Herb-Crusted Chicken and Parsley Orzo

24 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: John Autry; Styling: Leigh Ann Ross
Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half and 1/2 cup orzo mixture)
By Maureen Callahan
January 2011
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

This one-dish dinner is a dream come true on a busy weeknight. Our reviewers raved about the flavor of the chicken.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup uncooked orzo
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons butter, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
  • 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 4 teaspoons dried fines herbes
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 342
  • Fat 11.4g
  • Satfat 5g
  • Monofat 4.3g
  • Polyfat 0.9g
  • Protein 33.9g
  • Carbohydrate 24.4g
  • Fiber 2.6g
  • Cholesterol 89mg
  • Iron 2.6mg
  • Sodium 428mg
  • Calcium 96mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Stir in parsley, 2 teaspoons butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Keep warm.

Step 2

While pasta cooks, sprinkle chicken with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper; sprinkle fines herbes over both sides of chicken, pressing gently to adhere.

Step 3

Melt remaining 4 teaspoons butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan, and swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; cook 7 minutes or until done. Remove chicken from pan; let stand for 3 minutes. Serve chicken over orzo mixture.

Chef's Notes

Chicken Dish of the Month: January 2011

You May Like

Advertisement

Build-a-Meal

Find recipes with ingredients that you have on hand.

+ +

Read More

Advertisement

Ratings & Reviews

Yum!

SharonFiedler
November 14, 2016
This recipe popped up on my Cooking Light Diet meal plan.  This was a very good recipe and I'm glad I tried it.  I could not find dried fines herbes in my small town so I used some freeze dried Italian herbs that I had instead with good results.  If I ever find dried fines herbes I will make this recipe again using them!  My kids wanted the leftovers in their school lunches the next day.  Will make again!

emon79's Review

GailKelly
July 08, 2013
Delicious recipe! For the chicken, I used a mix of fresh herbs and dried and added a bit of garlic to both chicken and orzo. It's also very easy to make a quick pan sauce while the chicken is resting - just a bit of flour, white wine, water, salt and pepper and the sauce is ready in less than 3 minutes... plus the deglazing makes the pan so much easier to clean!

mrsjroe's Review

mikeandmonica
June 03, 2013
N/A

brandonstill's Review

HelloSunshine1
April 21, 2013
I made this today.I actually prepped the chicken the night before with the herbs and seasoning and left it in the fridge overnight. This was very easy to fix and the family loved it. The family wasn't to fond of the orzo. It's kind of hard to grasp pasta that looks like rice. Overall the dish was good and I will make it again. I think next time I will use spinach instead of the parsley.

JaimeMac's Review

abbyandchris
November 02, 2012
OMG delicious

uscgraawl's Review

Belanos
September 03, 2012
I thought this was a good recipe. I added some fresh lemon juice to the chicken before I seasoned it with the spices. That gave it a bit of extra flavoring that was subtle, but not overwhelming. I used brown rice instead of orzo because I forgot to grab it at the store. I though it came out okay. The chicken really made the meal.

GailKelly's Review

cleverSolitude
May 15, 2012
The chicken was great but I think its safe to safe the that the orzo was mediocre

Belanos's Review

uscgraawl
February 05, 2012
This was nice, although I thought the taste of the fines herbes was rather subtle. Served it with asparagus that I quickly sautéed in the pan right after the chicken was done. I've made this twice, the first time with the orzo (although I forgot the parsley), and the second with brown rice. I do plan to make this again.

mikeandmonica's Review

JessicaLuu
January 09, 2012
We really liked this dish - the orzo I ended up with too much butter (it didn't look good so I added more...too much), but this was really flavorful and delicious. I used some of the leftover chicken in a salad the next day (which was really good), and some for a sort of quesedilla for the kids the next night which was also really good. The orzo is a little bit blah, but it works overall. I'll flip through the reviews to see if there are any better ideas for the orzo or a side dish to try it again. I forgot to add - I didn't have fines herbes, so I used a recipe for it that was CLOSE to what it should be (I didn't have chevril).

davidz's Review

jmcintron
November 06, 2011
This is one of my favorite recipes from Cooking Light. Its super easy and a very flavorful dish. We usually make this dish once every couple of months.