Creamy Chicken Orzo with Prosciutto

This Creamy Chicken Orzo with Prosciutto is a delicious one pot meal that the whole family will love. It is perfect for a mid week dinner but also fancy enough for serving guests or for special occasions.

what is orzo?

Orzo, sometimes referred to as risoni, is a short cut pasta which is shaped like a large grain of rice. But don’t be mistaken, it is definitely pasta and not rice!

Orzo is traditionally made from white flour but can also be made from whole grain.

It isn’t the most common pasta shape to find, but you should be able to find it in most large supermarkets. Just probably not your corner shop like other types of pasta.

Creamy Chicken Orzo is the perfect one pot recipe

Why are one pot recipes so great you might ask? Well firstly it reduces the amount of washing up that needs doing! But it also means you don’t have three things on the go at once that you need to keep an eye on.

Ok, ok technically you need another pan to crisp up the prosciutto…but you’ll let me off for that, right? If you really don’t want to use another pan you can leave the prosciutto as it is.

This Creamy Chicken Orzo with Prosciutto has all the components of a complete meal in one pan so you don’t need to cook anything additionally. Perfect for fuss free midweek cooking!

which cut of chicken is best to use?

Personally I use chicken breasts for this recipe. As the chicken isn’t being cooked for a long time I think chicken breasts are fine to use because they will keep their moisture.

You could definitely use chicken thighs if you prefer. Whichever cut of chicken you use, it is always worth double checking the chicken is cooked. Either cut the thickest part of the chicken and check the juices run clear, or use a meat thermometer.

Leftover roast chicken would also work really well for this recipe. I would shred it and add it onto the pan when the recipe says to add the chicken back and add the cream.

Adapting this creamy chicken orzo

This recipe is really easy to adapt. As I have already mentioned you can use leftover cooked chicken instead.

I have added tenderstem broccoli because it is my favourite vegetable. But you can definitely change this up depending on the time of year and what’s in season.

You could add asparagus and peas in the spring when they are fresh and delicious. In summer you could slice in courgettes (zucchini), because people always seem to have an abundance!

Then in Autumn onwards you could shred up some cavolo nero. You may need to adjust the cooking times depending on which vegetables you are using.

Adapt this recipe not only to your tastes, but to celebrate which vegetables are in season too.

do you have to use double cream?

I don’t tend to use double cream (heavy cream) when I’m cooking because it is so indulgent. I use different ingredients in recipes like my Creamy Chicken Potato Bake and Skinny Creamy Chicken Sausage Pasta to add the creamy element.

But for this Creamy Chicken Orzo with Prosciutto I decided to use the real deal and it really is delicious! However you can tweak it if you wish.

Instead of double cream, you could use single cream (light cream). This will still add a delicious creaminess but is slightly lighter.

You could also leave out the cream altogether and use something like crème fraiche or sour cream to add the creaminess.

how to make this orzo gluten free, vegetarian or vegan

Without extensively looking, gluten free orzo doesn’t seem to be the most common pasta to find. If you follow a gluten free diet, you may know of better places to look. However if you can’t find orzo, use any small gluten free pasta you can find.

To make this Creamy Chicken Orzo with Prosciutto gluten free you will also need to use gluten free flour or cornflour to dredge the chicken.

To make this vegetarian you will obviously need to omit the chicken and prosciutto. You can choose whether to include a meat substitute or whether to add more vegetables instead.

It is very simple to swap the chicken stock to vegetable. Lastly you will need to swap the Parmesan for a vegetarian alternative. Parmesan isn’t suitable for vegetarians because it contains rennet which is an animal product.

To make this orzo vegan you would need to make all of the above vegetarian changes plus a couple more. You would need to swap the butter and double cream to your favourite dairy free alternatives.

It is worth mentioning that I haven’t tested this recipe with dairy free options so I’m not sure if they would split or react differently in the dish to their dairy counterparts.

Does this creamy chicken orzo make good leftovers?

Personally I am not a fan of reheating recipes with a thick, creamy sauce like this. When they are reheated the sauce has a tendency to split and look a little less appealing.

Reheating won’t affect the taste, it will still be delicious. But it will probably affect the appearance so this is something to bear in mind.

I would recommend adding a splash of hot water when you reheat as the sauce is likely to have thicken as it cooled. This will help loosen it again.

Other recipes you might like

• Skinny Chicken & Prosciutto Bake
• Chicken & Basil Pasta
• Easy Cheese & Broccoli Pasta
• Sausage, Mustard & Basil Pasta
• Skinny Chicken Fajita Pasta

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