Lemon Pepper Chicken with Orzo

I love to try out new recipes no matter if they are ones I created in my head, ones I found on-line or in a cookbook. Over the years, I have tried recipes from a lot of chefs, one who seems to match my cooking style is Rachael Ray. As a mother, you've got to appreciate the concept of a 30 Minute Meal! Rachael Ray often says that her recipes are just methods. She encourages her viewers to take her recipes and make them their own. I "Lori-ize" almost everything I cook, tailoring the recipe to my families taste. I decided to combine these two ideas and what you see here is the result. Each week I'll create a meal based on a recipe and let you know what we thought. I will give you the original recipe and let you know how I "Lori-ized" it. Hope you enjoy Tasty Tuesday!



This week I decided to create my own recipe.   I wanted to have lemon pepper chicken, but decided to make it with orzo instead of rice.

Ingredients:
chicken
1/2 lb orzo
2 cups chicken stock
2 lemons
ground pepper
Lemon Pepper marinade (I prefer KC Masterpiece)

preheat oven to 350
put chicken into baking dish
coat chicken with zest of 1 lemon, fresh ground pepper and marinade (to cover)
bake 30 min or until cooked through

heat 2 cups chicken stock
add orzo, the zest of the 2nd lemon and ground pepper
cook as directed on package, half way through I added lemon slices to the orzo

When the chicken is done plate with the orzo and then juice 1/2 of the last lemon over each chicken breast










We both really liked the fresh lemon on the chicken it seemed to add to the lemon flavor.  It could probably have used a bit more pepper, but that is easy enough to add after the fact.

I felt that orzo was a bit over cooked, I think I would slightly under cook it next time, but only by a min or so.  Richard didn't like the orzo, but it wasn't the flavor profile it was the texture of it. 




I would not make as much orzo as I did, if I did it again.  I think I will try to make it again with rice, but doing the rice separate (I usually cook the rice and chicken in the same dish)