Chicken in a Pot with Lemon Orzo
From Food & Wine (By Nigella Lawson)
A simple one-pot dish that brings comfort and joy. Your chicken may weigh more or less; most tend to be around 3½ pounds. I have specified an enameled cast-iron oval Dutch oven 12 inches long, in which the chicken fits neatly, leaving just a small space all around it to fit the vegetables later — you obviously will use the pot you have, which will make a difference to how quickly everything cooks, how much evaporation there will be.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds)
3 large garlic cloves
2 medium carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 lemons
2 teaspoons dried tarragon or thyme
5 cups sliced leeks, from 2 medium leeks, white parts only
2 teaspoons flaky sea salt or kosher salt, or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
6 cups cold water
1 1/2 cups orzo pasta
1/3 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Preparation
Gather the ingredients.
Untruss the chicken, if it comes trussed, and remove the string. If time allows, let it stand out on a board for 40 minutes or so. Heat oven to 350°F. Peel garlic cloves. Peel and cut carrots into three lengths across, and then into sticks.
Heat oil in a large heavy Dutch oven with a tightly fitting lid over high heat. Place chicken in hot oil breast side down and sear until skin is richly golden; 3 to 5 minutes. Turn the chicken over so the breast side is up.
Take the Dutch oven off the heat and, aiming for the space around the chicken, finely grate in zest from lemons. Grate garlic around the chicken (obviously some can end up on the chicken itself), add dried tarragon, and give a quick stir in oil as best you can.
Scatter vegetables around chicken, followed by salt and red pepper flakes (if using). Squeeze in the juice from your zested lemons.
Pour in cold water — covering all but the very top of the breast — and put the Dutch oven back on high heat to bring to a boil.
Once it's bubbling, cover it with the lid and carefully transfer it to the oven. Cook chicken for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then check to make sure the carrots are soft.
Remove the pot from the oven and add orzo all around the chicken, pushing it under liquid and stirring as best you can manage in the restricted space. Cover pot with lid and return to oven. Cook until orzo is soft and swollen, about 15 minutes.
Remove Dutch oven from oven and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes before serving; orzo will continue to soak up broth as it stands.
While the orzo finishes, chop parsley. Stir in ¼ cup, then sprinkle over a little more. You could shred the chicken now, but it looks so wonderful in its pot I like to bring it to the table whole.
Place a dish by the Dutch oven, then pull the chicken gently apart with a couple of forks, removing any bones and skin that come loose. I find it easiest to do this while the chicken's still in the pot but, if you prefer, you can try to remove it to a cutting board; go carefully as it's likely to fall to pieces a bit as you do so.
Stir chicken and orzo again and ladle into bowls. You may also want to offer Parmesan to grate over.
Keywords: Chicken Pasta Main Italian
