How to Make Orzo Risotto with Chicken and Sausage

How to Make Orzo Risotto with Chicken and Sausage A very interesting dish today, we’re doing Orzo pasta but we’re going to cook it in the style of risotto. So here’s our pasta which is called Orzo also known as melon seed pasta, that’s the shape. And again you’ve got to check the site today because all the amounts are on there and explanations and so forth. But it’s semolina pasta, and this is a really, really nice dish, so the meat here, we’ve got some chicken thighs, bone and skin on. I’ve got some Linguisa sausage that’s actually made with chicken. So you can use the pork one if you want, some peppers, some onion and a secret spice mix. Now, the secret spice mix, just go to the site, Foodwishes.com and I’ve got all the amounts there for today’s ingredients. Step one, we’re going to brown our chicken thighs. You know the drill, hot Dutch oven. You’re going to brown on both sides and I’ve got an e-mail from someone. Instruction is I brown things up all sides, you’re always on time. So okay, good idea, so you know how to brown thing up both sides. So just take about seven or eight minutes on medium-high heat. I’ve got a nice brown color on these chicken thighs. Now in the pan, we’re going to leave it on medium and I’m going to add my sausage that I’ve just sliced to like one inch pieces and my half onion that I just cubed up, and we’re just going to sauté that for I don’t know two or three minutes. And then we’re going to do one of my favorite tricks which I borrowed from the Indian cuisine. We’re going to take our spice and herb mixture, and we’re going to sauté it in the hot oil. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take your herb and spices and just dump it right in and with a wooden spoon or spatula just give it a two or three minutes sauté. It really wakes up the flavor. It makes a big difference. Now, one of the secret spices in here is cumin, and that’s a perfect example. It really tastes better if you awake it up in the hot oil a little bit. And then we’re going to add back in our brown chicken thighs and a quart of chicken broth or chicken stock. So this is actually a really easy dish and yes that’s make 800 recipes in a row where I said this is an easy dish this year. So dump in your stock in your chicken. We’re going to bring this up to a simmer which is not up to a simmer yet and make sure it’s under the water. Bring it up to a simmer, and then the heat down to low because we’d like to simmer gently. And then simmer on low for 30 minutes. And then we’re going to do some fishing out. So we’re going to do some separation here. The thighs are pretty much cooked through. We’re going to take our spider. If you don’t have one of these things I’m about to show you, see one of those. You could use slats of spoons which take like an hour. Get a spider and we’re going to fish out all the chicken sausage and onions or whatever we can get. And then we’re going to pour the stock into another bowl, so I’m going to have three things here. I’m going to have an empty Dutch oven. I’m going to have my chicken sausage mixture right there. I’m going to have my stock which is just over a quart. Ready to go for my risotto technique and I’m going to have my empty Dutch oven. Let’s keep going with our risotto style orzo pasta. A couple of tablespoons of olive oil, you can add your diced pepper, you’re half of pound of orzo pasta, and just like risotto on medium heat you’re going to coat your orzo with that nice olive oil, and then a couple of ladles at a time. We’re going to take that hot stock and we’re going to pour it in and we’re going to cook on medium heat until the stock is almost absorbed. So I’m going to start with three ladles, and you can see how loose it is. So we’re going to cook it on medium and then about five minutes or so, see how it kind of absorbed the stock but there’s still a little there. So if you let it go too far it get too dry, it might stick into the bottom which we don’t want. So let’s just take out right, so about five minutes of simmering I’m going to add a couple of more ladles of stock, and we’re going to do the same drill until about 15 minutes or so later, we’re done. So that was the second addition. And then again, you can play this by your—I can’t you know give you the exact instructions here. You’re going to keep adding stock and cooking it on medium to medium low until the stock is absorbed. And then you’re going to need more stock until you think it might start getting to be cooked which right about here I started thinking you know what? This stuff kind of looks like it’s almost cooked. So I want with one more addition of stock and cooked it for a couple of minutes, and then I grab the spoon and I started tasting it. So again, I’m going to guess, it’s going to take between 15 and 20 minutes to get until it is done as you want. Some people like al dente just like risotto. Some people like it crunchy. Some people like it really soft. Right for me that was just about right, but it is just still as little bit undercooked. I think at that point we’ve been about 15 minutes for me. So if you’re good, I’ll go with one more addition of stock and that should be about right. So I added one more couple splash of stock here. And cook for another couple of minutes, and then I was pretty confident it was good. You know you don’t guess with the stuff. You take your spoon and you check it. And also here I’m checking for salt. That stock was really flavorful, so I didn’t need any salt here but I taste it and it was 95% cooked, just about right which is exactly what I wanted because how I’m going to finish this dish. I’m going to take my chicken and sausage mixture. I’m going to turn off the heat. I’m going to add that to my 95% cooked Orzo pasta done in risotto style. I’m going to give a mix. Again, the heat I just turned off, and I’m going to cover it and just let it sit for five minutes then I’m going to let that pasta just soak up the rest of that liquid for five minutes I’m just going to chill out. So let it rest for five minutes covered. By the way, I did a little bit of stock leftover, so if it gets too dry when you uncover here, add a little stock no problem. You should be able to put this on a plate. You shouldn’t need a bowl. It should actually be soaked out on the stock to kind of sit like that. A little fresh parsley on top, man this is delicious, really, really good. My favorite part is this photo shop version where I make the color better because that’s what really looks like when I look at, see in the cheap camera. But anyway, a really simple recipe, you can switch the sausage. You can put different meats on, Orzo pasta very interesting. If you like risotto you’re going to like this. If you like pasta you’re going to like this. It’s just different method for cooking it and again, I didn’t boil it in water. I made it. I forced it to soak up all that delicious stock that was produced when we braised our chicken thighs and our sausage, so it's kind of nice technique. And again, any pressure if you want to throw on top that’s going to be nice, but that’s my orzo done risotto style. Check the web site. You’re going to have to check today because it has lots of ingredients and that secret herbs sliced mix and you’ll find them there, enjoy.