Mediterranean Chicken Recipe with Orzo
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Healthy Mediterranean Chicken Orzo is an easy and delicious dinner! Made with simple ingredients, packed with flavor and done in under 30 minutes!
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This Mediterranean Chicken Orzo is one of our favorite weeknight dinners. It’s easy to make (in almost one pan!) and seriously tastes like a restaurant quality dish.
Sweet grape tomatoes, white wine, briny olives + salty feta all combine with orzo (the most underrated pasta) and pan seared chicken for the most epic dinner that is easy and tastes amazing!
This ]couldn’t be easier to make, and it is incredibly yummy. The combo of ingredients is just DELISH!
Why you’ll love this Mediterranean Chicken Recipe
- Simple Ingredients – Many of these ingredients are pantry staples that you probably already have on hand!
- Packed with Flavor – This mediterranean chicken recipe is loaded with absolutely delicious Mediterranean flavors!
- Made in *Almost* One Pan – This means fewer dishes at the end of dinner, which everyone loves! You may also love our one pot Chicken Orzo or Italian Wedding Orzo!
Ingredients
To make this dish you’ll need:
- chicken breasts
- whole wheat orzo (or regular/gluten free orzo)
- kalamata olives
- pine nuts
- grape tomatoes, spinach
- olive oil
- garlic
- feta cheese
- fresh basil, fresh parsley, pepper, dried oregano, red pepper flakes
- white wine
We love this instant-read thermometer for checking the internal temperature to make sure your meat is cooked thoroughly!
How to make Mediterranean Chicken Orzo:
Making this recipe is very easy to do, but requires a few steps.
- Brown chicken breasts in a pan. Remove from the pan and set aside. While chicken is cooking, cook orzo.
- Once you’ve removed the chicken breasts from the pan – add cherry tomatoes into pan and sauté until they start to soften.
- Stir in olives, spices + cooked orzo.
- Garnish with feta, plate + serve with juicy chicken!
The orzo salad on its own (without chicken) also makes an absolutely delicious pasta ‘salad’. It’s great cold or warm!
Substitutions
This easy mediterranean chicken recipe dish is very versatile and easy to customize.
Olive Oil: You can substitute olive oil for avocado oil or butter
Chicken– You can use chicken breasts, chicken thighs or even chicken tenders.
Orzo/Gluten Free– I haven’t tried this recipe with gluten free orzo, but I think it would be delicious. You could probably make this with another short grain pasta like pastina, but I highly encourage orzo!
Tomatoes- This is best with grape or cherry tomatoes, but you could use cubed regular tomatoes too. If you’re looking for another veggie loaded orzo dish, try this Broccoli Cheddar Orzo with Chicken.
Kalamata Olives: If you don’t like olives, you can omit them. Capers would also be a great addition to this dish.
White Wine – Wine is optional but adds a nice flavor to the recipe. You can sub chicken broth, or skip it.
Spinach- You can double the amount of spinach in this recipe. Arugula is also delicious.
Fresh Herbs – If you don’t have fresh herbs you can substitute 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs with 1/2 teaspoon dried herbs.
Feta– You can substitute feta with goat cheese, or omit it to be dairy free. Parmesan cheese is also good!
Orzo Pasta Salad – For another Orzo recipe with similar flavors, try this Feta Orzo Salad
Serving this Mediterranean Chicken and Orzo Recipe
This dish is a meal in itself, but if you want to add more veggies you could serve it alongside some Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts, or Healthy Green Beans Almondine
Storage
Storing: This meal will last up to 4 days in the refrigerator making it perfect for meal prep.
Freezing: I wouldn’t recommend freezing this mediterranean chicken recipe. Orzo does not freeze well.
Reheating: You can reheat this mediterranean chicken recipe in the microwave or on the stove. You can also enjoy the orzo salad cold.
Mediterranean Chicken Recipe FAQs
Orzo is technically pasta. It’s a short grain pasta that is similar in texture to rice.
You can substitute orzo pasta with rice or other grains in most recipes. Cook according to the package directions.
Other delicious healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Mediterranean Chicken and Orzo
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts sliced thin + pounded
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
For the orzo:
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat orzo 9.5 oz
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic minced
- 2 cups grape tomatoes halved
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives pitted + sliced into small pieces
- 2 cups spinach chopped
- 1/4 cup pine nuts (optional if nut free)
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/2 cup feta (optional)
Instructions
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large sauté pan. Heat over medium high heat for 3 minutes or until the olive oil starts to shimmer.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the preheated pan and cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- While the chicken cooks, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Cook orzo per directions on the package.
- Remove the cooked chicken from the pan and set off to the side on a clean plate. Make sure to keep the oil and browned bits in the pan. Add an additional tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and heat for 2 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic to the pan and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Stir in cherry tomatoes and white wine. Cook for 5 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and the wine begins to reduce.
- Once the tomatoes are cooked, stir in cooked orzo, kalamata olives, spinach, fresh herbs, dried spices, pine nuts and feta together in the pan. Stir until combined.
- Slice the chicken and serve on top of the orzo, garnish with feta + enjoy!
This turned out delicious and was pretty easy to make!
If I could give it more than five stars, I would. This is such a wonderfully tasty and easy meal. I had all the ingredients on hand and couldn’t wait to try it. It came out perfect and the taste was unbelievable.
Thank you for sharing. I’ll be making this frequently.
Loved this recipe! Quick and easy and so flavorful! Would definitely eat over and over again.
So happy you enjoyed it!
A regular in our dinner rotation now! This is SO GOOD, and very easy and quick to make! Even my picky eater devours it👌🙌😍
So happy to hear this Lauren, thank you!
Super yummy!
I used sun dried tomatoes and chicken broth instead of wine. My hubby had seconds!! 👌🎉
Yum! That sounds delicious! Need to try sun dried tomatoes in this.
I made this last night. I used chicken breast tenders in place of the breasts. It was easy and my wife and I both enjoyed it. I served it with balsamic roasted baby carrots. Perfect complement!
So glad you liked it David! Thank you so much!
I love this recipe! I have made it several times now, the flavors are wonderful. It’s even better warmed up the next day!
So glad you liked it, Kimberly! Thank you!
Used leftover chicken tenders and cut them into strips. Reduced the amount of orzo to 1 cup. Combined all the ingredients like a casserole. Delicious and easy!
Everyone in my family LOVED this recipe! Also very easy to make!
This is so simple to make and even easier to eat! My 5 year old even liked it! I used chicken broth instead of wine and left out the pine nuts. Of my five year old likes this you are sure to love it!
This dish was delicious! The only thing that would have made it better is if I remembered to buy feta cheese! Would definitely make it again!
Great recipe, we loved this meal so much. Thanks!
Made this tonight for dinner and my husband and I both loved it. The mix of flavors in the Orzo is absolutely perfect. I made the dish exactly as written and included the pine nuts and crushed red pepper; I wouldn’t change a thing. This dish will be going into our regular rotation. Thanks!
This was delicious. I made it as written with the addition of some zucchini I had. Will definitely make again
Loved this recipe
I skipped the red chili peppers for my husband , added capers & didn’t have pine nuts but it was quick easy & delicious! ( also used skinless boneless thighs versus breast)
Will definitely make it again
Made this recipe last night. I tweaked it a little as I don’t keep or buy wine. I also used sun dried tomatoes because I already make a repeat recipe very similar with diced tomatoes. I cooked the orzo in the same pot after the chicken in chicken broth. Then added everything in. Was very good and will definitely make again!
Really enjoyed it! Only thing I would probably do next time is season my chicken breasts a little with some of the basil,oregano and salt before browning. My chicken breasts themselves were a little bland, but the mixture definitely helped with the flavor
Can I swap the spinach for something else?
I’ve used arugula in it and it was good too! If you want you can also skip the spinach!
Absolutely love this recipe. Make it almost every week. Thank you for sharing.
What white wine would you recommend for this recipe?
Any white wine works. we usually do pinot grigio
Delicious and very easy
Awesome recipe! This goes in permanent file and on regular rotation. So, so good!
Going to make this tonight. Can I use frozen spinach?
That should work! Just ensure it is fully thawed and wilted before serving. Let me know how it turns out!
So good I used GF orzo and chicken broth instead of white wine. Will do this again
Came out great, cheers!
So easy to make ~ my family loves it!