Creamy Orzo with Chicken & Red Peppers

>> Tuesday, May 11, 2010



I made this tonight for dinner. It is the perfect summer dish. Made entirely on the stove top, it is just so light and tastes... summery! Yet still filling!


1 tbl. olive oil
2 chicken breasts- in chunks
2 red bell peppers- 1/2 in. pieces
1 tea. dried thyme
3 cloves minced garlic
1 lb. orzo pasta
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 c. reserved pasta water
1/2 tea. salt
1/2 tea. pepper
1/2 c. shredded parmesan cheese
3 tbl. chopped fresh parsley
The juice of 1 lemon

First, take out the cream cheese to soften. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook orzo and reserve 1 c. of the water. While orzo cooks, heat olive oil in a large skillet and season the chicken with a pinch of salt & pepper. Cook chicken in the oil; brown on all sides, but not fully cooked through. Add red peppers and thyme. Stir and cook for about 5 mins. until peppers are soft and liquid has evaporated. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. On med. heat, cut in cream cheese in bite size pieces and stir to coat. Add pasta water (1 c.) bring to a simmer, and add 1/2 tea. salt & 1/2 tea. pepper, stir well. Let it cook down for a bit then remove from heat. Add orzo, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and parsley stir to combine and serve.



The kiddos even ate it:

5 comments:

MJPowell May 12, 2010 at 8:45 AM  

This looks delightful. I will give it a try this week. :)

lacie tidwell May 12, 2010 at 11:05 AM  

oh my that looks GOOD! ands summer friendly! I'm going to try that this week!

lacie tidwell May 12, 2010 at 11:10 AM  

ok- so I'll probably add less tyme
(rya hates tyme) and at the resik of sounding dumb- is it orzo RICE or pasta? I'm that dense- it says pasta but I thought I only saw rice- so yeah I'm that simple when it comes to 'cooking' I also plan on getting (ahem) the jar of minced garlic already (i know) maybe just add a little of it? I'm gonna improvise! and yes, I plan on already buying a rotisseries chicken for this- cus I'm that lazy;)

craftyashley May 12, 2010 at 1:45 PM  

I am totally lazy on the chicken! I either get the frozen cubed- or frozen chicken breast and throw it in boiling water for a bit so I can cut it up.
As for the Orzo- it is pasta. (that looks like rice) at our Smith's it's on the right of the regular pasta in a little brown bag- next to the stars and aciti de peppi (or whatever)

lacie tidwell May 15, 2010 at 6:32 AM  

sweeeeet!!1 ashley- you may be saving my summer of cooking here- keep these awesome recipes a comin!;)

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