One-Pot Italian Chicken and Orzo — The Hundredth-Post One-Pan Dinner

The hundredth post. I want to put it on the page because the page is what marking it deserves. One hundred posts. Two and a half years into the notebook (counting both the dollar-bin one and the green hardcover). Cody is on day four hundred and ten of his six-hundred-seventy-day sentence, with two hundred and sixty days remaining. The release date is November twelfth, 2018. The day has a shape on the calendar now. We can see it.

I want to write down what the kitchen has become in the hundred posts. The list at the back of the green notebook now has thirty-eight techniques and one hundred and twenty starred recipes. The math column has more than three hundred receipt entries logged. The catering side-business has done eight cake jobs and two breakfast casseroles. Mrs. Tilford has called me the cook at three different church functions. The Sonic has me running the closing shift on Saturday nights as the lead. The savings envelope is at $478. The sixteen-year-old in this kitchen is not the fourteen-year-old who started writing in a blue dollar-bin notebook in March 2016. The girl on the first page would not recognize the girl on this page, and the girl on this page would put a hand on the fourteen-year-old’s shoulder and say, you are going to make it, baby. The kitchen is going to take care of you.

And the recipe Sunday was one-pot Italian chicken and orzo from Averie Cooks. The recipe is the kind of one-pan dinner the schedule needed and is the recipe that taught me the proper way to use orzo as a starch instead of as a small pasta in a soup. Chicken thighs seared and removed; orzo toasted in the rendered chicken fat in the same pan; white wine and chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes added; chicken returned to the pan, simmered together for fifteen minutes; finished with parsley and parmesan.

The math: chicken thighs $2.79 from the markdown, a pound of orzo $1.49, a 14-oz can of diced tomatoes $0.79, three tablespoons of white wine free from Aunt Tammy’s last delivery, two cups of chicken broth from bouillon $0.20, garlic, parsley, parmesan, olive oil. Total: about $5.97 for a dinner that fed Mama and me Sunday and Monday and Tuesday.

The technique is the toast-the-orzo step. Most one-pot pasta recipes have you add raw pasta directly to the simmering liquid. With orzo, you toast the dry orzo in the pan drippings for two minutes first, until the grains are golden and slightly nutty. The toast adds a depth that plain-boiled orzo does not have, and it is the kind of small step that makes you understand why one-pot recipes are sometimes called better than two-pot recipes.

You sear bone-in skin-on chicken thighs in olive oil in a large skillet, skin-side down, for eight minutes. Flip and cook three more minutes. Remove. In the same pan, add the dry orzo and toast for two minutes. Add minced garlic for thirty seconds. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble off, ninety seconds. Pour in the chicken broth and the diced tomatoes (juice and all). Stir. Return the chicken thighs, skin-side up. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook fifteen minutes, until the orzo is tender and the chicken is cooked through. Stir in chopped fresh parsley and grated parmesan. Serve from the pan.

The bowl tastes like an Italian one-pot recipe ought to taste — the orzo absorbed the chicken-tomato-wine broth, the chicken on top has crispy skin from the sear and tender meat from the simmer, the parmesan melted slightly on top. Mama said, when I served it Sunday night, baby, you have been at this for a hundred dinners now and you have not run out of ideas. She is right. I have not.

The recipe is below. The trick is the toast-the-orzo step. Do not skip the two minutes of dry-toasting in the chicken fat. The toast is the difference between this recipe and a generic one-pot pasta.

One-Pot Chicken and Noodles

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 12 ounces wide egg noodles
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook the chicken. Place chicken breasts in a large pot and pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and reaches 165°F internally.
2. Shred the chicken. Remove chicken from the broth and set aside on a cutting board. Use two forks to shred into bite-sized pieces. Keep the broth in the pot at a low simmer.
3. Sauté the vegetables. In a separate skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook for 4–5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Transfer the vegetables into the pot of broth.
4. Cook the noodles. Add the egg noodles, bay leaf, salt, and pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 8–10 minutes until the noodles are tender and the broth has thickened slightly.
5. Finish the dish. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir to combine. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. The broth should be rich and slightly thickened from the starch of the noodles.
6. Serve. Ladle into bowls and garnish with fresh parsley if desired. Serve hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 365 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 980mg