Crispy Thin Grilled Pesto Chicken (2 Ingredients)

Imagine thin chicken cutlets marinated in homemade pesto sizzling over the grill until the edges turn audibly crispy. Grilled pesto chicken is just two pantry-friendly ingredients, yet every bite tastes like you spent the whole afternoon fussing—perfect for busy summer nights!

Take all the stress out of dinner with this easy grilled pesto chicken recipe! It can be prepped in the morning or even the day before and takes less than 10 minutes to cook!

This is one of my favorite go-to meals for a busy weeknight running the kids from soccer and golf and church activities and all the things.

Why I love Pesto!

In college I was asked out on a date and the other couple we ate with made us dinner. It was my first date with this guy, first time hanging out with a married couple and my first time having pesto. In fact, I’d never even heard of pesto!!

Ever since that date I’ve been making different dishes with pesto like our caprese sandwich or 15 Minute Pesto Pasta, but I’ll tell you what, this crispy healthy grilled chicken with pesto is my absolute favorite.

My favorite part about pesto chicken? The cheese in the pesto makes this deliciously crispy, crunch crust on the chicken, oh man it’s good!

How to Make Grilled Pesto Chicken

This recipe is so easy you only need:

Chicken and Pesto!

Let’s jump right into how to make it:

1. Prep the Chicken: Cover the chicken with pesto on all sides and marinate for at least 30 minutes but ideally overnight.
   • NOTE: I absolutely LOVE our homemade basil pesto recipe, but if you want to save time, you can totally grab a jar at the grocery store. The Kirkland Brand of Pesto at Costco is actually pretty dang good.
2. Grill the Chicken: Make sure you oil the grates before grilling as that cheese will want to stick!
   • PRO TIP: Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature. You’re looking for 165 degrees F for the internal temperature. It really won’t take too long with the chicken being so thin.

If you don’t have a grill, you can cook this chicken in a skillet on the stovetop or bake it in the oven (350℉ in a baking dish for 15-20 minutes).

Grilled Chicken Avocado Sandwich with Spicy Mayo

I adore this Grilled Chicken Avocado Sandwich Recipe. They are so simple, but completely delicious. I hate spicy, but for some reason I love the kick of cayenne in the spicy mayo with the cool avocado and flaky, buttery, amazingly delish puff pastry. It’s pretty much perfection.

Watch How to Make a Chicken Avocado Sandwich

The first time I had this recipe I knew it looked good, but it seemed a tad odd to use puff pastry for a sandwich. I am forever converted. You truly must try it yourself to understand, but it’s quite amazing.

Have you ever even had Puff pastry? It’s purdy darn delicious. We don’t make our own. We let the professionals handle it, and Pepperidge Farm does it so well! They make a fantastic puff pastry, and so I stick with them.

This recipe is adapted from Giada De Laurentiis, so unfortunately I cannot take the credit, but I’m all about sharing recipes that are delicious even if I didn’t think it up myself. We had already been inspired by a sandwich and had puff pastry lying around so when I saw her show making something similar I had to pounce!

Ingredients for Grilled Chicken Avocado Sandwich Recipe

It really doesn’t take many ingredients at all to make these grilled chicken sandwiches, so let’s run through everything you’ll need:

• Puff Pastry: You can find puff pastry in the freezer section of the grocery store by pie crusts.
• Chicken Breasts: boneless and skinless
• Montreal Chicken Seasoning: a blend of spices and herbs like garlic, onion, salt, paprika, orange peel, and bell pepper
• Kosher Salt: adds flavor
• Olive Oil: helps grill the chicken
• Mayonnaise: whatever your favorite brand is
• Cayenne Pepper: adds some heat to the mayo spread
• Baby Spinach: adds freshness
• Read more

3 Ingredient Easy and BEST Grilled Chicken Marinade

Want the juiciest chicken recipe ever?? Then you’ve got to make this 3 ingredient chicken marinade. It’s the most simple combination of garlic and herbs, a hint of buttery-melt-in-your-mouth flavor and then that pop of the champagne vinegar. Which is a must if you haven’t ever tried using different vinegars.

Last summer we were crazy busy trying to move and I needed some fast and easy dinner recipes. On a whim I bought a bottle of Champagne vinegar and whipped up a lazy, 3 ingredient chicken marinade that ended up being the best chicken marinade EVER. In fact, I even caught a short little video of the process so scroll down and check out a blast from the past in our old house.

(PS, fun fact! Did you know we write our blog posts an entire year out? So right now it’s September 2022, and I’m sitting at the counter of the rental house we finally found after the most insane summer. Did you follow that story? Talk about stressful chaos! I wonder, by the time this recipe goes live, will we have found our future home and be getting ready to settle in? I can’t wait to see where life takes us so leave a comment if you want an update!

Chicken Marinade Ingredients

You can’t get any more simple than just 3 ingredients for the most delicious chicken marinade! This is all you will need:

• Olive Oil – the base of the marinade and helps the chicken stay moist and juicy
• Champagne Vinegar – this can be hard to find sometimes, but it really is the best flavor for this marinade
• Kinder’s Buttery Steakhouse Seasoning – we buy ours at Costco, but I’ve seen it at Walmart and Smith’s, and of course there is always Amazon

The measurement for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Grilled Chicken Marinade?

I like to throw all three of the ingredients into a shallow baking dish and to whisk it all together. Then place the chicken breasts into the marinade and give them a flip to coat both sides. Then let it marinade in the fridge.

You can also use a ziploc bag to marinate the chicken. Just whisk all the ingredients together in a glass measuring cup and pour the marinade over the chicken in the bag and let it sit in the fridge until you’re ready to grill.

Can Other Types of Vinegar Be Used?

The best substitute for champagne vinegar is Asian rice vinegar. White wine vinegar or sherry vinegar are also good substitutes.

Red wine or apple cider vinegar are ok substitutes but they are less sweet and pack bolder tangy vinegar flavor.

Can Other Cuts of Chicken Be Used?

You can absolutely use this marinade on chicken thighs, wings, or drumsticks.

How Long to Marinate Chicken

Marinating chicken for even just 15 minutes can add so much flavor to chicken. I have found the sweet spot for this marinade is from 2-6 hours. For the best f

This chicken thigh marinade is the perfect blend of mustard (2 kinds!), garlic, maple syrup, brown sugar, vinegar and seasonings. It is so simple and so good, it could be used to marinate socks!

This is one of those marinade recipes that’s wonderful on every single kind of meat you could consume — salmon, steak, pork tenderloin, chicken in all its varieties, etc. I love when when I find a fail-proof marinade recipe like that! We used to make this chicken all the time when the blog first began, but over the years you slowly start to try new things and before you know it, without even meaning to, you’ve forgotten some of the things that you love the most. 

Boy, if that’s not symbolic of life, I don’t know what is!

This chicken thighs marinade recipe is one that is simply whisked together, can easily be adapted if needed (see notes below) and works just as well marinating 30 minutes as it does for hours. But beware, not all meats can handle it the same, so check out the entire post. 

And if you haven’t already, you absolutely must take a second to pin our other marinade recipes like:

• The Best Steak Marinade
• Marinated Chicken Breasts
• Asian Steak Marinade
• Steak Fajitas Marinade
• Marinated Smoked Chicken

Family Dinners

We are about to send our first off to college in a year, another is deep in the waters of Jr High and still our caboose is entering the battlefield of the elementary school playground. If there’s one thing I know for certain it’s that family dinners are an absolute must to stay connected to one another. I would bet that it’s even life-saving for families. But with three kids at three different schools and totally different needs I can easily feel like I’m running around and never slowing down. This recipe is loved by everyone around the dinner table!

Ingredients for Chicken Thigh Marinade

The best marinades have a little salt, a little sweet, a little acid, and a little spice. This marinade recipe checks all the boxes. Here is what you will need:

• Chicken Thighs: boneless, skinless
• Dijon Mustard: pale yellow in color but bold in tangy flavor
• Stone Ground Mustard: adds texture to the marinade and the teeny tiniest bit of heat
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Dark Brown Sugar: light brown can be used, dark brown just has a richer flavor
• Maple Syrup: be sure to use the real stuff, Grade A
• Oregano or Marjoram: I used dried herbs for this recipe, but you can use fresh if you want. You’ll want to half the amount down to 1/2 teaspoon.
• Rice Vinegar: add