Chicken and rice (any variety) is one of my beau’s absolute favorite meals. This dish has a similar feel but uses orzo aka rice shaped pasta instead of rice and chicken meatballs instead of regular chicken. I followed this recipe with a few adaptations and really enjoyed it as a low-lift Sunday Supper. The recipe notes that it gives chicken pot pie vibes and I could totally see that. Where you’ll see I used broccoli, I bet it would go really well with peas and carrots.
Grate 1 small yellow onion on a box grater directly into a large bowl along with 2 minced garlic cloves (you’ll use two more in the sauce so mince all 4 at once). Add 1/2 bunch fresh parsley (finely chopped – about 1/2 c., save some for later), 1/2 c. panko, 1/4 c. milk, 1 egg, 1 tbsp lemon pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt to the bowl. Stir the mixture until the breadcrumbs are no longer dry and then add 1 1/2 lbs ground chicken, mixing it all together with your hands and form into meatballs that you place on a prepared baking sheet. Bake at 400 for about 15 min. While they’re cooking, make the sauce by first melting 2 tbsp butter. Add the remaining 2 cloves of minced garlic and 2 tbsp flour. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 min before adding 3/4 cup milk, 1 more tsp lemon pepper seasoning, and 1 1/4 c. chicken broth. Whisk until smooth and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer until it thickens, whisking often – this will take at 5+ minutes. When the meatballs are done, transfer them to the sauce and turn to coat. Here the recipe recommends putting them back in the oven for another 10 minutes (you’d need to have been using a cast iron skillet for the sauce if you want to do thins), but I don’t think the meatballs needed the extra browning, nor did the sauce need the extra bubbling…plus, I’d already set of my super sensitive smoke alarm so I was done. Garnish with more chopped parsley.
This makes a lovely creamy sauce so it’s best when it’s on top of something, preferable a starch. I served my meatballs over orzo that I mixed with steamed (and kinda mashed) broccoli (add salt and pepper) and topped the whole thing with parmesan. Now, this could be because of the brand of lemon pepper I used, but the lemon pepper flavor wasn’t overly strong. I would maybe add a squeeze of lemon and few grinds of pepper to the sauce to amp that up a bit. The parsley, however, really shone through, and I love that. It’s actually not an herb I use all that often and is very rarely a star in my recipes so I loved that it got its moment.
Peaches to Apples 