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South Korea Part Two: Going for Gold.
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When you need something bright, cozy, and low-effort, this one-skillet chicken and orzo hits the spot. Think crispy seared chicken, caramelized lemon, and garlicky, butter-kissed orzo that soaks up all the flavor.
It’s weeknight-easy, pantry-friendly, and pretty enough to bring right to the table. Grab a lemon (Meyer if you’ve got it), a handful of greens, and let the oven finish the work.

You guys, I am not going to lie, at this point I really don’t even know what day it is. This entire time I’ve been in South Korea, I think I have asked what day it is and what the time is over and over again. South Korea is one day and sixteen hours ahead of MST, so the jet leg struggle was, and is, real. Because of work, I needed to be going back and forth between US time and Korean time and for me, it just got way too confusing.
By the time you all read this I should hopefully be home, as I am heading out in a couple of hours with a few family members along with me. I am currently writing this post while sitting in a hotel room in Seoul, trying to catch up on work…and scrolling through all the AMAZING comments, social media tags, and press from the last three days. It’s truly amazing. Thanks for the support you all are showing my brother. He’s living up this gold medal win (well sort of, the jet lag on this quick trip cannot be fun) and traveling around with my brother Malachi, doing a quick US press tour. However, they’ll both be back on a plane to South Korea in a couple of days, as Red needs to start practice for Men’s Snowboard Big Air.
Crazy, crazy ride those two are on…
I mean, did you catch Red on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night? Here’s the link if you’d like to watch.

And that’s your quick Red and Kai update for the day. Let’s talk food, because you know, that is what I do best.
While the food here in South Korea has been awesome…there’s been a lot of Korean Beef, ramen, and we had some amazing dumplings yesterday in Seoul…I must say, I’m looking forward to heading home and cooking up some of my favorite comfort meals, like this easy one skillet chicken dinner.
I made this before we left for Korea and it was the perfect easy, healthy, cozy dinner to eat the day before a long flight. Plus, it’s full of carbs, lemon, and veggies, so very much my kind of food.
The chicken is pan seared along with some fresh lemon slices and a little butter. The chicken becomes crispy, and the lemon slices caramelize, making them sweet enough to eat. I am aware that eating the whole lemon, peel and all, is still a little odd to many of you, but try it out this way. I promise, it’s so good.
The chicken and lemon alone could be an awesome recipe, classic and delicious, but me being me, I needed to add a little more to the recipe, so in came the orzo.
I mean, obviously, you have to have the carbs, you just do.
You could certainly use quinoa or another grain, but if I were you, I’d go with the orzo. It’s just fitting with this recipe and so delicious in the lemon butter sauce.

This recipe is not only delicious, it’s also super easy…one skillet, under an hour, and uses mostly pantry staple ingredients.
Cool. Cool.
It’s a crowd pleaser, and actually comes out of the oven looking relatively pretty. I threw on some fresh dill for color and served the chicken and orzo up right out of the skillet. Perfect for easy weeknight dinners or even entertaining.
Also, I get a lot of questions about what my favorite cast iron skillet is…I always, always use Staub. The ten and twelve inch are my favorites, I used the twelve inch for this recipe.
If I wasn’t getting home so late tonight, I’d for sure be making this for dinner. Instead, this will definitely be on my table as Friday night’s meal.
Can’t wait to start getting caught up on everything at home. Sorry for being MIA with comments this past week, I will be catching up soon. Thanks for all the messages!

Watch the How To Video Here:
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Chicken dinner for the win…or the GOLD?! I dunno, but clearly I am still way too excited that my brother is an Olympic Gold Medalist. No big deal or anything…
Based on several comments here and my personal preferences, I made these modifications in terms of ingredients: half a lemon instead of full lemon, a sprinkle of tajin, carrots, 2 cups of chicken broth instead of 2.5, bay leaf, fresh rosemary, random other italian herbs (basil, majoram, …). Procedural modifications: Added carrots together with butter and half-lemon, left lemon slices in for at least 5 mins while carrots cooked to give lemon more time to caramelize, sprinkled tajin on the lemon. It came out delicious!
Hey Marta,
Happy Friday! Thanks a lot for trying this recipe and your comment, so glad it was enjoyed!☃️
The bitterness from the lemon rind made this dish pretty inedible. But after reading it sounds like I should have carmelized the lemon? Didn’t know that’s possible. If I make it again, I would just remove the lemon before baking
Hi there,
Thanks for trying this dish and sharing your feedback. You can definitely just omit the rind next time. Let me know if you give it a try!
I love how versatile this recipe is. I didn’t have kale, but I sautéed an onion after browning the chicken, before adding the orzo and garlic. I also added a big dollop of pesto and mixed it in before adding the wine. So good! I will say it was better to let it sit and cool for about 10 minutes so it thickened up a bit.
Hey Amber,
Fantastic! I appreciate you trying this recipe and your comment, love to hear it turned out well for you!
Have the best weekend!
I always have a lot of pheasants on hand as I have two bird dogs. This recipe was the best pheasant I have ever made. Caramelizing the lemons got me so excited to eat and made the plating beautiful. So easy to make and super easy clean up. This recipe will be on repeat forever now.
Hey Alexis,
Fantastic! I appreciate you trying this recipe and your comment, love to hear it turned out well for you!
Have the best weekend!
I don´t know where I went wrong, but the taste was very bitter from the lemon peels. Had to go back and check your recipe agian, but it doesn´t say that I should peel the lemon. What do you think?
Hi Nina,
Thanks so much for making this dish! So sorry about the bitter taste from the lemon, it sounds like it just needed to caramelize a bit more in step 3. Please let me know if you have any other questions!