Pesto Chicken Stuffed Pasta Shells

I LOVE Pesto! Like really really seriously love Pesto! I can eat it out of the jar and be perfectly happy. Something that I love very closely, if not just as much, as Pesto? Pasta! So let’s add the two together! Yummy! These little stuffed shells are soooo good and they’re great party food. I also made them for our end of the semester party and they were gone in no time and with people asking me for the recipe! I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe on this one, but you can find it here

You Will Need:

-1 box of Jumbo Pasta shells (I bought the Great Value Walmart brand and they worked fine)

-4oz softened cream cheese (That’s half of a block)

-1 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup for topping (Unfortunately, that does not mean the green bottle stuff…dang)

-3 Tablespoons of Pesto (I always buy the Classico brand. It is my favorite and personally I think it’s the best)

-2 cups of shredded cooked chicken

-Garlic (Original recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic minced. Who actually buys/has garlic cloves? Not this girl. So of course I just threw in some garlic powder)

-Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

-Cook pasta shells according to package, but only until al dente. Don’t overcook!

-Cook chicken & cut up/shred

-In a large bowl mix together Pesto, cream cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, and chicken

-Grease a 9×13 baking dish

-Fill shells with Pesto/chicken mix and place in the baking dish

-Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Bake for 30 minutes