- Ina Garten’s Chicken in a Pot with Orzo is a perfect meal for fall.
- It includes whole chicken, veggies like carrots and leeks, orzo pasta and fresh herbs.
- Pair this meal with a refreshing salad for a complete dinner that serves four.
Cooking a delicious, fragrant dinner can be a soothing activity, but doing the dishes can be a real pain. That’s where the appeal of the one-pot dinner, whether it’s a delicious vegetable soup or creamy pasta dish, comes into play—and it’s no surprise that Ina Garten has added a tasty recipe to the one-pot genre.
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We love Ina’s Chicken in a Pot with Orzo, a perfect-for-autumn dinner included in her 2022 Go-To Dinners cookbook. She featured the recipe on Instagram when her book was released, and this recipe, along with her book, remains timeless, with easy, make-ahead meals that can be prepared at the end of a long day.
When the book first came out, commenters, including actresses Laura Linney and Julianna Margulies, shared their excitement over trying this one-dish meal and all the other recipes that made it into Ina’s collection. “My review copy has arrived and I’m love, love, loving it, Ina,” one person wrote. “Now it’ll join all the others in my kitchen. The cookbooks I actually use.”
To bring this recipe to your dinner table, you’ll need to gather some flavorsome ingredients. The star of the show is the whole chicken, and Garten recommends using one that weighs around 4 pounds. You’ll also need carrots, celery, leeks, fennel, garlic, chicken stock, saffron threads, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, fresh dill, orzo, plus pantry staples like salt, pepper and olive oil. If you can’t get your hands on the fresh herbs, you can swap in the dried variety instead—just remember to use a lighter hand. Our sibling brand Simply Recipes recommends using a teaspoon of dried herbs for every tablespoon of fresh herbs listed in the recipe.
You’ll also need a large plate and a sturdy Dutch oven for this dinner—here are a few of our favorites. Ina says your oven-safe pot should be medium-sized, or about 11 inches in diameter. In the Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. While it’s heating, dry the chicken skin, being sure to remove its giblets. Add the chicken to the pot, breast-side down, and sear it for about 5 minutes without adjusting the heat, allowing the skin to brown. Then turn the chicken over and sear it for another 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and let it rest on the plate.
Sauté the veggies in the olive oil for 10 minutes or so, until they begin to brown. Then add the garlic, let it cook for a minute or so, and return the chicken to the pot. Add the chicken stock and saffron to the pot, then add water (if necessary) until the liquid almost covers the chicken—about an inch of breastbone should be exposed. If you’re using fresh herbs, tie them in a bundle with kitchen twine so you can easily remove them later. Add salt and pepper and bring everything up to a boil. Once it’s boiling, cover the pot and bake at 350°F for an hour and 15 minutes.
When the pot is out of the oven, stir in the orzo, cover and let it stand for at least 20 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. You may need to warm everything back up on the stove, but you can carve the chicken with a fork in each hand to speed up the process. Ina recommends leaving the bones in the leg pieces, but otherwise, you can simply pull the bones out of the pot as you carve. Ina recommends serving this dish in a pasta bowl, with generous helpings of broth, pasta, chicken and veggies—plus a little minced dill on top for extra freshness.
We’d recommend pairing this dish, which serves four, with good company and a refreshing salad like our Pear, Gorgonzola & Walnut Salad or Apple & Cheddar Side Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette for a simple, veggie-packed meal everyone will want to dig into.
