One Pot Chicken and Orzo – a delicious creamy orzo one pot dish with chicken thighs, orzo and sun dried tomatoes. All in one pot, easy, quick and prefect for a weeknight dinner!
I was so excited with how delicious this dish came out. Yeah sometimes I amaze myself too when I simply throw ingredients together in a pot hoping for some miracle and something totally drool worthy comes out. Lately I’ve been using and abusing orzo because I mean there’s not enough orzo dishes out there in the world!
But in the meantime, this orzo skillet dinner has me drooling just writing about it now, because all I can do is think about going to the kitchen and helping myself to another serving. Pan fried chicken thighs with orzo in a creamy sauce with sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. It really is heavenly.
Never Cooked With Orzo?
Well then you’re in for quite a treat! Orzo is a small cut pasta that tastes heavenly in creamy, rich entrees just like the one I’m writing out for you all today.
What Are Sun Dried Tomatoes?
Sun dried tomatoes are tomatoes that have lost their moisture due to drying out in the sun, so they’re little dehydrated morsels! They are then stored in super flavorful oil which allows them to be packed full of flavor and easy to incorporate into lots of different meals.
Ingredients
Detailed measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Chicken – Thighs, bone in and with skin.
- Onion – We want something that cooks down well like white or yellow.
- Garlic – Use as much or little as you like.
- Orzo – We want this small shaped pasta for our dish, but you could also substitute it with couscous.
- Liquids – Heavy cream and low sodium chicken broth make up our liquid base.
- Spices – Seasoning salt and red pepper flakes for some dimension and heat!
- Sun dried tomatoes – I love to really amp up the flavor of my pasta dishes by combining sun dried tomatoes with a nice creamy sauce – believe me it’s delish.
- Herbs – Some fresh basil chopped up, you can always substitute this for dried if that’s what you have on hand.
- Cheese – Parmesan cheese, some of the good stuff grated up fresh.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper.
- Butter and olive oil – We want to combine butter and olive oil to brown up our goodies, this will ensure we get all that brown butter flavor without any burnt butter bitterness.
How To Make One Pot Chicken and Orzo
- Cook the chicken: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken thighs with seasoning salt on both sides. Place the chicken thighs in the skillet and fry on both sides until no longer pink inside, about 5 min per side, but each cooktop is different so you’ll have to watch it.
- Saute the sauteables: Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside. Dump the leftover oil from the skillet but do not scrape the brown bits, leave those for the sauce. Add 2 tbsp of butter and melt over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes and cook for about 5 minutes, just until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Combine the dish: Add the orzo, heavy cream, chicken broth and Parmesan cheese to the skillet and stir everything together. Bring to a boil, taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as necessary.
- Finish the dish: Add the chicken back to the skillet, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the orzo is cooked and most of the sauce has been evaporated or absorbed by the orzo. Remove from heat and sprinkle with fresh basil.
Using Chicken Breast In Place Of Thigh
If you use chicken breasts, cut them in half first so that they cook through, otherwise cook it exactly as you would normally!
What Pairs Well With Chicken and Orzo
This rich, hearty dish pairs beautifully with light and simple sides like salads and roasted veggies. This creamy dreamy orzo is completely satisfying on its own so if you’d rather just curl up on the couch with a big old bowl, I certainly won’t try to stop you!
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- Greek Salad
- Mediterranean Couscous Salad
- Kale And Quinoa Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette
- Tabbouleh Salad
- Italian Roasted Mushrooms And Veggies
What Else Can I Add
Another great thing about this recipe, besides it being, quick and delicious, is the fact that it’s quite versatile. Although I give you a basic recipe here, feel free to add what you’d like to bulk it up a bit and maybe even make it a bit healthier!
| Veggies | Meat | Starches |
| Spinach | Bacon | Couscous |
| Broccoli | Pancetta | Pasta |
| Asparagus | Rice | |
| Peas | ||
| Mushrooms |
Storing Leftovers
Fridge
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container in for 3 to 5 days.
Freezer
Transfer the chicken and orzo to an airtight container and freeze up to 2 months.
More Delicious Orzo Recipes To Try:
- One Pot Spicy Pork Ragu with Orzo
- One Pot Cheesy Taco Orzo
- Mediterranean Orzo Salad
- Lemon Orzo with Asparagus
- One Pot Greek Chicken Orzo
- Creamy Parmesan Orzo with Chicken and Asparagus
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One Pot Chicken and Orzo
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 6 chicken thighs with skin and bone in
- 1 tsp seasoning salt or to taste
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 cup orzo
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups chicken broth low sodium
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken thighs with seasoning salt on both sides. Place the chicken thighs in the skillet and fry on both sides until no longer pink inside, about 5 min per side, but each cooktop is different so you’ll have to watch it.
- Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside. Dump the leftover oil from the skillet but do not scrape the brown bits, leave those for the sauce.
- Add 2 tbsp of butter and melt over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes and cook for about 5 minutes, just until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Add the orzo, heavy cream, chicken broth and Parmesan cheese to the skillet and stir everything together. Bring to a boil, taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as necessary.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the orzo is cooked and most of the sauce has been evaporated or absorbed by the orzo.
- Remove from heat and sprinkle with fresh basil.
Recipe Notes
- Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container in for 3 to 5 days.
- Transfer the chicken and orzo to an airtight container and freeze up to 2 months.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
My family loves this recipe. We use boneless breasts because he doesn’t like dark meat, but it comes out beautifully every time. I had only used orzo pasta in soups previously and was delighted to find how perfect it was in this recipe. We come back to this again and again. Thanks so much for all your recipes.
Loved this recipe!! I used breasts and but them in half as recommended – they turned out great and super tender. All in all took about 30 mins and there was virtually no prep aside from chopping onions which made me love it more!!
The sun dried tomato, is it the ones in oil or not?
Yes we used the ones in oil!
Third time making this for dinner and it’s better every time. Thank you so much for all your great recipes!
Made this this for Sunday dinner for my mom and gran. It came out amazing, and they loved it! Thank You!
However, I wonder if I can add more orzo next time? As one cup was not enough food to feed three people, not sure how it serves six. 🙁
For sure! Of course it completely depends on portion size. You can hover your mouse cursor over the number or servings in the recipe card to increase the amounts of the ingredients. That way, you can appropriately increase the orzo, broth, and seasonings to get the same flavor. Of course, you don’t have to increase the number of chicken thighs.
This is a great recipe. Just subbed 1 extra cup of chicken stock for the cream. It’s a great “blank slate” recipe. The process is incredible! I’m sure it’s amazing with cream. Just trying to cut back where I can, you understand! Orzo cooks so fast. Love the one skillet supper. I’ve used olives, artichoke hearts, scallions. After looking at your blog, there are other great recipes to try. Thanks so much!
Yummy Jo!!! I only had left over rotisserie chicken, so it made it even sinchier 🙂 Had this delicious meal last night, and I can hardly wait for lunch leftovers today! The basil on top really put it over – Thank you for another fabulous recipe! 🙂 <3
My pleasure, so glad you liked it!
So good and so easy to make!
Delicious! My husband and I Loved it!!! This is a keeper!!!