill!
Absolutely delicious! I made just a few minor adjustments to the recipe. I added 15oz. can of Cannellini beans, 6.25 oz jar of pesto and incorporated about 1/2 cup of the pasta water into the final mixture. Shaved parmesan and fresh basil topped this wonderful dish. My husband loved it and deemed it “company worthy”. Thank you! I have already shared the recipe with friends.
This looks delicious. Planning meals for the week. The family would love if I added this one.
Can I use sun dried tomato pesto or should it be basil pesto?
Yes! Either basil or sun dried tomato pesto will work.
Very good. I added sun dried tomatoes, marinated artichokes & used left over rotisserie chicken that I seasoned & re heated on Traeger grill when I grilled asparagus. I had left over penne pasta & used it. Next time I’ll add grilled mushrooms. Keeper!
Overall I enjoyed this dish, but I do think that 1/2 a lemon was a bit too much. It was very lemon-y (and I used a fairly small lemon!). I will definitely make the dish again but I’ll probably use 1/4 of a lemon or less. Also for more specifics, I used Pecorino Romano and Filippo Berio pesto (very delicious).
This was super good. I didn’t have pine nuts so used walnuts instead. I also grilled some peppers and onions and threw those in. Lastly, threw in a bunch of arugula, as I didn’t have fresh basil. Great recipe and easy to substitute whatever you need based on what’s in your fridge!