One Pot Italian Chicken with Orzo (2024)

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This One Pot Italian Chicken with Orzo is so simple and so flavorful! We make it on a regular basis around here . Use chicken thighs or breasts, it comes together in a flash for a great busy weeknight meal!

I originally posted this several years back – Skillet Italian Chicken,when my blog was fairly new. I made it again last night….tweaking the recipe a bit to turn it into a one pot meal. The adjustments I made were minor but the results fantastic! This lovely ‘pot of dinner’ can be made and on the table in 30 minutes, get ready for your family to love you! Oh, did I mention healthy? Yup, gotcha covered there – who’s your buddy? Who’s your pal?

Original Post:

I love the idea of everything in one pan and bam, your dinner is done! What I don’t like is when the recipeasks you to cook the pasta, rice, chicken or other ingredients in a separate pan and thenaddthem to the skillet.Wouldnt’ that make it a2 Skillet dinner?

So off I went to my usual resourceslooking for the perfect recipe. It had to include several criteria:
1.) Mustbe able to cook entire recipe in one pan.
2.) Must include chicken (cause that’s what I had in my fridge).
3.) Must be able to use ingredients that are easy to obtain and usually on hand.

I dug into my plethora of recipe sights, blogs and even my old Time Life Magazinecookbooks but came up empty handed. What to do?I know! I’llpour some wine and ponder…something wonderful always happens when I ponder and drink red wine. It’s my go too problem solver!

At last, I found an old issue of Cooks Countrymagazine and there, it was. Not only did it fit all my criteria, it was Italian! If youfollow this blog, you know I’m a sucker for all Italian food.

Looking for another skillet one pot dinner? Try Skillet Pasta with Sausage!

One Pot Italian Chicken with Orzo

A quick and easy chicken dinner your whole family will love!

5 from 5 votes

Print Pin Rate

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds of boneless chicken thighs or breasts -about 6 thighs or 4 breasts. I used thighs for this recipe but either will work.
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup Orzo pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 ounce can petite diced tomatoes - undrained 14.5
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions

Pat chicken dry and rub with oregano, pepper flakes, sprinkle of salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat large nonstick skillet on medium high heat.
Add chicken to hot skillet and cook until lightly browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side; transfer to plate.
Add Orzo and garlic to empty skillet. Toasting Orzo and scraping up the bits left from the chicken. Cook for about 3-4 minutes.
Add tomatoes and broth.
Return chicken, along with any accumulated juices, to skillet and cook, covered, over medium low heat until chicken is cooked through and orzo is tender, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Nutrition

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Comments

vanessa says
July 15, 2016 at 7:51 pm
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Was the diced tomatoes drained? I once made a recipe where it did not indicate either way so i left the juice and it was extremely watery and slightly bitter.
Reply
- Kathi Kirk says
  July 16, 2016 at 3:29 pm
  Hi Vanessa! Undrained. The orzo will soak up the juices. I updated the recipe…thank you for pointing it out!
  Reply
maria says
January 13, 2015 at 6:04 am

Hi Kathi – I made this dish for dinner tonight as I happened to have everything on hand. This will be part of my regular monthly rotation of meals! It was fantastic. I can’t stand people that make revisions to a recipe without trying the original version first but….this time I am one of THOSE people (hah!). And I’m sharing my revisions….! I think it probably was the way to go because my dish turned out AMAZING: rich, tasty, tomatoe-y with a hint of creaminess, the chicken was tender. Here’s what I did:
– Used a higher walled pan about 5″ high with lid (contains sauce splatter better)
– Pureed together one small 14 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes with about 1 cup of roasted red peppers
– Omitted the oregano entirely (I’m Italian…in my family we don’t add oregano to pasta sauce but basil at the end, definitely)
– Added just a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes directly to the sauce rather than to the chicken (we have a toddler so I needed to control the spiciness/heat)
– Rather than 1.5 cups of broth, I added about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 of broth, milk, whipping cream (that’s what I had in the fridge leftover from when I made your Apple Caramel Cake 🙂 )
– Added Mauldin Sea Salt and fresh cracked pepper
– Added three handfuls of baby spinach at the end til wilted.
– Added 1/2 c of grated parm (Reggiano) at end, stirred it into the pot until it melted.
– I did not need to simmer for 20 min. After bringing to boil, I simmered for about 12 on simmer until the chicken was cooked and very tender.
This dish would probably work very well with 3/4 lb of sausage instead of chicken (casing removed and sausage browned in advance, of course). And instead of orzo, next time I’ll try a larger pasta such as radiatore, fusilli or rigatoni (one with ridges so that the sauce sticks nicely rather than slides off).
A real winner!!
Reply
- Kathi Kirk says
  January 14, 2015 at 2:36 am
  Hi Maria! Love that you made the recipe your own! It’s one of my favorite..I love the idea of sausage and spinach in it. So next time I make this I’m switching out the oregano for basil to keep it Italian!
  Thanks for your note – I love hearing from you!
  Kathi
  Reply
Anne|Craving Something Healthy says
April 27, 2014 at 3:55 pm
My 3 favorite words – One Pot Meal! I’ll be trying this one soon 🙂 I always get inspired with a glass of wine too!
Reply
- Kathi Kirk says
  April 27, 2014 at 4:56 pm
  Everything goes better with chardonnay as far as I’m concerned!
  Reply
Bill says
April 27, 2014 at 3:00 am
This dish looks delicious, Kathi! I have orzo in my pantry that has been screaming to be used and I might just have to try this recipe! Great post!
Reply
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely says
April 25, 2014 at 3:10 pm

I love a one pot meal! Great for busy weeknights. The flavors in this sound amazing!
Reply

5 from 5 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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