One Pot Chicken Orzo
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An Easy One Pot Chicken Orzo Recipe that is quick to make! this Creamy orzo with chicken is rich and delicious while still being healthy!
This Chicken Orzo is a quick, one pot meal and is perfect for those busy weeknights.
Tender asparagus, spinach, and juicy bites of chicken are combined with orzo in a light and creamy parmesan sauce for a healthy meal that can be on the table in 30 minutes!
If you love orzo, try our Mediterranean Chicken Orzo, Lemon Chicken Orzo, Caprese Orzo, French Onion Orzo, or Greek Orzo Salad!
Why you should make this:
- Easy to Make: This orzo chicken dinner is simple to make and only needs one pan, which means less cleaning up afterward. (We love that!!) Any time you can have dinnon the table in under an hour with minimal dishes = a win in my book!
- Delicious Flavors: The creamy sauce, tender chicken, and veggies = perfect combo! Even picky eaters will love it because the flavors are simple and delicious.
- Healthy Ingredients: Chicken Orzo is made with wholesome ingredients like lean chicken and fresh vegetables, making it a healthy dinner choice!
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Ingredients
Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Chicken Breasts: You can substitute with boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenders. To make this an even faster dish, you can skip the first 2 steps and use pulled or chopped cooked chicken folded in at the end.
Broth: Broth and stock are the same thing! You can use any broth or stock interchangeably. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no salt broth.
Asparagus: Other vegetables that would be good in this would be zucchini, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. If you want a veggie loaded orzo dish check out our Broccoli Cheddar Orzo or Red Pepper Orzo.
Orzo: I have only tried this recipe with orzo pasta. I have not tried substituting rice for orzo and I think you would need a different cook time/broth ratio. You can try this Chicken Broccoli Rice and add cheese/asparagus instead.
Gluten Free: We only tested this recipe with regular pasta. Gluten free pasta cooks very differently, and we find that it can get very gummy/mushy. Others have made this recipe with gluten free orzo and said it worked well, but I haven’t personally tried it.
Half & Half: You can substitute half and half with whole milk but it will not be as creamy. You can also substitute heavy cream. I haven’t tried this with dairy free milk and I don’t know how it would come out.
Parmesan Cheese: We haven’t tried this with any other cheese and wouldn’t recommend swapping anything for the parmesan! It wouldn’t have the same flavor. Feta can be sprinkled on top of this dish but would give it a totally different flavor.
Spinach: I haven’t tried it, but I think you could sub spinach with arugula and it would be just as delicious! I’ve also doubled tee spinach in this recipe and it came out great. You can try our Broccoli Cheddar Orzo with Chicken or Chicken Red Pepper Orzo if you want more veggies.
Dairy Free: While I personally have not made this recipe, multiple readers have used dairy free milk + cheese with success!
How to make Creamy Chicken Orzo
- In a small bowl, combine chicken chunks, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, and toss to coat.
- Heat olive oil and brown the chicken. Set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and saute asparagus for another 2 minutes.
- Saute the onion until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the orzo and garlic and cook until the orzo starts to toast slightly.
- Add in the broth and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook for 7 minutes.
- Stir in the chicken, asparagus, half and half, parmesan, and spinach.
- Heat for one to two minutes more until heated through.
How to serve Orzo Chicken
This Orzo Chicken should be served immediately and is best garnished with chopped parsley and extra grated parmesan. You could also add some freshly ground black pepper.
It’s delicious paired with these side dishes:
- Even though there are lots of veggies in this dish, I like it paired with Kale Salad or Kale Quinoa Salad
- Crusty Baguette or Artisan Bread
- Asparagus in the Oven for more veggies
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan
- A Glass of White Wine
Liz’s Tip:
There are different sizes of orzo pasta, and they may have different cooking times. The size most commonly found in supermarkets cooks in about 8 minutes. Check the packaging of the orzo for cook times and choose one with a 7-9 minute cook time.
Storage
This dish is best when fresh. Leftovers tend to be drier, less creamy, and can clump together.
Storing: This will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: We don’t recommend freezing this recipe. Frozen pasta can get really mushy when frozen!
Reheating: Reheat in a covered pot on the stove, over low heat, adding some extra broth to loosen it back up.
Other healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy one pot meals? Check our our favorite’s below! Grab our free one pot dinners cookbook.
One Pot Chicken Orzo
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders cubed into 1” pieces
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- ½ cup diced yellow onion about 1/2 a medium onion
- 2 cups chopped fresh asparagus spears cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic about 3 garlic cloves
- 8 ounces dry orzo
- 2 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme can sub 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- ⅓ cup half and half can sub milk
- ⅓ cup freshly grated parmesan
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- Chopped fresh parsley and extra Parmesan for garnish
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine chicken chunks, garlic powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, toss to coat.
- In a large high sided pan over medium high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the chicken. Cook for 10-12 minutes, until brown on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan, (no need to clean it!) add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the asparagus and sauté for 2 minutes, until tender but still crisp. Remove from the pan and set aside to the plate with the cooked chicken.
- Add the onion to the pan and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the orzo and garlic and cook until the orzo starts to toast slightly, another 3 minutes.
- Add in the broth and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pan. (Tip: You can microwave your broth before adding to the pan to speed up cook time) Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 7 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed, stirring halfway.
- Stir in the cooked chicken, asparagus, half and half, parmesan, spinach and thyme. Heat for one to two minutes more until heated through and spinach is wilted.
- Serve immediately garnished with chopped parsley and extra grated parmesan.
Video
Notes
- This dish is best when fresh. Leftovers tend to be drier, less creamy, and can clump together. For best quality, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheat in a covered pot on the stove, over low heat, adding some extra broth to loosen it back up.
- There are different sizes of orzo pasta, and they may have different cooking times.The size most commonly found in the supermarkets around me cook in about 8 minutes. This recipe was made using Barilla orzo. Check the packaging of orzo for cook times and choose one with an 7-9 minute cook time.
- This orzo can be made with chunks of boneless skinless thighs, but you may need to adjust the cooking time for the chicken. To make this an even faster dish, you can skip the first 2 steps and use pulled or chopped cooked chicken folded in at the end.
- Other vegetables that would be good in this would be zucchini, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.
- Chicken broth can be substituted with vegetable broth.
Fantastic and simple to assemble and make. Definitely recommended and will be in my meal rotation.
Up top on the recipe you note that this makes 6 2-cup servings. The bottom nutritional info lists it as 1.5 cups; do you remember which it is? Trying to incorporate this into my meal prep
Sorry about the typo – I just updated it. It’s 2 cups. If you’re strictly counting macros though, this is just an estimate! Hope that helps!
So delish! Will definitely make again!
Delicious a easy to make!
So glad you liked it!
Very quick delicious recipe. Nice to try something new! I altered to cook in my pressure cooker and it came out fabulous.
Wow!! Made this today for dinner and it’s absolutely fabulous! I added about a cup of parmesan because I was finishing off a bag but it’s absolutely delicious!
The cheesy-ness and creamy-ness is delectable but the asparagus and spinach keep it fresh!
10/10 will make again
So glad you liked it 🙂 More cheese is always better!
Very easy to follow directions and video on Instagram! We loved it and it’ll make a regular return to our dinner table!
Great recipe!! I cooked it just as the recipe called although I think I used a little to much thyme 😞 but it was still good my hubby even approved!! I think next time we will use broccoli I like that idea!!
So happy you enjoyed it!
This was so good and easy to make!!
Yum! This receipt was so yummy and hit the spot! My husband said “you’re becoming quite the housewife with these recipes.” 🤣
So glad you enjoyed it!
Though they can in many cases be used interchangeably, broth and stock are not the same thing.
They absolutely can be used interchangeably, but you’re entitled to your opinion! 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of chicken broth act exactly the same in a recipe
SO yummy! I subbed GF orzo and added mushrooms. Loving the amount of protein in this too. Definitely adding into my rotation.
So glad you liked it!
Bland, wouldn’t make again
Did you make any substitutions to the recipe? This has so many 5 star reviews, I’m wondering what went wrong?
I substituted coconut cream for the half n half, and left out the cheese to make this dairy-free and it was PHENOMENAL. I also doubled the spices on the chicken since I personally love spice. Easy to follow recipe and so quick to make.
So glad you liked it!
I used chick pea orzo , a little more spinach and a tad more cheese! Delicious !!!
So glad you liked it!
Delish! My husband loved it too! I love that it’s a one skillet meal. This recipe is going in the rotation.
So happy you both enjoyed it, Felicia! Thank you so much!!
So yummy! Will be a new regular in my home!
So glad you liked it, Kenzie!
Very easy to follow and quick to make! It was so delicious, and my husband and I put it in our top 10 meals from our 30 years of marriage! The only thing I would change was to use less than a half a teaspoon of pepper….. I already added less red pepper flakes, but didn’t think I needed to add less black pepper. It was still delicious and there was nothing left over in that huge pan that only two of us ate!
So glad you liked it, Susan! That makes me so happy to hear!
This is my third time making this recipe. Last time I added the tiny drop tomatoes, which just add a little burst of flavor. But the dish is delicious as is!
Oooh I love that addition! So glad you liked it!
Made with gluten free orzo and it turned out great! I just had to add extra chicken broth and cook it a little longer. This will be going into my regular rotation!
So glad to hear the GF orzo worked well for you JEssica! Thanks for trying!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was super delicious. Will keep this in rotation for awhile! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Easy and delicious. We added broccoli for some extra veg. 10/10
So glad you liked it!
Easy and delicious! Approved at our house!
So glad you enjoyed it, Beatriz!
We LOVE this recipe! It quickly got added to our weekly rotation. So easy and delicious!
So glad you liked it, Kelsey!
So so good!! Both my husband and I thought it was delicious and I can’t wait to warm up the leftovers!