I’ve been craving the salty, briny flavor of kalamata olives lately, so I bought a handful of olives off the olive/salad bar at the grocery store, combined them with a can of diced tomatoes, a few herbs, and made a wonderful sauce for this One Skillet Chicken with Orzo and Olives. The orzo and chicken cook right in the same skillet as the tomato and olive sauce, maximizing the flavor and making sure not a drop of goodness is lost. Plus, my favorite bonus of having everything cook in one skillet: fewer dishes to clean. Woot!
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Can I Use Chicken Breast?
This recipe is written specifically for skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. The dark meat of chicken thighs together with the bones and skin help keep the chicken moist and tender through the slightly longer cooking time. While you technically can use a boneless, skinless chicken breast, you’ll miss some of the flavor provided from the chicken skin and bones, and the chicken may be slightly on the drier side.
Can I Substitute the Olives?
If you don’t like or can’t find kalamata olives, you can achieve the same briny flavor with either capers or artichoke hearts. Both would pair beautifully with the other flavors in this dish.
Love briny flavors? Check out my Pasta Puttanesca or Chicken Piccata recipes!
What is Orzo?
Orzo is just a very small shaped pasta. It’s shaped a little bit like grains of rice, but slightly larger. It’s great for making pilafs, serving as a side dish, or adding to soup. You can find it in most major grocery stores either in the pasta aisle, or near other specialty Italian or Mediterranean ingredients.
What Else Can I Add to This Chicken and Orzo?
If you have a few extra dollars, a little crumbled feta would be amazing on this. Or, if you’re lucky enough to have a basil plant, try thinly slicing some fresh basil to sprinkle over top after cooking.
What Do You Serve with Chicken and Orzo?
I would consider this a “one pot meal” or “one bowl meal” because it has everything I’d want in one dish–meat, grain, and vegetables. If you want to add a side, you could do a simple green salad with a light vinaigrette, and maybe some homemade garlic bread.
One Pot Chicken with Orzo and Olives
Servings 4Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on) ($5.66)
- 1 pinch salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.12)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced ($0.24)
- 1 15oz. can diced tomatoes* ($0.89)
- 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives ($1.62)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 2 cups chicken broth** ($0.26)
- 1.5 cups orzo (uncooked) ($0.89)
- 1/4 bunch parsley (optional) ($0.25)
Instructions
- Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel, then sprinkle both sides with a pinch of salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add the chicken thighs with the skin side down. Cook the chicken thighs on each side until golden brown (about 5-7 minutes each side), then remove to a clean plate.
- Pour off the excess fat from the skillet, leaving just enough to sauté the garlic. Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the minced garlic, and sauté for about one minute, or just until the garlic is soft and very fragrant.
- Add the diced tomatoes (with juices), oregano, olives, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir the tomatoes, herbs, and olives to combine and allow the juices from the tomatoes to dissolve any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Roughly chop the kalamata olives, and add them to the skillet.
- Add the chicken broth and orzo to the skillet, and stir to combine. Nestle the browned chicken thighs down into the skillet, place a lid on the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the skillet to come to a boil, then turn the heat down to low, or the lowest temperature needed to maintain a gentle simmer. Let the skillet simmer for 15 minutes with the lid in place.
- Turn the heat off and let the skillet rest for 5 minutes. The tomatoes and olives will have risen to the top, so use a fork to gently stir or fluff the orzo, tomatoes, and olives back together. The orzo should be tender and slightly saucy. Pull the parsley leaves from the stems, roughly chop them, and sprinkle over top.
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Equipment
- Color Cutting Boards
- Deep Stainless Steel Skillet
- Liquid Measuring Cup
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chicken with Orzo and Olives – Step by Step Photos
Start with four bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Pat them dry with a paper towel (this helps facilitate browning and reduce splatter), then season on both sides with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add the chicken thighs, skin side down.
Cook the chicken thighs on each side until golden brown (about 5-7 minutes each side), then remove them to a clean plate. The chicken will only be partially cooked at this point, but it will continue to cook through while it simmers with the orzo. The chicken will let off quite a bit of fat as they cook, so pour off the excess oil, leaving just a small amount to cook the garlic.
Turn the heat down to medium-low. Add four cloves of minced garlic to the skillet and sauté in the leftover fat for about one minute, or just until the garlic has softened a bit and is very fragrant.
Add one 15oz. can of diced tomatoes and stir to help the tomato juices dissolve the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. I used a garlic and onion-flavored diced tomato because they were on sale, but you can use plain diced tomatoes as well.
Roughly chop about 1/3 cup of kalamata olives. I grabbed this handful of olives off the olive bar at my local grocery store so that I could avoid purchasing an entire jar. They are already pitted, so I just cut them into smaller pieces so they would distribute throughout the dish better.
Add the chopped olives, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, and a little more freshly cracked pepper.
Add two cups of chicken broth. I use Better Than Bouillon because it’s very flavorful, less expensive than boxed or canned broths, stays good in the refrigerator for just about forever, and allows you to mix up the exact quantity of broth that you need.
Finally, add 1.5 cups of uncooked orzo. Stir to combine the tomatoes, broth, and orzo.
Nestle the chicken thighs down into the liquid in the skillet.
Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let it come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low, or the lowest temperature that maintains a gentle simmer. Let the skillet simmer for 15 minutes, then turn the heat off and let it rest for 5 minutes (with the lid in place).
The tomatoes and olives will rise to the top as it simmers. The orzo should be tender at this point, but also quite saucy. Use a fork to fluff the orzo and mix the tomatoes and olives back into the orzo.
Roughly chop a handful of fresh parsley and sprinkle over top just before serving (optional). Serve hot!
One skillet, one meal. Perfect.
Skillet Chicken with Orzo and Olives all in pretty little portioned containers. :) Cuz that’s how I roll.
This is a beautiful, flavorful dish with minimal ingredients that pack a big punch. My husband loved it! I added a generous tablespoon of capers since I have some to use up, and they added color and more briney complexity. I also used whole wheat orzo and it cooked up fine without needing more liquid. I’ll make this again!
Delicious!! Perfect if you are looking for a cozy meal!
This recipe is in my regular dinner rotation! It’s so good! A few modifications that I like to do: use petite diced tomatoes as it helps spread the tomato bites around, use a whole 6 oz jar of Kalamata olives, use boneless skinless thighs and dice them up after the dish is cooked, top with Parmesan cheese!
This is one of my favourite recipes. We’ve been doing it with chicken for almost a year, but we tried it recently with spicy Italian sausages instead one night, and of course, it’s a?winner that way, too. Thanks so much!
This recipe has made it into our regular rotation. It’s so quick, easy and delicious. Every now & again we swap the oregano for an Italian herb blend & we always add a couple tablespoons of Capers these days, because why not? And feta is a great topping when we have some in the fridge. I’m about to make it right now. Thank you!
Want to try it tomorrow for dinner but would like to lower the amount of carbs. Would this work with cauliflower rice instead of orzo? Thanks!
Dash, we haven’t tried it with cauli rice so I don’t want to promise you — but you should totally give it a shot and let us know how it goes! Another great sub would be canned white beans (simmer for 8-10 minutes instead of 15) and that would cut the carbs in half. — Marion :)
Has anyone tried this recipe adding peas? I am going to try this tonight, but instead of olives, as I don’t have any, I thought I might add peas as an additional vegetable.
The comments on this page are years old, but I made this meal tonight, and it still hits the spot. I didn’t have olives and only had chicken breasts that were cut into tenders. I cooked the chicken to 120F internal temp, and took it out. I sauteed a white onion with the garlic and added the chicken back when the orzo was about halfway finished cooking. I had a ton of spinach that needed getting rid of, so once the chicken was an internal temp of 165F, the orzo was done, so I took it off the heat and added the spinach until it wilted. Topped with feta + fresh basil.
Simple recipe, but it used all ingredients that I already had and came together really quickly.
A winner! I made this with my husband for dinner. I accidentally got skinless thighs, but I still made it work. I cooked it in my Dutch oven on the stove. I added feta cheese on top once plated, but like another commenter, felt that something was missing. I added a splash of lemon juice and that made it perfect! Will gladly make again and will increase the amount of olives.
Just made this tonight with boneless skinless thighs. Delicious! Definitely a keeper.
I like how it’s an easy way to make a perfectly cooked and moist chicken, but there is something missing with the overall taste. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I tried kalamata and black olives and both times it felt like it was one ingredient shy of greatness. Any suggestions?
Cheese
Lemon
Yum! Humble ingredients elevated to special occasion status. I had to make some small changes–boneless, skinless chicken thighs, a couple of tablespoons of diced onions added at the beginning, whole-wheat orzo. No matter–it was delicious. My husband asked why I didn’t cut-up the chicken, so I may do that next time if I have to use boneless, skinless thighs. We’re both looking forward to leftovers for lunch.
I love this recipe – it is one of my weekly go-tos. However, I’ve found that the orzo-to-chicken ratio is WAY high. If I wanted to reduce the amount of orzo, would it be a 1:1 reduction of orzo and broth?
Yep, if you reduce the orzo by half, reduce the broth by half as well. :)
This dish is screaming for dried rosemary! Next time I will use that instead of or in addition to the oregano.
I made this dish tonight and it was delicious. I did make a few changes to it though, first I used some fresh Rosemary & fresh Thyme along with the oregano. I also added about 1/2 cup of white cooking wine, Can never have enough cooking wine with chicken. Other than that I stayed with the receipe and it will be on my list of favorite chicken receipes from now on. Thanks so much for sharing it.
How do you suggest tweaking this for boneless skinless breasts?
I’d need to do some testing to say for sure, unfortunately. Boneless breasts cook much faster than these bone-in thighs, so they might over cook while everything is simmering.
Went out on a limb with this one (not huge on olives), and it was pretty good!
I didn’t have diced tomatoes so I subbed with a 14oz can of Italian stewed tomatoes that I diced up, and I was worried the chicken wouldn’t cook but it did!
It felt like it was missing something to me (seasoning maybe?), but it was definitely an easy and good recipe :) plus only one pan, yayy for minimal dishes!!
I made this last night and it was so tasty!!! I used oil cured black olives instead of kalamata because that’s what I had in my fridge.
No
Wow, this was so good! I usually shy away from bone-in chicken because it can be hard to cook through and I don’t really like picking around bones, but this was so easy! The flavor was so good, especially with feta. Definitely will make again!
Made this the other night and really loved it, can’t wait to make it again.
I made some changes based on what I had on-hand.
Used 2 thin-sliced chicken breasts, marinated about 1 hour in McCormick’s garlic herb & wine mix (awesome stuff), then grill on a charcoal grill.
Used a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes.
Everything else was as written, except I added my cooked chicken along with the juices at about the 5 minute remaining mark.
This was so delicious! I didn’t have orzo so I substituted Israeli couscous and it was fabulous.
I’ve made a lot of recipes, but I think this may be one of my favorites! My boyfriend and I both loved it. Like another reviewer, I added canned artichoke hearts for an additional vegetable source, and the saltiness of the artichokes perfected complimented the olives and worked perfectly in this recipe. It was easy and not too time-consuming, and for whatever reason, I found the orzo easier to cook than rice in similar one-pot recipes. Thanks for another winner!
So tasty! I added a can of artichoke hearts, chopped, and a sprinkle of feta on top. We had skinless, boneless chicken thighs in the freezer. Thanks for a great dish!
I discovered your website this week and LOVED this dish. My husband gave it rave reviews as well.
I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs because that’s what I had on hand and it was delicious.
Thanks –
I love your recipes!! This one I tried tonight was amazing! & So simple!
Thank you! Keep posting more onepot recipes! They are great!
Is there any reason this couldn’t be doubled and cooked in a Dutch oven?
Can confirm – a double batch works beautifully in a Dutch oven!
That sounds like it would work well!
This is a very tasty recipe! I just got congealed and toasty bits of orzo at the edges. We also shredded the chicken and stirred it back in at the end because we like lazy eating, haha. I tried the Better Than Bullion for the first time and it worked out great.
As usual, really good. Beth, you have changed my life with comforting, healthy, delicious and easy weeknight dinners! I love the one-pan, full-flavors meals you create. Thanks for the recipes.
Umm, this is delicious. The rice was SO flavorful! Thank you for an easy weeknight dish that I will definitely be making again!
I love this! In wondering, how would it work if the lid was left off to preserve the crispy skin on the chicken? Add more liquid? Super gentle simmer? Soggy skin was my son’s only complaint so I would love a way to hack this recipe to keep it in the rotation!
The only problem with that is that the orzo may not cook fully. The moisture needs to be held in and absorbed by the orzo. If you left the lid off and just added more liquid, I think the chicken skin might still get soft from the extra moisture.
I’m a big fan but this is my first comment! I love this recipe and I’ve made it several times. I use fire roasted tomatoes, and a squeeze of lemon at the end to brighten the flavors. It a fave at my house and so easy to do-thanks Beth! (I love your cookbook and have probably made the coconut chicken curry a hundred times! any chance of a volume 2?)
Great recipe! Today we discovered it also works very well with turkey legs and risotto rice instead of chicken and orzo. Very tasty.
Gosh, you’re brilliant. I’d never imagine something that looks like that picture could be so easy. Can’t wait to try.
Dang, too much liquid again. I think I probably should have only gone with 1 cup of stock. Ended up too soupy, not very fluffy. Good flavors, though, and love that it’s one pot.
We just had this dish for dinner. It was easy to prepare and it was very delicious. Definitely will make it again. Thanks, Beth!
Great recipe! Added lemon zest and feta before serving. Thanks!! Who dat!
Do you think this would be good without olives? What would you sub?
Looks really good, but I am not an olive fan.
You can add a little feta on top. That will give a similar salty pop to the dish, like olives.
Thanks for the recipe. it looks delicious. Again, I love that you use one pot for this dish. Great food and less washing up!
I made this a few weeks ago and it turned out fantastic. I’m curious about how it would taste with shrimp or some kind of fish
I made this last week exact to the recipe-really good-picky daughter loved it! my orzo cooked really fast so i added more stock and I felt like i killed a bit of the flavor by watering the dish down-will lower the temp next time I make this-and it made plenty for four people-sometimes I tend to overcook/overbuy because I think that we will run out of food-I am learning many lessons from you Beth….quantity control is one of them- ha ha
Made this recipe this past weekend. DELICIOUS! Definitely a “keeper”!
The next time I make this I’ll probably add a few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes in with the garlic.
Thanks, Beth!
Again, let me say, I love this site! Made this for lunch today with a few alterations. I used diced boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs, and for the can tomatoes, I used the fire roasted kind…oh, I also skipped the oregano, and added a few extra olives ;-) It was yummy, and there was none leftover! May need to bump it up to a double batch next time.
Made this tonight. I thought I has orzo, but didn’t so subbed rice. I could have cooked it a bit longer (rice was just done), but it was getting late (all that time trying to find the orzo). The rice ended up similar to Spanish Rice. Very nice weeknight dinner. Made lots.
I made this last week and it was incredible! I used a mix of one breast and two legs and even though the breast was quite thick it was still moist and cooked through.
In case people are wondering about subs for the orzo, I used Israeli Couscous (like regular couscous but bigger) and it worked nicely. =)
Just made this tonight and it was SO good and the best part is it’s SO easy to make! I love all of your recipes, they’re always fantastic! Thanks so much :]
A -maz-ing! Another hit from your website that is going into my dinner repertoire. Thanks Beth!
This meal was phenomenal. I had a 2 year old, 3 year old and 6 year old absolutely loving this. Success! Every recipe I have tried of yours has been wonderful. Thank you so much for your hard work. You’re an awesome chef!
How do i find out the nutritional value for the recipes? For example how many calories, sodium percentage, etc.
Your recipe is great. It’s really healthy. Great for a family meal even for holidays.
This looks really, really good. Nigella Lawson has an orzo recipe made with pancetta and peas that is very tasty.
Excited to try out this recipe tonight! I love many of your other dishes.
I can’t help but think this would be delicious as a simple crock pot meal! How do you think orzo would fare slow cooking? Thanks 😊
I haven’t tried it, but I suspect that the long cooking time would just make pasta into mush. :P
Why do people always want to turn recipes into slow cooker meals? Why do you want to take something that is easy and quick and have it take 4-8 hours and be soggier/mushier? Slow cooking works for things like soups/stews and any time you want tough meat to cook for a long time, but it’s not the answer to everything!
Absolutely wonderful!! We enjoyed this supper so much!! Easy to make, very filling and great the next day too. Will certainly make this again!!
I made this last night! FABULOUS! Easy to make and presents beautifully! Thank you for yet another delicious recipe, Beth!
Made this last night. It was delicious, Even my 7 year old whose a picky eater liked it. I’ll definitely be making this again.
I love your one dish grain/pasta dishes – so approachable! What kind of skillet are you using here?
It’s a tri-ply stainless steel 3qt deep skillet made by Oxo. It’s like this one, but a 3qt version that comes in their 13 piece set (which I got on sale for about $300).
Yummy!
When adding the broth do you just add the water and better than boullion directly into the pan or do you make the broth separately and then add?
For this one I just made sure to add really hot water (so the BTB will dissolve fast) and the BTB separately, then I stirred everything in the skillet until I was sure the BTB was dissolved. Sometimes I mix the water and BTB together before adding to a recipe when it’s a recipe that shouldn’t be stirred too much.
Would you have a vegetarian suggestion for this? Love the olive/tomato/orzo combination but can’t decide what would be a good substitute for the chicken.
Thanks in advance, and just LOVE your blog!
I’m not Beth (obviously!), but I feel like thick tofu slices or portabella mushrooms would be a nice sub!
Ooh, good call on the portobello mushrooms, perfect pairing!
I have a question about the Better than Bouillon you use. My problem with bouillon cubes or concentrate has always been timing and getting another pot dirty. I find I can never get the timing of the water right so that it’s boiling and the bouillon is mixed by the time I need to add it to my dish. It’s also slightly annoying to get another pot dirty – especially when doing a one skillet/pot dish! ;)
With the Better than Bouillon, do you need to bring the water to a boil like the others before mixing in the concentrate? Or could you possibly add the water and the concentrate to your skillet in one go and let it mix it together while cooking?
Yeah, you totally don’t need to boil any water to use BTB. You can either just use your hottest tap water and mix them together right in a measuring cup, or if it’s a recipe where it doesn’t matter if it’s stirred a lot (like soup, or recipes like this), you can just add the hot water and BTB separately, then just make sure to stir enough to dissolve the BTB. Because it’s a paste rather than a dry cube, it dissolves a lot easier than cubes. The water just needs to be hot. :)
This was very good! Made it got dinner tonight and it was a hit with the family. I made no changes to this recipe.
I LOOOOVE your lemon pepper orzo and was hoping you made another similar dish!!! will deff be trying this next week!
Long-time lurker here – I’ve made lots of your recipes, but never commented before. Made this tonight, and it was AMAZING! Love the blog – thanks for all the creative and delicious recipes!
This looks amazing! Do you think it’d work in the skillet with the quinoa?
I meant just quinoa not “the” quinoa :).
You could probably do that, but the broth to quinoa ratio may be different. It might take some experimentation to get it right. :)
Beth this looks amazing!! I’m somewhat of a novice here, but is there anything you would sub for olives? I’m allergic, and could just do without, but was curious if you had any suggestions what to substitute, if anything.
I’d just do it without the olives and then add feta at the end. Feta has a similarly salty/briny flavor.
Thank you so much!! I love feta, and all cheeses as a general category of food. Appreciate the response so much, I’ve been using your recipes for a long time, and it’s really built my confidence!
Katie, you can try to use capers instead of olives.
Great suggestion! So obvious, yet I woildve never thought of it. Great to have options.
I’m a big fan of all your chicken skillet recipes (Yellow Chicken Rice, Lemon Pepper Chicken with Orzo etc.” so I can’t wait to try this!
Will this work with boneless chicken as well?
Yes, it should work just fine. It will probably cook a little faster in the browning step, too.
Glad this was already asked and answered! I have made several of your recipes, and keep coming back for more. I always have to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts though. My family (kids all grown now) has always freaked out if I tried to feed them any other chicken lol
This looks convenient and delicious. I love the idea of buying a small portion of olives from the salad bar. It’s like a bulk bin for vegetables.
Looks incredible. Would you store the portions in the refrigerator or in the fridge if you plan to eat them over the next few days?
Yep, that’s exactly what I did. :) I just microwave to reheat and then eat.
So.. in the fridge if you plan to eat one portion every day? (So three days in fridge). Wont that spoil it?
Nope. Cooked chicken is good for 3-4 days. http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/
Thanks! ;)