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In this One-Pot Chicken and Orzo recipe, crispy chicken thighs cook right on top of the orzo in a garlicky tomato sauce with basil. It’s simple to make, serve it straight from the oven with your favorite side salad.
Chicken Orzo Recipe
I love a one-pan dinner so much that my cookbook Skinnytaste One and Done features 120 one-pot dinner recipes. It’s a fan favorite! So, this one pot chicken orzo bake doesn’t disappoint! The skin is crispy and delicious, and the orzo and sauce are so flavorful! I serve it with a simple arugula salad on the side, but roasted vegetables, like broccoli or roasted asparagus, would also be great.
Why This One Pan Chicken Orzo Recipe Works
- Convenient: Cooking everything in one pot keeps this recipe easy and makes cleanup a breeze. Perfect for busy weeknights!
- Delicious: Although the ingredients may be simple, this meal is anything but bland. Bone-in, skin-on thighs infuse the orzo and broth with rich flavor, and garlic, onion, and tomato paste enhance the dish.
- Quick Prep: The only prep you have to do is salt the chicken and cut the onion and garlic.
Chicken Thighs with Orzo Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy one-pot chicken and orzo recipe:
- Chicken Thighs: You want bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for this meal because we are going to get the skin super crispy.
- Salt seasons the chicken and draws out the skin’s moisture so it can get crispy.
- Olive Oil coats the skillet before cooking the chicken.
- Onion: Dice a half cup of white or yellow onion.
- Orzo is a small rice-shaped pasta.
- Garlic: Mince 2 to 3 garlic cloves, depending on how much garlic you prefer.
- Tomato Paste gives this pasta dish a complex tomato taste.
- Broth: The orzo cooks in chicken broth instead of water for more flavor. You may need more than 3 cups if the pasta soaks up the broth too fast.
- Pecorino Romano is optional, but I recommend adding it for a richer flavor.
- Basil: Garnish with a chiffonade of fresh basil. What’s chiffonade? It’s just a fancy French word for thinly slicing herbs or leafy greens into strips.
How to Make Chicken and Orzo
- Prep the Chicken: Season the thighs with salt and bring them to room temperature. The salt will release moisture, so thoroughly dry the chicken skin with paper towels before cooking.
- Cook the Chicken, skin side down, in an oven-safe skillet or Dutch oven on medium heat. Once they’re golden and crisp, remove the chicken from the pan.
- Remaining Ingredients: Sauté the onion and season with the remaining salt until aromatic. Add the orzo and toast for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of it is lightly golden and there’s a nutty aroma. Stir in the garlic, followed by the tomato paste. Cook it for a few minutes until it caramelizes.
- Bake: Pour in the broth and bring it to a boil. Put the chicken thighs, flesh side down, into the orzo, ensuring the skin is NOT in the liquid. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes. If the orzo has soaked up too much of the liquid before it’s cooked, add more broth.
- Garnish: Top the skillet with the grated cheese and basil before serving.
Variations
- Chicken: Substitute chicken thighs for any chicken on the bone, such as chicken drumsticks and chicken breasts, and adjust the cooking time as needed.
- Crispier Chicken: Salt the chicken the night before cooking and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight for even crispier skin.
- Pasta: Swap the orzo for another small pasta, like acini di pepe.
- Make it gluten-free with gluten-free orzo.
- Onion: Use a red onion, Vidalia onion, shallot, or leeks.
- Dairy-Free: Omit the Pecorino Romano.
- Herbs and spices: Sub basil for fresh parsley, add black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes.
Serving Suggestions
Below are some vegetable side dishes that would be great with this healthy chicken orzo recipe.
Storage
The leftover chicken and orzo pasta will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container. You can also freeze it for 3 months. To eat, thaw it in the fridge and microwave it until warm.
More One-Pot Meals You’ll Love
- One-Pot Chicken and Artichoke Cavatappi
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Turmeric Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
- Sheet Pan Italian Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs and Veggies
- Southwest Chicken Skillet
One-Pot Chicken Orzo Recipe
In this One-Pot Chicken and Orzo recipe, crispy chicken thighs cooks right on top of the orzo in a garlicky tomato sauce with basil. It’s simple to make, and you can serve it straight from the oven with your favorite side salad.
Yield: servings
Serving Size: 1 thigh, 3/4 cup orzo
Equipment
- large oven safe skillet
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
- 1 tsp kosher salt, divided
- ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup onion, diced
- 1 cup uncooked orzo
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 2-4 tablespoons grated pecorino romano, or Parmesan cheese, optional
- ¼ cup basil, chiffonade
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Season chicken thighs with ¾ tsp of salt & bring to room temperature; thoroughly dry chicken skin with a paper towel before step 2.
- Heat oil in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-low heat, add chicken thighs skin side down. Render until golden and crisp, about 12-15 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.
- In the same pan, add onion and remaining salt and saute until aromatic, 4-5 minutes.
- Add orzo and toast 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most pieces are lightly golden and there is a nutty aroma.
- Add garlic and mix to combine. Add tomato paste and cook to caramelize, 2-3 minutes.
- Add chicken broth & bring to a boil. Nestle chicken thighs, flesh side down, into the orzo (make sure that the skin is NOT in the liquid) and transfer to the oven Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until orzo is cooked through.*
- Serve in cooking vessel and top with grated cheese and basil.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Notes
*Have a bit of extra broth on hand in case the orzo soaks up the broth too fast,
add more broth in ⅓ cup increments.
add more broth in ⅓ cup increments.
- For even crispier skin salt chicken the night before and leave in the refrigerator,
uncovered, over night - Any type of onion can be used and not affect the composition, we suggest
yellow but red, vidalia, shallot or even leek works just as well - A 7 oz jar of tomato paste yields about ¾ cup.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 thigh, 3/4 cup orzo, Calories: 425 kcal, Carbohydrates: 41.5 g, Protein: 23.5 g, Fat: 18 g, Saturated Fat: 4.5 g, Cholesterol: 92 mg, Sodium: 724 mg, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 7 g
Easy and delicious. What could be better!
I tried adding a can of quartered artichoke hearts (drained, along with the broth and chicken thighs) and it was fantastic!
One of our favorites! I also add some spinach for extra veggies.
Sooo yummy, this has become one of my go to recipes. It’s full of great flavour!
This was delicious! I seasoned with my heart with the salt, pepper, and garlic and my husband and I love it! Will definitely fix again
Gina has all the pro-tips. Definitely leave leave room so the chicken skin is not under broth. Wonderful crunchy top. I like to double up on the garlic and the basil topping. I am sold on Protein pasta and my go to with this is Barilla Protein +. Whisk is helpful with mixing the tomato paste with the broth and orzo. Like almost all her recipes, this freezes well. So good.
Tasty recipe but too much tomato paste (IMO) and I also used less chicken stock. Will make again with small changes!
Loved this! Easy and delicious! The crispy skin is great!
Excellent dish! Easy – I added spinach too. Just wasn’t sure to cook with the lid on or off (I did it with the lid off).
This was so flavorful and delicious.
So easy and flavorful. I have all the Skinny Taste cookbooks and have never had a bad recipe. Thank you!
Thank you!
I make this at least once a month. It is so delicious. I do not do the thing with the chicken skin, so it takes a bit longer to cook in the oven. I did it the right way one time and it was so amazing.. but I will make it more often if I skip that step and I love it with out the skin so much as well.
I want to try this recipe but it is way too hot here to turn on the oven. Can I cook it on the stovetop?
Really good and easy to make.
I have made this 3 times now… it is so good. I do not do the crispy skin thing. I remove the skins. I render one skin to get fat for the onions and such then follow the recipe as written. It is a family favorite. So delicious.
This recipe was BLAND! We added some red chili flakes and extra cheese. Will not make this again. I will say that this is the first bad recipe that I have made from Skinnytaste.
The whole family love it! I added some power greens to make it more colorful. It was perfect
Very good. Great taste. Next time I would add a bit less chicken broth so Orzo would be a bit drier.
I agree, 3 cups was far too much!
I’m excited to try this but do you think I can transfer to a casserole dish? I don’t have an oven safe dish. I didn’t read the recipe before buying the ingredients, oops!
Boneless thighs would have been better tolerated by my family in this recipe. If I make this again I would also use less broth as it stayed soupy. The flavors were good.
I made this and it was a hit with my husband and 11-month old son. I had to swap Arborio rice for orzo due to my son’s egg allergy, but it was a simple swap and the rice cooked perfectly, too. Thank you!
It was delicious! The chicken was cooked through and the orzo perfect. I will pay more attention next time to salt and then pat dry, which I failed to do. The skin did not crisp like yours. I will try again.
Salted the chicken the night before and that really seemed to make the skin crispier. Very flavorful sauce. Loved it with the orzo. Next time I will use cooking spray in the pan instead of oil because the chicken skin renders a lot of fat naturally.
Easy, fast and tasty. Salted the chicken a day prior as suggested WOW, wonderful crispy chicken. I did add extra garlic and some red pepper flakes. YUM!
This was OUTSTANDING! Easy and perfect for entertaining. My new favorite chicken dish!
AMAZING. Instead of using chicken thighs, I used chicken breasts and cut them in half and it worked great!! Very flavorful and the orzo was delicious
Chicken was bland, the proportions were off. The only redeeming factor was the Parmesan rind I added
So easy to prepare and very delicious.
DO NOT CHAMGE A THING!
Absolutely loved it, adding to weekly routine. Is the chicken supposed to be covered in the oven or left uncovered?
Forgot to add all the stars!!! So good — it’s a winner, winner chicken dinner!
Oh my! One of our new favorites. Juicy chicken thighs with crispy skin & saucy pasta. ‘Nuff said.
Made this for the first time last night, and it will become a regular in our rotation! The salting chicken the night before, patting dry the next day, and letting it come to room temp is so worth the result!
Tried this for dinner and we loved it! Easy to prepare.
This was delicious! Our “1 cup of uncooked orzo” yielded nearly a cup and a half per person after cooking. I’ll have to adjust in the future as it made the serving size much too big for my kiddos and myself. My husband was able to eat everything!
This took waaaaay longer to cook in our oven, but it was delicious otherwise! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs to make it even healthier and adjusted the saute time accordingly. A sprinkle of paprika still gave them a beautiful brown color. I also added pepper flakes, dried basil, Italian seasoning, more garlic and doubled the onion. I tossed in about 2 cups of fresh spinach when it was finished cooking as well. Even after 25 minutes though, our orzo was still very crunchy and wet. I continued cooking it in 5 minute intervals (taking out the chicken to prevent overcooking), and the orzo was finally done after about 40 minutes total. Next time I may use slightly less liquid and/or a higher baking temperature. 🙂
This was very good and pretty easy to make. My husband lived it and he doesn’t like chicken.
Does this need to be covered when baking in the oven? Looks delicious !
No 🙂
Picky kid approved! Husband liked it too. Should have made more chicken!
Well well well, didn’t Gina just come up with another keeper 🙂 I made this today for dinner. Hubby went “mmm, very nice indeed” as he finished his plate. I left out the onions (I love them but hubby hates them texturally) and just subbed onion powder instead. Also I don’t like eating meat from bone so I just used boneless/skinless thighs. It still worked perfectly. I may use bone/skin thighs next time because I feel like the meat would just fall off the bone anyways. Also, it seemed like it was a bit watery when I pulled the pan out of the oven, but once I stirred in some cheese, the texture was like a creamy risotto. We are both excited for leftovers tomorrow!
Update- on reheat added more chicken broth to the orzo and also steamed some spinach and added that as well and it was excellent. We loved it on reheat, as the flavors had more chance to develope. Better then a resturant anyday.
My husband, 2 yr old son, and myself all loved this meal. It was simple to make and the sauce was delicious. Going to try it with chicken breasts next time to lower the point value!
I added more herbs when cooking( I nearly always do) ..Herbs de Provence, a seasoned smoked sea salt, and tuscan flavored olive oil. I removed skin and trimmed fat, but otherwise followed the recipe and it was very good. Love the fresh basil at the end and some parmesan. When I do this again I may experiment by cutting back on the tomato paste to a third cup–or even use diced tomatoes for a less dense tomato result per husbands request, ( I liked it fine as written)
I added some steamed spinach to the orzo and some chicken broth on re-heat of the orzo. Loved it and would do again with that addition.
As usual, I didn’t read recipe through, so didn’t salt and let skin dry. Next time! Also, I didn’t have enough tomato paste; I added oil-free sundried tomatoes. We loved it and will have again!
My entire family loved this!! I love one pot meals. Thanks for another great recipe!
This meal is so good and easy to cook. My family loves it! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
It was absolutely perfect just like your picture and zi will definitely make it again.
Tastes good, but the chicken was nowhere near cooked after 35 minutes in the oven. I ended up taking the chicken out (registering 130-140 on my thermometer) and finishing it in my instant pot. If I’d left the pan in the oven longer, everything else would’ve been overcooked.
My suggestion would be to cook the chicken to 75% done before moving to the oven or slicing it before baking so it would cook faster.
I’d make this again, but there’s no way this works with bone-in breasts for 25 min baking after only 12 min searing on the stove.
This recipe uses bone-in thighs. Breast meat takes longer to cook.
Love Skinnytaste one pot recipes but this one missed the mark in execution. The skin never really got crispy like it did in Gina’s pictures and it also stuck to the bottom of my dutch oven, tearing it apart from the chicken almost completely. Next problem was that chicken thighs (once added on top of the orzo + broth) sunk right through the liquid and were never on top of the liquid as intended. At that point, the orzo was more like the consistency of tomato soup which explains why the orzo couldn’t support the thighs above the liquid. The consistency improved while baking in the oven. Dish tasted good and orzo and chicken were cooked all the way through, but it definitely did not look very appetizing!
Sorry it didn’t work for you, I do see many people having success with this one!
Same thing happened to me and I’m wondering what went wrong. I did scale this recipe up by 1.5x the servings, but ensured that everything was done to scale 🙁
I had the exact same issue! I made no adjustments to the recipe. My skin stuck to my Dutch oven and I couldn’t manage to keep the chicken skin above the liquid. It was delicious though so I’m making it today with chicken breasts instead.
If it stuck it meant it wasn’t done crisping. Once it’s fully crisp it will release from the pan.
I planned to make this but didn’t feel good, so my husband offered to follow the recipie.
We loved it! It was so good, the orzo soaked up the sauce. Delicious, only drawback was the higher points but we dealt with it!
Delish and easy!! I added a 5th thigh and didn’t have to alter rest of ingredients. Will make again! Thanks Gina!
Easy and flavorful! Will make this again and again!
Delicious! A hit! Thank you for all your spectacular recipes!
Thanks Diana! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great recipe! I used it as a guideline. I air fried the chicken thighs (380 for 24 min) because I’ve had issues in the past with pasta sticking/burning to the pan in the oven. I made the pasta on the stove top. I did add sherry & used water with chicken bouillon (the wet one), Italian seasonings, extra oregano & red pepper flakes. It did take longer in the saute pan to make the pasta. I did cover it & checked on it every few minutes after the first ten minutes. Probably took 25 minutes total. The chicken thighs were finished before the pasta so I left them sit out for about 7 minutes and then added them to the pasta along with the wonderful drippings. I also air roasted some vegetables at the beginning and added those in also at that time. I will be making this again!! Thanks for the recipe! It was an inexpensive meal & felt like I was eating at an Italian restaurant! I use your recipes all the time:)
This recipe sounds very nice and no complaints.
I look forward to making it.
Shabbat shalom 😸
We loved this recipe like all SK recipes!! We will add a little chili powder or some spice the next time!
I’m looking forward to trying this dish and am just wondering if I can add a few extra chicken thighs to the dish as one would not be enough chicken for my hungry husband who loves Gina’s recipes.
This is a wonderful recipe. I made it last night and will put into our rotation – it’s a great comfort dish and easy clean up one pan:). Try it you won’t be disappointed.
I made this tonight. I took a few liberties as I had every ingredient but the chicken. The grocery store had no bone in/skin on so I just used boneless, I also don’t have a proper skillet to oven pot. At the end, after I put the cooked parts into a metal pan for the oven, I added a tad more broth and added spinach to just barely cook. It’s delicious! Had I done it by the book, I imagine it would be more so!
I made this for supper tonight. It is easy and delicious! There isn’t a whole lot of prep involved which makes this an easy weeknight meal.
There are no reviews of anyone actually making this recipe. I followed the recipe, exactly. The skin stuck to the bottom of my leCreuset and ripped off the chicken. The entire dish looked like soup when it was done. The orzo during the browning process began to cook, my worst complaint is that the chicken was not done. Chicken at the bone was still red. I did not check it for temperature.
I really want to make this recipe! Is there something to sub if I don’t want a tomato base, that would just be creamy or the chicken flavor? My husband doesn’t like tomato sauce taste. Thanks
Would you please confirm the WW points? While the recipe indicates it is 11, the linked WW site reflects 19 points for 4 servings. Thank you.
Perfect timing. Took out thighs for dinner and usually don’t have bone-in. One question: seems like a lot of tomato paste. Can sauce or diced tomatoes be used instead? Not a huge paste fan. Thanks!
I just got 5 boxes of gluten free orzo, now i know what i’m making tonight!
How did it turn out with hr GF orz?!
I haven’t madd this yet nut one pot meals are right up our alley ! Questions after reading through the recipe and looking at the pictures.
The recipe says to put the chicken in flesh side down without touching the broth but the pictures show it bone side down in the broth mixture. At first I thought flesh side down was to be sure it cooked through but no way would the skin stay crispy. Please clarify
Second – do you cover or not when baking ?
Lastly are the points calculated eating the skin or removing it ?
Thanks ever so much. Looking forward to making this
It’s skin side up on the orzo (flesh side down) so the skin is crisp, no need to cover. This includes eating the skin 🙂 If you are ever unsure, you can click the ww button on the recipe card and see the ingredients used in WW recipe builder.
Can you make this a day in advance and reheat?
This looks amazing but I have boneless chicken that I need to cook tonight and I’m wondering if I can adapt this recipe. I could still brown the boneless chicken breasts and add them to the pot. I imagine they will take less time to cook so maybe I add them in a few minutes later?
The pasta will still take the same time, I think it will be ok since thighs are forgiving.