Pesto Chicken Bake -- The Soup I Made After the Night of Wandering

Late August, and the library is in its fall rhythm — programming planned, budgets submitted, the annual cycle of a public institution that serves a community regardless of what is happening in the cook's kitchen or the cook's heart. I go to work. I come home. I cook. I write. The going and the coming and the cooking and the writing are the structure, and the structure holds, and the holding is not remarkable. It is reliable. And reliable is what I need right now, more than remarkable.

Carrie submitted her visa paperwork for Japan. The paperwork is the bureaucratic bridge between here and there, between Charleston and Kyoto, between the woman Carrie is and the woman Carrie will become in a country that she has loved from a distance and that she is about to love up close. The up-close will change the love. Up-close always changes love — making it more specific, more informed, more real.

James called on Sunday. Law school is "intense" (his word), "transformative" (his word), "the hardest thing I've ever done" (his assessment, delivered with the particular pride of a man who is doing the hardest thing he has ever done and who is not stopping). He is reading case law for six hours a day. He is writing briefs. He is learning the language of the law, which is a language that Reverend James would have recognized — formal, precise, concerned with justice — and that Robert speaks fluently and that James is now learning to speak for himself.

Mama had a bad night on Wednesday — up at two AM, wandering, calling for "the baby" (which baby? James at one? Carrie at newborn? Joy before the accident? All of them? None of them? The baby that the disease has created from the composite of every child she has ever loved?). I found her in the hallway, standing, looking at the photographs on the wall, and I said, "There's no baby, Mama. Let's go back to bed." And she said, "There was a baby." And she was right. There was. There were many babies. And the were-ness is the truth that the disease preserves in amber while it destroys everything else.

I made chicken soup — the simple, healing, two AM soup that a woman makes after a night of wandering and a morning of exhaustion. The soup simmered while Mama slept and I sat at the kitchen table and wrote in the journal, and the writing was the record of the night, and the record was the love, and the love was the soup.

I said I made chicken soup that morning, and I did — the loose, instinctive kind that comes from habit more than recipe, broth and whatever was in the refrigerator, the act of making it more important than the result. But when I went back to the kitchen that afternoon, after Mama had slept and I had slept and the house had gone quiet in the particular way it does after a hard night, I wanted something that required a little more intention without requiring very much of me at all. Pesto Chicken Bake is that recipe: you season it, you spread the pesto, you put it in the oven, and the oven does the rest — reliable, not remarkable, exactly what I needed.

Pesto Chicken Bake

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
• 1/2 cup basil pesto, store-bought or homemade
• 1/2 cup shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
• Fresh basil leaves, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat. Heat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish or line it with parchment paper.
2. Season the chicken. Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels and arrange them in a single layer in the prepared dish. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Spread the pesto. Spoon 2 tablespoons of pesto over the top of each chicken breast, spreading it in an even layer to cover.
4. Add the cheese. Scatter the shredded mozzarella evenly over the pesto-covered chicken, then finish with the grated Parmesan.
5. Add tomatoes. If using, tuck the halved cherry tomatoes around and between the chicken breasts in the dish.
6. Bake. Roast uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through (an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part should read 165°F) and the cheese is golden and bubbling at the edges.
7. Rest and serve. Let the chicken rest in the pan for 5 minutes before serving. Scatter fresh basil leaves over the top and serve directly from the dish, spooning any pan juices over the chicken.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 330 | Protein: 40g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 4g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 540mg