Chicken doesn’t have to be boring thanks to this flavorful recipe.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr |
| Active: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons/56 grams) butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons ground Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon fine breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 3 garlic cloves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 chicken thighs, skin-on bone-in
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 shallot, finely minced
- 1 cup (180 grams) orzo
- 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) sliced sundried tomatoes
- 2 large handfuls dark leafy greens, such as spinach, kale or collards
- 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) dry white wine, optional
- 3 cups (750 milliliters) low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 lemon
- Roughly chopped parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, mash together the butter, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and parsley. Mince 2 of the garlic cloves and add to the butter mixture and season with salt and pepper. Using a small spoon, tuck about half a tablespoon of the butter under the skin of each thigh and press or spread into an even layer. Spread the remaining butter mixture over the chicken skin, season the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken thighs in batches, skin-side down, and sear until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the olive oil and shallot and season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened and lightly golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Thinly slice the remaining garlic clove and add to the pan along with the orzo, sundried tomatoes and greens. Cook for about 1 minute to soften the garlic, toast the orzo and wilt the greens. Deglaze with the wine if using and allow it to evaporate. Turn off the heat and stir in the chicken broth.
- Nestle the chicken thighs skin-side up into the pan on top of the orzo and carefully transfer to the oven to bake until the orzo is tender and the chicken thighs are cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes.
- Set aside to rest for 5 minutes before zesting and juicing the lemon overtop and scattering with parsley.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1229 |
| Total Fat | 80 g |
| Saturated Fat | 26 g |
| Carbohydrates | 46 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 4 g |
| Protein | 77 g |
| Cholesterol | 412 mg |
| Sodium | 1609 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1229 |
| Total Fat | 80 g |
| Saturated Fat | 26 g |
| Carbohydrates | 46 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 4 g |
| Protein | 77 g |
| Cholesterol | 412 mg |
| Sodium | 1609 mg |
Reviews
For me, this one isn’t worth keeping. If you make it, I wouldn’t recommend coating the outside of the chicken with the breadcrumb mixture, the parmesan cheese just burns in the pan. The orzo turned out well. I used the whole box of orzo (16 oz) and one box of chicken broth (4 cups). Since the pan was charred from the breadcrumbs, I just put the orzo, spinach, and tomatoes in a baking dish, laid the chicken on top and poured the broth over. Overall the flavor was good but I have another similar recipe that’s a bit better; I think I’ll add sun dried tomatoes to it though!
I read the other comments about the amount of broth but didn’t see the comment about using a less fatty cut of chicken. Mine turned out very greasy. I’m going to give this another shot and use leaner meat, less butter and a sturdier green. . . . maybe something else like zucchini or peas? Next time it will be perfect
Mmmm….didn’t turn out so good. Followed the recipe to the letter, carefully/accurately measured, and yes, the oven’s temp is very accurate. After 45 minutes, the orzo was cooked, but swimming in waaaay too much greasy liquid. Had to use a slotted spoon to drain it. We usually have great success with Food Network, Cook’s Country, ATK, and other Internet sites’ recipes. This was a waste of time and money, and, apparently, at least one cup too many of chicken broth.
For those having trouble with too much or too little liquid required, and too much or too little grease, make sure that your oven is calibrated properly so that the liquid and fat cook out more quickly and don’t leave you with mush. It should not take you an hour to finish and it would definitely cause the orzo to be over cooked.
I cooked this exactly as written and it was fantastic! This will become a keeer recipe for me.
This is my 2nd time making this recipe and I write this having corrected the problems from the first foray. Use chicken breast to help make the dish less greasy. Reduce the amount of butter to half for the ‘under the skin’ mixture. Don’t use the same mixture (as directed) to coat the skin. The parm and breadcrumbs just burn in the pan. You can slather the outside in butter and salt and pepper them to get a better result. Cook the breasts at the same temp in the oven for :35 but then stir the orzo and let the dish sit out of the oven for :05 to let the chicken finish cooking and the orzo finish absorbing the liquid. It has great flavor and don’t omit the lemon because it adds a lot.
This was great! Cut the chix broth down to 2 cups and it was perfect.
Loved this! It’s definitely going into my family’s heavy rotation. We used baby spinach and added a bit more than the recipe called for along with extra sun-dried tomatoes as others recommended here. It was so simple and a huge hit!
This was very good. I normally don’t like sun dried tomatoes but they were good in this recipe.
Just made this for my family and it was a hit!! I followed a recent post and added extra sun dried tomatoes, wine, orzo & spinach. Will be making again soon.