After the cake debacle the other day, I decided to stick with easy for supper yesterday. A few years ago, I made the original recipe from Martha Stewart (you can find that here), but I made a HUGE batch of it. Yesterday, I halved the original recipe since I was just feeding my little nuclear family. That’s what’s great about this recipe; it’s just so easy to half it again and make enough for just one person, and it doesn’t take much more effort to make enough to feed 20 people.
I also love that it would be fine to just leave the chicken out if you wanted to, and it would still be just as good. However, the Hubster has to have meat with every meal or he starts getting cranky. You could also add extra veggies to it if you wanted. Artichoke hearts would be perfect, and I was actually planning on adding some to the mix, but I couldn’t get our giant jar from Costco open, so I had to forgo those yesterday, but it still turned out just great!
Start with a half of a pound of dry orzo pasta. I guess that any really small pasta would work, but I just really love orzo.
Add a cup of crumbled feta. For those of you who don't use much feta, you can buy it already crumbled up (for the same price as the kind in the block), so that's a step that you can avoid. Also, if you don't think that you like feta, just give it a try. It tastes a little different cooked into a dish like this. My mom swears that she hates feta, but she likes this dish. However, if you are adamant, I guess you could just leave it out.
When I halved the recipe, it called for one eighth of a cup of chopped fresh dill, but I think that it could have used a little more. Actually, if could have used a lot more. Like maybe I should have doubled it.
Then, get a beautiful lemon!
Once again, when halved the recipe called for a teaspoon of lemon zest, but that wasn't enough for me. I added a little extra anyway, and it still could have used more. Just use your judgment.
Then squeeze in some lemon juice. About a tablespoon, but more if you really like lemon.
Then, get out your fanciest cutting board to cut the chicken on. I kid! I like to use this little plasitc plate to cut chicken on because a) it's plastic, b) it's small enough that it doesn't take up too much room in the dish washer, and c) it has curved edges, so the chicken goo doesn't go all over the place.
Anyway, cube up two chicken breasts. Martha's recipe said to cut it in one inch cubes, but I really like my chicken much smaller than that. However, that's up to you.
Add the chopped chicken to the baking dish.
Put two cups of low sodium chicken broth in a microwave save bowl.
Add a tablespoon of butter.
Microwave the broth and butter until it is super hot. Mine took 3 minutes on high.
Then, if you forgot to add the salt and pepper earlier, go ahead and do it now. Of course I ran out of salt when I was making that cursed cake, so I didn't have any to add, and it was perfectly fine without it.
Immediately pour the hot broth into the baking dish.
And give it a quick stir.
Until it looks like this. Then put it in a preheated 400 degree oven.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Then cover with some Parmesan cheese, and get some out of the middle for a taste test.
Then fill in the whole with Parmesan, cover with lemons, and hope that no one will notice.
SERVE IMMEDIATELY! For some reason, I thought that it would be okay to cook it in the morning, and then zap our plates in the microwave when we were ready to eat. That definitely didn't work out. It was dry before we even reheated it. If this does happen to you, do like I did. I crumbled it all up and put it in a pot on the stove with about two cups of chicken broth, and reheated it that way. It was still delicious (after adding all of that extra liquid, it was still great when the Bunny and I ate it for breakfast this morning), but it added extra steps that this lazy, sleepy cook just didn't want to have to do last night. However, in the end, it was worth it.
Have a great weekend,
The Sleepy Cook
Yum! Rachel, this recipe looks so yummy and super easy!
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