You don’t need to stir this deliciously creamy and cheesy one-pot chicken orzo recipe, unlike risotto. Lemon adds sharpness, and spinach and parsley offer color.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 cup (7 oz.) uncooked orzo
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 3 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup shredded fontina cheese
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish.
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in orzo and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly toasted, about 1 minute.
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- Stir in heavy cream, broth, about 1 teaspoon lemon zest, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the bottom from sticking, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring constantly, until orzo is tender and mixture is thickened, 8 to 10 minutes.
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- Stir in chicken and spinach until spinach wilts, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in fontina, Parmesan, parsley, pepper, and salt until creamy, about 30 seconds.
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- Serve immediately topped with additional Parmesan and parsley.
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Reviews
Don’t change a thing, absolutely wonderful!
Delicious. Followed recipe but I did add more salt and pepper. Very filling and satisfying. Way to go, Nicole.
I love all the ingredients so I thought this would be yummy. Unfortunately, it was a little bland so I added more salt & a touch more lemon juice. I love mushrooms, so I added those as well. I didn’t have heavy cream so I used 1 & 1/2 C. milk with 1/4 stick butter (recommended from Allrecipes). It was good, but needed more flavor. I would make this again with a few flavorful additions. Also, it took longer to make than the instructions say, but that could’ve been me. 🙂
Very creamy very yummy. Definitely will make this again. Needed a little extra seasoning. I added a lil extra sal,pep,garlic,onion. Little chili powder for some more depth
This was awesome! I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of the lemon zest because I had no lemons just juice. The significant other loved it as well. This will definitely go into the dinner rotation.