This Might Be The Most Underrated Chicken Dinner Ever

Lemon chicken orzo is the meal my family asks for all the time. It's just so easy to make and the perfect one pan meal that is ridiculously delicious. I'll even share a few chef techniques to help pull out as much flavor as possible. But first, let's start with the chicken. Sound good? Let's cook. In order to make this delicious, the chicken needs a marinade and I've got one whole shallot, but I'm only going to need half of it. Just give it a rough chop and then it's going into a food processor along with five whole garlic cloves, and honestly, a blender would work great with this marinade as well. In that processor, I'm also going to finely grate in the zest of two lemons, then the juice of both of those lemons, which will bring me to about five to six tablespoons, and it's completely okay if you're a little more or a little less. This marinade is extremely forgiving. Next, I'm adding in two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, and yes, regular yellow mustard works great then a half teaspoon of sweet paprika of course smoked is cool too and for some fresh herbs how about fresh rosemary leaves from one sprig and fresh thyme leaves from about five sprigs or just substitute one teaspoon of each for dry herbs now at this stage let's give it a good season of salt and pepper and pop on the lid pulsing it on high i'm going to slowly drizzle in 1/3 cup of olive oil the beautiful thing about using a processor or blender is immediate emulsification of the marinade just to thin this out a bit i'm gonna hit it with a quarter cup of water and let's have a look and a taste of course oh yeah this is going to be so good you're gonna love this set it to the side and it's time to marinate but first let's break out that chicken i've got a whole three and a half to four pound roasting chicken but of course you could absolutely go all thighs or even all breasts or a combination of the two i personally like whole chickens because I find them so much more economical and fabricating them down is one of my favorite things and it's super easy and only takes a few minutes. You can check out my short if you want to see how to do it in 60 seconds. But in the end, this is why I love it. My wife and daughter love the breast meat while I love the dark meat. Everyone's happy. Plus, you get a carcass bonus, which I always hit in the freezer until I've got about five or six and then I make homemade chicken stock with it all right add the chicken to a 13x9 casserole dish and then i'm gonna pour the marinade all over the top and i usually take that extra minute or two just to really work the marinade into the chicken i want this dish to be crazy flavorful little techniques like i always say always make meals worth remembering wrap it up and it's going in the fridge for as little as two hours and you can go all the way up to 24 hours totally up to you and for sure this is optional if you are in a hurry you could definitely season the chicken with salt and pepper maybe a little lemon zest sear it and start the recipe but making marinades is such an easy way to pull out a lot more flavor with really not all that much more work and i always say good cooking goes to great cooking when you're able to put just a little bit more time into it just going to give my cutting board knife a quick bath and then when you're ready to cook pull the chicken out of the fridge and gosh it seriously this is crazy it already smells incredible and i haven't cooked a thing yet i'm gonna let it sit for just 15 to 20 minutes to take the chill off and then it's go time i'm gonna be cooking this in a six quart rondo honestly my favorite pan of all time if you've watched me for a while you always see me using this but first let's add in three tablespoons of olive oil and then turn the heat up to medium i just want to heat this up for about one and a half to two minutes or just until it begins to lightly smoke at this point adding the chicken skin side down and this is one of the reasons i love cooking in a rondo tons of surface area to ensure i get a sear and not a steam i'm gonna let this stand for about four to six minutes and not touch a thing the lower searing heat will allow the chicken to get a bit of my yard on it without burning any of the marinade in the pan after that amount of time let's have a look beautiful give the chicken a flip and then we're going to turn the heat down a bit to low to low medium-ish and cook it for a further four to six minutes in the meantime let's knock out one small prep item small diced one yellow onion and so much of being a good cook is being a really good steward of your time so no need to stare at that chicken when we can get some things prepped up okay at this stage the chicken looks great and And all I'm looking to do is remove it and set it to the side on a plate. Now let's add the onions to the pan, turn the heat up to medium, and give them a gentle season of salt. And this is going to do two things. One, release some of the onion moisture so that it browns more quickly. And two, that moisture, it can help you scrape up that delicious fond all over the bottom. That's flavor right there. Saute these onions for about five minutes, then turn the heat down to low and cook for an additional 10 minutes while occasionally stirring. And in the meantime, you guessed it, a bit more mirepoix. But it's only three things. You've got this, I promise you. I'm going to peel and then medium dice two carrots. Next, the exact same cut on two ribs of celery. Last but not least, a smash and fine mince of two garlic cloves. See, quick and easy. But those onions are calling my name because it seriously smells insane in here. They look beautiful. And hey, I'm trying some. I mean, how else do you become a better cook outside of tasting as much food as possible and at every stage of the cooking process that you can? Dang delicious right here. Let's add in those carrots and celery along with another little gentle season of salt. And then I'm just going to boost the heat back up to low-medium and saute everything for about two to three minutes. I just want to start getting those flavors married up. Stir in the garlic and cook it just until it becomes fragrant, which really only takes about 30 to 45 seconds. And now it's time to braise up this chicken. but first how about a deglaze of one cup of white wine and any dry white will do. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio all are good here. At this stage I'm going to boost the heat up a bit more to medium and I totally know we're all over the place adjusting the heat. We're to medium to low to low medium back to low back to medium. At the end of the day you are in control. If things seem like they're burning quickly that's when you turn it down. If they're not cooking nearly quick enough, that's when you turn it up a little bit. Be in control of that dial and get this to exactly where it needs to be. And once most of the liquid is gone, or a sec as we say, we're going to then add in three cups of good chicken stock. And I've got a really good homemade recipe if you want to check that out. Then a little cluster of fresh thyme, which is about four to five individual sprigs. Now give it a good season of salt and pepper and mix it in. And again, try it. It should be crazy delicious. After all, it's our braising liquid for the chicken. And then I've got more plans for it. But first, add the chicken right back in. Pop on a lid and cook it over low to medium heat for about 20 minutes. This is plenty of time to finish cooking up our chicken. Time to have a look because the smell of the kitchen right now is just so dang good. You, without question, can pull off this recipe. Chicken done. Set it to the side on a plate and just to keep it warm while it rests, how about a little wrap of foil? Did you know I used to work at Reynolds Wrap back in the day? I'll tell that story at some other point. For now, add in one more cup of chicken stock to the pan. Now is when we use all that braised liquid goodness because one pound of orzo is going in and this will cook and absorb every last bit of that deliciousness. Pop on a lid and cook it over low heat for 20 to 22 minutes. While you wait, try not to eat the chicken. Okay, time to take a peek. Smells amazing. Let's give it a stir. And yes, perfectly cooked. Now, a few more things to finish this off and push it a bit more because, well, why not? How about five ounces of baby spinach or one bunch of kale? For me, I'll go with the spinach. And I know this seems like a lot, but if you've ever cooked spinach, you know this is going to cook down to like two tablespoons. All right, maybe not that low, but you know what I mean. Fold everything together, and once it's mostly wilted and cooked, how about the juice of one half lemon which is about one and a half tablespoons or so just to brighten everything up a bit more now try it and see if it needs any more salt and pepper i'm good and just one more option you could hit this with a little feta just to make it a bit creamier if you wanted and i'm gonna throw this out there if you've ever had bulgarian feta it's the best there is no going back it is awesome it's up to you though if you want to add it all good if not now if you're looking for some more side dishes check out my greek salad oh my gosh it's a little different than you think and so delicious or if you wanted a carb overload my greek lemon potatoes there's no better potato out there you will love it you can get both those recipes at billyparisi.com for now let's plate this up feel free to serve this in whatever you want and for me i'll leave it right in that rondo and add in the chicken right to the top and just Just like the orzo, you could sprinkle on a bit more feta, but for me, I'll keep it simple with some parsley. This right here, delicious. Now, if you're starting to get into cooking and wanna hone your skills, check out my 10 tips to instantly become a better cook. It's a huge help. I'll see you there. Instantaneous deliciousness, bro. That is so, oh my gosh, it keeps coming. So good.