It’s the season for comfort food, and I think this dish really qualifies.
Creamy, poultry, pasta, a bit of cheese, a bowl of this will give you all the cozy feels.
Think of this as Turkey Pot Pie meets mac and cheese. Except not quite as dairy laden. Plus, no worrying about getting pastry of any sort together, this is so much easier!!
The Ins and Outs of This Dish
Sure, it’s called Turkey Pot Pie Orzo, but feel free to use chicken instead. Either way, you will be using already cooked, slightly shredded chicken or turkey. Feel free to use leftovers from turkey dinner, a couple of poached chicken breasts, or even rotisserie chicken. You will want about 2 heaping cups worth. When you break it apart, don’t worry about getting it all finely shredded, larger bite sized pieces are pleasant to look at.
Next you will need onions, carrots, celery, garlic and peas. All the classic ingredients in a classic pot pie. And of course some chopped fresh herbs. Sage, thyme and rosemary will all work.
The next main ingredient is the stock. If you have a batch of Turkey Stock made, please use it, it gives the best flavour! Here is my recipe, I make a batch at least twice a month, and with it I end up getting all the meat from the bones to add to dishes, like this one. But if you don’t have turkey broth on hand, feel free to swap in homemade chicken stock or purchased chicken stock. And if you are a little short of the required amount, feel free to use water to make up the difference. If you want to put your batch of Faux Chicken Bouillon Powder to work, use it to flavour the remaining water. But I wouldn’t suggest using it to flavour all the liquid needed for the recipe. The real deal has so much depth that will cook into the pasta.
Speaking of pasta, let’s pull out the orzo! Adding orzo to simmer in the stock with all the other ingredients creates a silky finish, the pasta is just so lovely to accompany the turkey and veggies. With its rice like shape, but ease of pasta, this is such a versatile pasta to have on hand. These days you can even find it in gluten free form!
How Creamy To Make this Dish
Following the recipe with the amount of pasta and stock will give you a lovely dish. At the end some Parmesan cheese is folded in which will also thicken the consistency. But if you are craving something a bit looser or thinner, feel free to add a bit more liquid at the end. This will give it more of a soupy consistency. Keep this in mind if you have leftovers. The next day you will want to add more liquid to the pot as you reheat the leftovers over medium low heat.
Options
Feel free to add sliced mushrooms, broccoli or cauliflower florets or sliced green beans to the mix or instead of any of the original vegetables. Make sure they are all of a similar size so that they will cook at the same rate with all the veggies. Feel free to switch the Parmesan for Pecorino or even a little Cheddar or Beemster cheese (I often use these tangy cheeses, they are perfect in here). If you happen to have leftover gravy sitting around, add it in, it will add such an amazing flavour to the final dish!
Final Thoughts
Serve this with a salad and some toasted garlic bread for a substantial winter meal. This dish will comfortably feed six people, even eight depending on appetites. Feel free to halve the recipe if it is only two or three of you. And if you wanted to make this dish a vegetarian dish, omit the poultry and stock and use vegetable stock instead. Using the mushrooms and all the other veggies will make for quite a substantial meal as is. I was inspired by the Creamy Chicken Orzo recipe here at The Modern Proper blog. But you will quickly see that I made it my own!
Love Jen
Turkey Pot Pie Orzo
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 2 medium to large carrots, peeled, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage, can replace with fresh thyme or rosemary
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
- 6 cups turkey or chicken stock, plus more as needed
- 2 cups turkey or chicken, cooked, shredded
- 12 oz orzo, or 340 grams
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
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Heat the olive oil in a braiser or large pot over medium heat.
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Add the chopped onion, celery and carrots and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
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Add garlic and sage and sauté for 2 minutes longer. Season everything with 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
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Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
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Add the cooked, shredded chicken breast along with the orzo.
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Reduce the heat to medium low. Add the parsley, salt and pepper. Keep the heat low but still maintaining a gentle simmer.
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Maintain a simmer for 20 minutes, until the orzo is cooked through, the veggies are tender, and most of the liquid has been absorbed by the orzo. Stir gently, pulling at everything settling at the bottom of the pot, so that you can avoid it scorching.
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Just before serving scatter in the remaining salt, pepper and parmesan cheese and stir through. If you find that it is a little thicker than you would like, add a little more stock and stir it through till warm.
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Finish with parsley and serve with a side salad and toasted garlic bread.
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See the blog post for more details.
Recipe Notes
Any leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge. To reheat, add what you want to a sauce pan, along with 1/4 or more stock to help loosen up the orzo. Reheat over medium low.
I state that it serves 6. But you may actually get enough to feed 8!
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