One Pot Garlic Butter Chicken Orzo.
This one pot garlic butter chicken orzo is a super simple weeknight meal that is ridiculously delicious. Golden chicken thighs, buttery orzo, all cooked together until tender and juicy. Top with fresh herbs and enjoy a delightful meal!
Throw everything into one pot tonight for dinner!
This is the chicken dinner that you need right now. Easy to throw together, all made in one pot, tastes buttery and heavenly and so flavorful. It’s a hit all around. Juicy chicken thighs cooked with tender toasted orzo is the comfort food that hits the spot.
If you haven’t noticed, we adore orzo in this house. We make a lot of it! My parmesan orzo is a highly requested side dish but if I have an option to make the entire dish together in one pot… I’m game.
And this is a GOOD one pot recipe. We’re not throwing raw vegetables in there or anything and just hoping they turn out. We’re searing the chicken until golden and delicious, toasting the orzo with all the flavor bits, then adding stock and cooking it all until tender and juicy and ridiculously flavorful.
I.love.it.
My garlic butter shrimp and orzo is hugely popular. After making it over and over again, I figured that we’d try it with chicken one night. We LOVED it. We prefer chicken thighs for this because they are so juicy and cook quickly. The method is almost foolproof. But you can try with small pieces of chicken breast and judge the doneness by taking the internal temperature. It’s super simple. This is the meat thermometer I have and it’s the best.
The best part about orzo is that it’s nearly as versatile as rice. It can be made into a baked pasta, served as a side dish, made into a cold pasta salad – the options are endless. It does all the things and is one of my kitchen all-stars for sure.
This is how I do it! The garlic butter chicken and orzo is actually quite easy and doesn’t require a ton of ingredients. I do like to serve some sort of roasted vegetable on the side. I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I do my parmesan roasted broccoli more often than not. Shocking, I know.
To start, I season the heck out of the chicken – salt and pepper all over. Then I brown it in a cast iron or ceramic pan until very golden. After it’s seared on both sides, I transfer it to a plate.
There is usually a good amount of butter (and now chicken flavor bits) left in the skillet, so I stir the orzo right into it. YES! Pour the uncooked, dry orzo into the pan. Stir in the garlic too. I toast this and toss it for a few minutes until it gets golden and very fragrant. Then I add in the stock!
Once the stock is in the pan, I nestle the chicken back in with the orzo. I bring it to a boil, reduce it to a simmer then cover and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Just until the orzo has absorbed all the liquid and the chicken is cooked through.
Finally, I toss the mixture with a bit more melted butter and sprinkle on some fresh parsley. Parmesan too, of course.
OH MY GOSH! Cue all the exclamation points.
This is easy, delicious, very tender and flavorful.
Make it tonight!!
One Pot Garlic Butter Chicken Orzo
One Pot Garlic Butter Chicken and Orzo
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- kosher salt and pepper
- 1 pound uncooked orzo
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 32 ounces chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- chopped fresh parsley, for topping
- parmesan cheese, for topping
Instructions
- Heat the 3 tablespoons of butter in a large cast iron or ceramic skillet over medium heat. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper.
- Add the chicken to the skillet and cook on both sides until deeply golden, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Once both sides are done, transfer to a plate.
- There should be a bit of butter or chicken grease left in the skillet. If not, add a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Add the orzo and stir, so it’s all coated. Stir in the garlic. Cook, stirring often, so the orzo toasts and turns a bit golden. It will also be very fragrant.
- Pour the stock in with the orzo. Nestle the chicken thighs back into the pan with the stock and orzo. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the chicken reaches 165 degrees F internally. I suggest checking about 12 to 15 minutes and going from there - because this will differ based on how high your “simmer” is.
- Drizzle with the extra melted butter. Top with chopped fresh parsley and parmesan. Serve immediately!
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Look at that toasty goodness!
30 Comments on “One Pot Garlic Butter Chicken Orzo.”
Do you skin the chicken thighs?
Looks delicious! Is the recipe written for bone-in or boneless chicken thighs?
boneless!
I just made this and oh boy was so so delicious! My chickenthighswere bone in i figured will be more moist and they were .
Looks great! I have some cut up bone in chicken pieces that I think I’m going to use instead of boneless.
This looks amazing! I have fresh basil, but no parsley- do you think that would work isntead? We also just have Kerrygold salted butter, is that too much of an oversalting risk?
If you are worried about too much salt with your butter, cut back the salt in other areas of the recipe. I always use salted butter, and that’s what I do. Basil would be really yummy, I bet 😀
Made this last night combining it with your “Garlic butter shrimp and orzo” recipe, so good! Started by following this recipe. Then as the chicken was cooking prepped the shrimp per that recipe. When there was about 5 minutes left on the orzo added the shrimp to the pot. Finished the whole thing with a squeeze of lemon and the parsley. Delicious! My 4 year old devoured it!
Looks delicious. Will be trying it soon.💕
Very easy And Delicious. It turned out beautiful.
Thank You for the Recipes
One pound of orzo sounds like like a lot for one lb of chicken
Dawn,
I agree with you! How much orzo did you use? I’m preparing this right now.
Thanks!
Loretta
i would use an extra chicken thigh or 2 if you feel it’s too much orzo. i would not decrease the orzo because then you need to decrease the liquid rations and it’s a completely different recipe.
I saw your email right before going to the market this morning. Bought (bone-in) chicken and had everything else. This was the best spur of the moment meal! Delicious and we devoured it. There was probably a cup of orzo leftover, which will be good for another meal. Definitely need the 1 lb to absorb the liquid. Thanks so much for an easy, scrumptious lunch!
Haven’t made this yet….I need to buy a ceramic pan..but this recipe sounds delicious !!!
Make it a cast iron frying pan with a tight fitting lid. That is my kitchen workhorse — and they are cheap!
could this be made with boneless, skinless chicken breast instead? Or, bone-in, skin-on breasts?
Can’t wait to try this recipe this week! Out of curiosity, what is your favorite ceramic pot to cook it in?
delicious. This will definitely be in our rotation.
Hi, what type of skillet is in the picture? Thanks!
Excellent recipe Jessica!
Made this for me and my daughter on a night when I was short on time. Since they were just us two, I used 4 chicken thighs (pounded thin a little bit), 250g of orzo to 500ml chicken stock, 1 garlic clove, kept everything else the same. It turned out beautifully, thankyou for all your recipes xox
Definitely gonna try this one
My family and I loved this one pan dinner. I used half of the orzo and 2 cups of chicken stock. It worked great for me because we did not need that much orzo. We will be making it again.
Another winning weeknight dinner! Loved it.
My family prefers chicken breast to chicken thigh. Would boneless chicken breast be an option for this recipe??
I thought there was a ton of leftover orzo, so next time for 1.5 lb of chicken I’ll do 1/2 pound orzo and 16 oz chicken stock (adding more if needed. We had so much extra orzo (at least it’s another side dish already done later in the week!
This was absolutely delicious! My family cleaned their plates. I didn’t have parsley, but we didn’t miss it. I had a 2.5 lb pack of chicken thighs, so I just cooked them all and still had room in the pan for the orzo. This is a nice addition to our weekly rotation and was so quick and easy! Even after four people ate and some got seconds, we still have leftovers. I recommend squeezing a little lemon juice over the top at the end. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
So I’ve already left a reply that I love this recipe as written, but tonight, I was out of orzo, so I subbed basmati rice (2 cups rice, 3 1/2 cups stock, per package directions, cook covered for 20 minutes) and it was just as fantastic… for anyone who doesn’t have orzo on hand and might be wondering…
I’ve made this recipe a few times. It’s simple, delicious and it’s become a go to. I’ve shared it with many people too.
Easy and delicious! I add a bag of frozen spinach