Dinner - Chicken and Mushroom Orzo

After our weekend getaway, which you can read about here, I was happy to have leftovers for lunch today from a dinner I actually made last week. (To me, the best kinds of dinners are the ones that you can eat for a week after you make it!) It was a pretty simple recipe that started as creamy Italian orzo, but by my own fault...aka not cleaning out the fridge often enough...I had to forgo the "creamy" and instead make it "brothy." Read on to see my recipe!

I started with two chicken breasts, a quarter of an onion, mushrooms, orzo pasta, fettuccine sauce, pesto, and lemon juice. 

However....I did not realize that the fettuccine had passed its limit on tastiness until I was about halfway through cooking...so instead I substituted chicken broth and parmesan cheese.

I first diced the onion into small pieces and added them to a pan with one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil. I added a pinch of salt and pepper to taste and then cooked it over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onions started becoming translucent.

I then minced three cloves of garlic and added them to the onions and cooked for another 3 - 5 minutes.

Finally, I sliced the chicken and added it to the simmering mixture.

Once the chicken was about halfway cooked through, I roughly chopped a handful of mushrooms and added them to the mix as well.

Once everything was in the pan together, I added the pesto, lemon juice, broth and parmesan cheese and let it continue to cook together over low heat for another 10 minutes or so.

While the chicken mixture simmered away, I cooked my orzo by adding it to boiling water for about 10 minutes. You can also cook it more like rice and add a small amount of water and set it over low heat until all the water is absorbed, but I find that cooking it like typical pasta makes it much easier to achieve al dente.

Once everything finished cooking, I added the cooked chicken mixture to the orzo and let it simmer for just a few minutes to combine. To finish the dish, I served the pasta with some roasted broccoli and fresh parsley.

As I said...it was a great lunch leftover meal :)

Chicken and Mushroom Orzo

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 cup diced onion (about 1/4 large onion)

3 cloves garlic

8 - 10 white mushrooms

1 Tbs. basil pesto

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 box of uncooked orzo pasta

Salt and pepper, to taste

Steps:

1. Add butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat.

2. Dice onion into small pieces and add it to the oil. Add salt and pepper.

3. Cook for 3 - 5 minutes until onions become translucent.

4. Mince garlic cloves and add to pan with onions. 

5. Slice chicken into medium pieces and add to the pan.

6. Cook another 5 minutes until chicken is halfway cooked.

7. Roughly chop mushrooms and add to the pan with the chicken and onions.

8. Add the pesto, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, and broth.

9. Continue cooking about 10 minutes until all ingredients are cooked through.

10. Add orzo to a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes until al dente.

11. Combine all ingredients and continue to cook on low for another 5 minutes.

12. Serve with green veggies and fresh parsley (optional)