One skillet Creamy Orzo Chicken with Artichoke Hearts- a deliciously cozy dinner, made with simple pantry ingredients, perfect for busy weeknights. Video.
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This Creamy Orzo Chicken is so homey and comforting, it just doesn’t seem possible that it comes together so easily! My husband constantly asks for this one and honestly, I love making it, because it is so simple to make.
Creamy Orzo Chicken Video
Ingredients in Creamy Orzo Chicken
- Chicken Thighs – bone-in, skin-on, or sub chicken breasts or skinless thighs, see notes.
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- onion- or sub leeks or shallots
- garlic cloves
- thyme (or sub sage, or rosemary)
- orzo pasta
- dijon mustard
- chicken broth
- sour cream, or sub-full-fat yogurt
- artichoke hearts- jarred and packed in water, or use frozen. Or sub other veggies- peas, cooked mushrooms, etc.
- fresh spinach, or sub other wiltable greens.
- lemon zest
How to make Creamy Orzo Chicken
Step one
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Season the chicken on all sides generously with salt and pepper. A good rule of thumb is one scant teaspoon of salt per pound of chicken.
- Pan-sear each side until perfectly golden, and the skin is crispy- then set aside on a plate.
Step two
- Saute the onion, garlic and thyme.
- Add the orzo and toast in the pan for 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth and salt.
- Stir in the mustard.
- Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Step three
- Stir in the sour cream.
- If it seems dry, stir in more broth- a good rule of thumb is when you shake the pan, the mixture should level out.
- Stir in the spinach and artichokes.
- Nestle in the chicken thighs.
Step four
Bake uncovered until the chicken thighs are cooked through (170F) and the edges are bubbling about 20 minutes. Broil the skin for extra crispy.
Step five
Garnish the Creamy Orzo Chicken with lemon zest.
Serve this meal on it’s own or with roasted asparagus, or 15-Minute broccoli, Green Beans with Hazelnuts and Lemon!or a tasty green salad.
More chicken recipes you may like:
- 35+ Chicken Breast Recipes
- Baked Rigatoni with Butternut Squash and Kale
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Gorgonzola Chicken with Mushrooms & Sage
- Chicken Mole
- Chicken Marsala
- Lemony Broccoli Chicken Orzo Bake
One Skillet Creamy Orzo Chicken
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main, chicken recipe
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Description
One Skillet Creamy Orzo Chicken with Artichoke Hearts- a deliciously cozy dinner, made with simple pantry ingredients, perfect for busy weeknights.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on, or use chicken breast, see notes)
- salt and pepper (1 scant teaspoon salt, per pound of chicken)
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme ( or one teaspoon dried, or sub sage or rosemary)
- 1 cup orzo pasta
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, more as needed
- 1/4–1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sour cream; add more for extra creamy- sub-full-fat plain yogurt or heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cup artichoke hearts, packed in water, drained. Or sub frozen artichoke hearts, peas, edamame, etc.
- 2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
- 4–6 thyme sprigs
- Lemon zest for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Pat chicken dry and season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Sear the chicken: In a large (10-11 inch) oven-proof skillet, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Sear the skin side first 4-5 minutes, until beautifully golden and crispy, turn over, and sear the other side 3-4 minutes. Set chicken aside on a plate.
- Saute: Lower heat to medium-low, and to the same skillet, add a tablespoon of olive oil, onions, garlic and thyme. Saute 4-5 minutes until lightly golden and fragrant. Add the orzo, stirring 1-2 minutes. Add 2 cups of broth, scrape up any brown bits, stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and mustard and bring to simmer, and cover for 4-5 minutes, or until orzo is al dente and has soaked up most of the liquid.
- Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of broth and adjust the salt to taste (I added another 1/4 teaspoon.)
- Stir in sour cream, spinach, and artichoke hearts. Give the pan a shake, it should level out nicely. If it’s too dry to level out, then add more chicken stock or water to loosen it up.
- Nestle in the chicken, arrange some the artichokes, so they are showing, and place in the oven and bake uncovered until the chicken registers 170F and the very edges of the pan are bubbling, and the orzo is tender – about 20 -25 minutes. Add the sprigs of thyme. Broil the chicken for a few minutes for extra crispy skin.
- Garnish with fresh lemon zest.
Notes
Feel free to use 1 lb chicken breasts. I recommend cutting the breasts into 1-inch bite-sized pieces, seasoning and browning them, then stirring them into the orzo mixture, rather than nestling them on top. They’ll need less baking time- check at 10-15 minutes.
If using heavy cream instead of sour cream, add few drops of lemon juice to give it a tanginess.
Leftovers last 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 508
- Sugar: 5.9 g
- Sodium: 969.7 mg
- Fat: 26.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 42.1 g
- Fiber: 8.3 g
- Protein: 26.9 g
- Cholesterol: 119.8 mg
Delicious and fancy enough for company. This is going in my regular repertoire.
Oh Good! Great to hear and glad you enjoyed it!
I just love this recipe! I’ve made it countless times already. I’m wondering if I could double it and use a huge dutch oven type of pot to make it? Do you think it would work? I usually use boneless and skinless legs, so I’m not worried about the chicken being too cramped in the pot… but would you double the rest of the ingredients? Thanks 🙂
I do think it would work!I really don’t see why not?
As soon as I added the mustard I knew this was going to be good. I’m not sure the orzo added much. I thought it called for a can of mushrooms, I know, I know. I had opened the can so I dumped them in. This tasted very European. I would cook the chicken more and serve over fluffy egg noodles next time, skipping the oven time. I always follow the recipe as written then make any changes the second time. Thanks for a beautiful meal!
Glad you enjoyed this feel free to use it as a jumping off point for your own creations Chris!
Thank you for this. Wow! I just made it this evening and it was incredible! An absolutely wonderful recipe. It is quite different to other meals I have cooked and we loved it. I served it with the grated lemon snd fresh herbs on top. And a lovely feta tomato salad on the side with olives.
Sounds perfect!
Perfect comfort food without using canned cream soup. Delicious. I used cashew yoghurt in ours, probably 1/2 cup. Also only had the skinnless boneless thighs and they worked fine. Maybe a tad too much orzo (the brand I bought was from Italy and expanded quite a bit) so I did have to add more liquid before baking. Used the Better than Boullion for the stock and didn’t add any extra salt. Will definitely be making again, and probably tossing in some sauteed mushrooms, too, along with the canned drained artichokes and lots of spinach. Doubled it will be great for company. Thank you!
Thanks Janet! Glad this worked for you!
My husband really liked this, me it was average. I didn’t use skin on or bone in thighs, only had skinless, boneless on hand. However I felt it was a tad bland. If made again, I would use drained marinated artichokes and definitely add Parmesan cheese to the orzo. And maybe add some sun-dried tomatoes too
Thanks fpr the feedback Nanci- I do think the skin-on, bone-in thighs do add another level of richness here that seeps down into the orzo- maybe that was it? But parmesan is always welcome. 😉
Excellent! Couldn’t get any chicken thigh cutlets so substituted with chicken maryland, I just needed to cook the cuts a bit longer. Certain chicken cuts aren’t available, for some reason we have a shortage, also potatoes, so chips (as in crisps) are scarce but actual potatoes are on the shelves. Global warming, floods and drought probably have a huge impact on production.
Glad you were able to make this work!
This is a perfect meal to celebrate the end of a busy day! I served it with a salad of winter lettuces , cara cara orange slices and crumbled chevre tossed with a light vinaigrette. It was a delicious dinner.
Sounds lovely Mary Jane!
This recipe looks delicious but the salt content per serving is so extremely high. Any suggestions for a lower salt version?
Feel free to decrease the salt ( recipe is salt to taste) and sub low-sodium chicken broth. 🙂
Amazing comfort food! This was fabulous. I did opt for heavy cream and it was pure heaven.
Thanks so much Heather!
I didn’t know what to make for dinner tonight, I said to my husband if I could find a recipe with chicken and artichokes that would be great. I put those ingredients in the search on your site and found this. I didn’t have orzo, but used arborio risotto rice and it was delicious! A keeper in our house.
Oh, great to hear Jen. Did you adjust the liquid at all, or cooking time? Love that you used risotto!
Exactly my kind of taste. Brilliant & many thanks Sylvia. Deglazed with a bit of Chardonnay 😉 that blended in nicely with the artichokes
mmmm…sounds perfect Anna.
Made this tonight for our dinner. Full of flavor. Next time I will add more mustard and thyme. Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks, Patricia!
I only have marinated artichoke hearts. Do you think that would work or would the flavor be off?
I think they would taste great!
I used marinated artichokes, it was delicious!
Another wonderful recipe! We upped the spinach and added mushrooms, too, and swapped the regular orzo for a gluten-free orzo (sometimes that swap can blow a recipe but, happily, it didn’t here). Otherwise, we followed it exactly, down to the lemon zest, and it was delicious, easy and very satisfying, thank you!
Thanks Heidi! Glad you enjoyed this!
I’ve made this twice now and we absolutely love this recipe. So easy to pull together for a weeknight meal and makes great leftovers too.
Thanks Jan, happy you are enjoying!
Very tasty food
excellent weeknight dinner. I devoured it! Used pasta shells as I ran out of orzo, used yogurt instead of sour cream. Yummy!
Love your modifications and glad to hear they worked well!
This is a fantastic recipe! We doubled it for a family dinner and it received rave reviews – everyone had seconds. A few notes: we skinned the chicken pieces to lower the fat content and cooked it longer so the orzo was tender rather than al dente.
Sounds great Heather!
I made the creamy orzo chicken without artichokes or spinach as grandson is a bit picky. Used green peas. I heard shortly after delivering the meal that it was DELICIOUS. I made enough for us and I agree. Thanks Sylvia. Judy
Wonderful to hear Judy!
This dish was excellent. The directions were very clear, the flavors just right for a cozy dinner, and the ingredient list largely made of things I already had! I did double the chicken and veggies while only slightly increasing the pasta, which made for a ratio that worked well for my family. I have a very large cast iron skilled which was perfect for this recipe. Thanks very much, Sylvia!
Perfect Joanne- glad you were happy with this one!
We loved it as written except 2 out of 3 would prefer no artichokes! I was the dissenter and loved them. Other wise it was delicious, we drank white wine with it because we are French and enjoy our carbs:) C’est très bon, je vais refaire ce plat!!
Thanks- and happy you liked them- but you could easily leave them out or sub another veggie here!
Gotta eat my veggies! So I added almost an entire 5 oz. package of baby spinach, which worked beautifully. 5 oz. was not too much for the amount of pasta and chicken. The lemon zest added a nice touch. An excellent recipe – my husband LOVED it. And I think it might scale up nicely for a crowd. Will definitely make again.
Great to hear Mary!
Prefer to use jackfruit and, keeping it wheat free, prefer mixed beans or lentils to pasta… even Gluten free pasta – but adjust simmering time.
Also this reduces calories as carbs at night are unnecessary (unless you work out)
Let’s face it our lifestyle isn’t always exercise geared…so our bodies need all the help they can get to limit or reduce weight gain!
Glad you made this your own!
My whole family thoroughly enjoyed it. It goes in our “favorites” collection.
Awesome- my husband liked this one too!