Chicken Cacciatore with Orzo

We made this at work the other week and it’s just everything I LOVE all in one pot.

I added Orzo to it just to save having to cook anything to go with it, but you could leave it out and just have with some crusty bread or garlic bread and would go lovely with any pasta, rice or even some new potatoes!

This makes enough for around 6-8 portions:

• 1kg Chicken Breasts cut in half

• 1 Onion diced

• 2 Celery sticks diced

• 2 Carrots diced

• 2 Garlic cloves minced

• 3 sprigs of Thyme

• 1 Red and 1 Yellow Pepper sliced

• 1 tsp Mixed Herbs

• 1.5 tsp Oregano

• 2 tbsp Tomato Puree

• 187ml bottle of Red Wine

• 1 tin Cherry Tomatoes

• 1 tin Chopped Tomatoes

• 600ml Chicken Stock

• 85g Black Olives

• 250g Orzo

• Chopped Parsley

First start sweating off the Onion, Carrot, Celery, Garlic and Thyme with a good pinch of Salt and Pepper whilst sealing the Chicken off in a separate pan.

Set the Chicken to one side and fry the Peppers off for a couple of minutes in the pan used to seal the Chicken then set to one side.

Keep sweating the Onion etc off for a good 10 minutes on a low heat.

Add the Red Wine to the Onion pan and reduce down.

Add the Tomato Purée and dried Herbs to the pan and cook out for a couple of minutes.

Add the Chopped Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes and Chicken Stock. You can use just Chopped Tomatoes if you want to I just like the texture of the Cherry Tomatoes in there!

Add the Chicken and Peppers bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the Orzo, then put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes, keep stirring every few minutes.

Finish with the Black Olives and cook for another minute then add fresh chopped Parsley.

And that’s it!

We had this with a load of grated Parmesan and it was spot on… Isla loved it and had it for lunch the next day, Abs was a bit fussy with it but entertained it for a bit!

I’ll definitely make it a regular because it was just so easy.

Hope you enjoy!

L x