Orzo With Chicken And Vegetables

I put “orzo” at the beginning of the name of this blog post because whenever I eat orzo, I find it is the star of the dish. Orzo might look similar to rice, but to me, it doesn’t taste anything like rice. I like the consistency, size, and how well orzo goes with so many different toppings. See, I referred to orzo as the main part of the dish again…this time unintentionally.

We didn’t plan our dinner ahead of time the other night so we didn’t have any defrosted meats to make for dinner. Therefore, we used some cut-up pieces of rotisserie chicken from Costco to make this orzo with chicken and vegetable dish. Please forgive me if it makes this not count as a real recipe. 😉

Recipe

Level: Easy | Time: 40 min | Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup of orzo
• Bite-sized pieces of rotisserie chicken (as much as you prefer)
• Green beans (as much as you prefer)
• Bell peppers (as much as you prefer)
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 tbsp of cream cheese
• 1/4 cup of shredded cheese
• 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp of salt
• Black pepper (to taste)
• Cayenne or chili pepper (to taste)

Vegetables

1. Cut the green beans and bell peppers into bite-sized pieces.
2. Put enough water in a deep sauté pan so that it will cover the green beans, add 1 tsp of salt and bring the water to a boil.
3. Add the green beans to the boiling water and boil while covered for 4 min.
4. Drain the water and put half a tablespoon of butter into the sauté pan.
5. Add the bell peppers to the sauté pan with the green beans.
6. Stir and cook until the vegetables are at the consistency you prefer. (I don’t like my vegetables to be too soft so I cooked them for 3 min.)

Orzo

1. Heat a deep sauté pan to high heat.
2. Put 1 tbsp of butter on the pan.
3. After the butter melts, put 1 cup of orzo in the pan and sauté until slightly browned.
4. Add 2 cups of chicken broth to the sauté pan and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce to medium heat and cover.
6. Stir periodically and cook for 20 min or until the chicken broth has absorbed into the orzo.

Final Directions

1. Put half a tablespoon of butter and 1 tbsp of cream cheese in the sauté pan with the orzo and stir until melted.
2. Add the rotisserie chicken and cooked vegetables.
3. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, black pepper, and cayenne or chili pepper (if you like spicy food) on top and mix.
4. Serve and enjoy!

If you want a good snack to eat after this, check out my Popcorn blog post.