A quick and easy orzo / risoni pasta recipe for dinner tonight – chicken infused with Italian flavours and a rich tomato basil risoni, all made in one pot! Marinating the chicken is optional – you can skip it by cutting the chicken into thinner steaks. Fill out the veggies and swap the herbs for whatever takes your fancy.
If you have chicken breast in the fridge and risoni in your pantry, you can make this tonight!
I hardly made a “normal” meal during the whole month of December. I was living on leftovers, whether it was food I made for my blog or leftovers from gatherings. Don’t even get me started about the RecipeTin Family Christmas. Those of you who have found me on Instagram may have seen that the RecipeTin Christmas lunch was still going strong at 10pm when the main course was served. Yes, I said LUNCH.
Oi. I had to nap between courses. I’m not even kidding. And there were days and days of leftovers. “You HAVE to take some,” my mother says forcefully. “Everybody has to take their share!” she declares, as she packs up takeaway containers. [Side note: This is the ritual for every family feasting gathering. She gets really cranky that we depart her house leaving her fridge filled with leftovers, half empty bottles and all manner of ingredients we bring to prepare things at her house that SHE then feels obliged to consume for days afterwards. BA HA HA!!!]
Now the 2nd of January has arrived and holiday feasting is officially over. No fridge full of dips and leftover Christmas ham. No mimosas for breakfast. 😉
So it seems fitting to launch 2017 with a great midweek meal, light on washing up, BIG on flavour, and on the table in (just over) 30 minutes. 🙂
This risoni pasta recipe is all made in one pot, and it’s not just about saving on washing up. It’s about using all the free flavour you get from searing the chicken in the skillet as the flavour base for the risoni. Did you notice the rich and dark red colour of the tomato coating the risoni pasta? No tomato paste used, just 1 small can of crushed tomato. The richness of the colour and flavour comes from the brown bits stuck on the skillet after the chicken is cooked.
This kind of food is totally me. It’s simple but super tasty (it’s always all about the flavour! 😉 ), fuss free, and quick to prepare. No fancy ingredients to hunt down, and in fact, if you have a basil plant in your garden and chicken in your fridge, chances are you have everything you need to make this right now!
If time permits, marinating the chicken is the best option because if really infuses the chicken with flavour. However, if you are pressed for time, just cut the chicken breast in half horizontally to make two thin steaks. These will cook in half the time it takes to cook a whole chicken breast and you won’t need to marinate. The other way to make this is to cook bite size pieces of chicken WITH the risoni, so I’ve got notes in the recipe for that too. 🙂
The chicken in this risoni recipe is really delicious, especially if you marinate it, but I must confess that the star is the risoni! I was watching a Nigella Lawson cooking show recently and she declared this method of cooking risoni in one pot (rather than cooking it separately then adding it into a sauce) to be “all the rage” in Italy at the moment. Now, as regular readers know, I am not about food trends. But I must confess that it feels pretty cool to be doing something that is apparently “all the rage” !!! – Nagi xx
More risoni / orzo recipes
-
Orzo / Risoni Bolognaise – one pot bolognese pasta dish!
-
Greek Lemon Orzo Salad – a bright fresh pasta salad loaded with Greek flavours
-
Creamy Salmon Risoni / Orzo (15 Minute Meal) – tastes like risotto, except MUCH faster to make!
-
Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Orzo (Risoni) (One Pot) – tastes like a creamy mushroom risotto
-
Baked Greek Chicken Orzo (Risoni) – Greek chicken AND orzo made in one pot!
-
One Pot Creamy Chicken, Vegetable & Parmesan Orzo (Risoni) – creamy chicken and vegetable orzo, a quick 20 minute meal
-
Pea, Zucchini and Pesto Orzo / Risoni – a wonderful quick side dish
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
One Pot Italian Chicken with Risoni Pasta recipe video!
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One Pot Italian Chicken & Orzo / Risoni Pasta
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Italian herb mix (or make your own with basil, parsley, oregano)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1/2 tsp salt + black pepper
Chicken
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 x 110 - 120g/4oz chicken breasts , skinless and boneless (Note 1)
Risoni
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil (if required)
- 1 small onion , finely chopped (brown, white, yellow)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 red capsicum / bell pepper , chopped
- 1 1/2 cups risoni / orzo pasta (Note 2)
- 400 g / 14 oz can crushed tomato
- 3 cups chicken stock / broth
- 1 tsp Italian herb mix
- Pinch of red pepper flakes (chilli flakes) (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup (3 tbsp) grated parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1 cup basil leaves
Instructions
- Mix Marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Add chicken and mix to coat. Marinate for 1 hour - 24 hours (See Note 3 to skip marinating).
- Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm while resting.
- Turn heat up to medium high. Add oil if required.
- Add onion and garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add capsicum and cook for 1 minute or until onion is translucent.
- Add risoni, tomato, chicken stock, Italian herbs, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Mix and bring to simmer, then lower heat to medium low or so it simmers gently.
- Cook for 9 - 10 minutes, stirring frequently (otherwise it will stick).
- Take it off the stove when the risoni is just cooked (touch under is ok, finishes cooking in residual heat very quickly). It should still be saucy (see video).
- Stir through parmesan and basil - excess liquid will evaporate in this step.
- Spoon risoni into serving bowls, top with chicken. Serve with extra parmesan and basil.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
I predict 2017 will be no different to 2016 (and in fact, every other year): Filled with plenty of beach fun, lots of food and way too many cuddles. This dog has a blessed life!!!
Hi Nagi, Thanks for sharing this.It looks so yum.can not wait to try this. I’ll let you know soon..Thank you
Hope you love it Andreya!
Another winner! Quick, easy and so tasty 🙂
FANTASTIC to hear Leah! Thank you! N xx
Would this work with rice?
Hi Haley, yes it will, just reduce chicken broth to 2 1/4 cups, once you add the rice and liquids, put the lid on and DO NOT STIR. Cook until no liquid is less, it will take around 5 minutes longer to cook on the stove 🙂
Looks fantastic, but I don’t like peppers, any suggestions? Can I leave it out or substitute something else?
Hi Colleen! Absolutely – how about zucchinis? Anything you can chop up really – or just leave it out!
Hi Nagi!
Thanks for this wonderful recipe! I made it as is for Dinner tonight (for 2 ppl) with enough leftovers to feed us another night! 🙂
Can you please tell me where to find ‘Red Pepper Flakes’ (in Melbourne, VIC) I saw ‘Chilli Flakes’ in the spice section! Is that the same?
thanks Wendy x
So glad to hear that Wendy! Red Pepper Flakes are also called chilli flakes. 🙂 Same thing. Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed this! N x PS Hope the weather in Melbourne is as lovely as it is up here in Sydney. Tennis mania???
Made this tonight and it was wonderful! Great flavors. Doubled it for our family so now there are leftovers, yum! Added mushrooms and chopped spinach. Husband had 2 hearty servings just to be sure it was as good as the first serving. He’s the picky one here, lol. Another great recipe, thank you!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this Patricia! Thanks so much for letting me know! N x
Made this tonight and it was wonderful! Great flavors. Doubled it for our family so now there are leftovers, yum! Added mushrooms and chopped spinach. Another great recipe, thank you!
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it when I get back from my holiday.
Thanks Sharmane! Hope you do, it is SO YUM! 🙂
Belatedly, HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!
Hope you had a very restful Christmas and New Year. Sounds like your Christmas lunch was as sumptuous as ours – I cooked enough food to feed my entire street, just for the 4 of us! On the menu was your Sticky Maple Glazed Ham, and a Turkey Buffe using the spice rub from your Juicy Slow Cooker Turkey – the turkey gravy was out of this world! On top of this, I had prawns, and a simple rocket and pomegranate and feta salad. For 2 adults and 2 kids. Let’s just say I didn’t cook for the rest of that week!
I can’t wait to make this new one pot chicken dish next week. Back to work and back to reality and this dish will be fantastic for the family.
By the way, I have been trying to post a comment using my new personalised email address – something that J Daddy organised for the family as my Christmas present – but alas, every time I use the new email address, the online forms do not seem to recognise the address and error messages pop up. So if you have received a couple of “Spam” like comments that require moderator approval, please delete them! 🙂
Anyway
SCREECH! I’m so SO HONOURED Gloria! I will have a look now in my spam folder 🙂 N xx
I tried this tonight, yet again everyone loved it. I have not cooked a recipe of yours that did not receive 4 thumbs up from around the table.
From now on, on my nights to cook (cooking is shared in this house between husband, girls and myself), I am cooking one of your recipes as no complaints.
Daughter number 2 has already put her hand up for the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Gosh what a compliment! Thank you so much for trying my recipes Jennifer, and I’m so glad you enjoy them! N xx
5 stars for this beauty. Looks enticing, and it’s not your traditional chicken boring recipe. Thanks for showing it here.
Thanks Shirley! It really is so delicious, I ate it for 3 meals in a row!!! (Had to make it twice to post cause I stuffed up the first video!)
This was delicious! The flavour differences between the chicken and the risoni sauce complemented each other beautifully. I cut the chicken breast horizontally AND marinaded it.
I also made a half recipe of the risoni using just 60 grams (2 ounces) of pasta for a lower carb result. It was still a satisfying (large-ish) portion for one.
Living the bachelor life I’m always pleased to find scaleable one-pot recipes.
Fantastic! So glad to hear you enjoyed it David, thanks so much for trying my recipe David! N x
A delightful dish after all the Christmas surfeit. And Dozer just knows ‘normal’ life is back and that means fun, fun, fun! Am certain that with your joie de vivre life will be the same or even better . . . I just hope the same for the world . . . Best quote of the morning was an old Bette Davis one: ‘Fasten your seatbelts! It’s going to be a bumpy ride’ !!! {Ask your Mom 🙂 !!]
Ba ha ha! I shall ask her! And YES to Dozer’s life being just fun, fun, fun…and food, food, food…..
Haha! Your family Christmas seemed like a lot of fun! I also know that “You HAVE to take some” phrase very well. My family is similar :). Love this recipe. It looks so yummy.
It’s a total First World problem, isn’t it?? TOO FUNNY! N xx
I come from a Greek family, and my mother would make something similar to this all the time. (We called the pasta manestra instead of orzo) It’s still one of my favorite meals. The biggest difference is in the seasonings: tomato sauce, cinnamon, allspice, and some oregano. I really like the idea of a marinade with the chicken.
Ohhh! I love hearing that! I’m going to look it up, it sounds amazing, I especially love the addition of cinnamon and all spice. So when you say “tomato sauce”, do you mean American canned tomato sauce? So it’s like pureed thick tomato that’s got seasonings in it, used in cooking. here in Australia, tomato sauce is our version of ketchup!
Sorry, I didn’t think about the different ways cooking terms are used. I’m talking about canned tomato sauce not ketchup. It would be found with canned tomatoes and tomato paste in a grocery store.
I just realized you have a lot of recipes devoted to one pot meals. I’m looking forward to reading all of them.
Excellent recipe suggestion… Tonight’s dinner… :O)
Happy New Year Ross! Love to know what you think if you do try it!! N xx
Made this for our dinner today… Wonderful flavors and enough to quick freeze for another meal for two…
Did the dish freeze well?
HIGH FIVE! Thanks Ross, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 N xx
For obvious reasons, moistness and taste, you should begin to substitute thighs, the
best part of the chicken, for breasts. I do this with your otherwise delightful recipes.
I agree, thigh is always juicier! I used breast in this in a bid to keep the calories somewhat sensible. Plus marinating makes the chicken nice and juicy! 🙂 Happy 2017 Paul! N x
What on earth is risoni / orzo pasta ? I’ve never heard of it
Hi Daniel! I have some information in the notes of the recipe, it is rice shaped pasta. It’s fantastic, it’s like risotto but is so much faster to cook! 🙂 In Australia it’s sold in all the supermarkets nowadays. N xx
Happy New year wishing you and your family the best of fun and foodies adventures!!
Hi Layla! Happy New Year to you too! GIMME MORE DELICIOUSNESS!!!!
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU FILLED WITH MORE FOOD AND FUN, DEAR NAGI!!
I’ve been meaning to try a one-pot risoni recipe similar to this, and your version sounds like the perfect recipe to experiment with. I fancy trying another ‘Greek’ version (but of course!).
P.S. Where did you get that gorgeous creamy-coloured matt dish? I’m always looking for things like that, and never seem to have much luck!
HAPPY NEW YEAR HELEN! OMG How ARE you?? How were the holidays?? how is the BUMP?? I got that dish from this ceramicist in Australia -> http://mhceramics.net She had an end of year sale of seconds and I went mental! Find a good ceramicist in your area and ask them if they have seconds!!!
Oh wait! The splotchy brown one is from Robert Gordon!! I can’t get on their website at the moment but if you do a google search you will find it 🙂 It’s this one http://www.casettaliving.com/bowl-19cm-natural-earth-collection/ I got it from a local homewares store