One Pan Caprese Chicken w/ Orzo
The perfect summer dinner all in one pan.
Caprese salad is one of my favorite dishes on the planet. It’s beautifully simple, refreshing, and visually stunning. As someone who grows their own tomatoes, my wife and I eat Caprese and bruschetta every other night once my tomatoes start to get ripe.
The obvious next step is to take that and turn it into a dinner. I’m sure you’ve had something like this in the past, but this recipe cooks it all in the same pan, which lets all the flavors blend together with that orzo soaking up all of the juice from the chicken.
The gooey melted mooz complements the acid from the tomatoes so well. If you have balsamic glaze to drizzle over the top, it makes this dish pretty close to perfect.
It also utilizes my favorite cut of meat, the chicken thigh. If you’ve been following me for a while now, then you have already heard my defense of using thighs over breasts. Packed with way more flavor and significantly cheaper than chicken breasts, if the only reason you avoid thighs is because you “don’t like dark meat,” then you are not actually trying to save money.
It also utilizes two different types of tomatoes. You get the cherry tomatoes bursting in the orzo to give it a nice, balanced, mellow tomato flavor throughout, and that sliced tomato on top of your chicken gives you a fresher, sharper tomato flavor in each bite of chicken.
Estimated Time: 40 min
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1½ cups dry orzo
3 cups chicken broth
1 large tomato, sliced
8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped into ribbons
optional: Balsamic glaze to finish
From here, you’ll get the full directions, complete with helpful tricks and techniques to make you dangerous in the kitchen. Subscribe and let’s get to work.
