Main Dishes
Sheet Pan Chicken Orzo Bake
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
30 minutes
Yield
4
This Chicken Orzo Bake takes chicken meatballs and pairs it with baked veggies and orzo for a complete, easy, sheet pan meal with minimal clean up.
This easy Chicken Orzo Bake is the perfect easy bake for the whole family. It’s made with fresh tomatoes, protein-packed chicken meatballs, and orzo. This Orzo Bake is a full meal made on a sheet pan, making it easy, with minimal mess. What I love about this recipe is how all the flavors marinade into one, making the orzo so flavorful and delicious.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Chicken Orzo Bake
- Protein-Packed: This Chicken Orzo Bake is full of protein with the lean chicken in the meatballs. It’s healthy, and will fill you up.
- Flavorful: Sheet pan meals are full of flavor because all the juices and flavors marinade together from each of the ingredients as they cook. It’s so tasty!
- Versatile: Sheet pan meals are versatile. You can swap the ground chicken for ground turkey, and add in any veggies or fresh herbs.
🍲 Ingredients
Chicken Meatballs – This Chicken Orzo Bake is made with chicken meatballs that are made with ground chicken, feta, and seasoning. They’re protein-packed and delicious.
Green Olives – I LOVE olives. As you probably know by now, I’m Greek, so olives are a sacred food for me. 😉 They add a little saltiness and pops of flavor to this recipe. There is nothing better than a nice warm olive and it pairs so well in this dish.
Orzo – Orzo is a short type of pasta that almost looks like rice. It is a great pasta to use in casseroles and one-pan or sheet-pan dishes because it cooks quickly and adds a carb into a one-pot meal. It’s also great in pasta salads.
👩🍳 How to Make a Chicken Orzo Bake
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a 9×13 baking dish and spread it around the bottom of the dish. Set aside.
- Make the cherry tomato salad by combining the halved cherry tomatoes, chopped green olives, olive oil, salt, and pepper into a medium-sized bowl. Gently mix together and set aside.
- Prepare the meatballs – Mix together the ground chicken, chopped basil, crumbled feta cheese, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and olive oil. Once combined, scoop about 2 tbsp at a time and form into meatballs – you’ll get 12-14 meatballs. Place each meatball into the oiled baking dish.
- Bake the meatballs for 8 minutes and then remove from the oven.
- In a mixing bowl, mix together the chicken stock paste with the hot water. Stir until fully combined.
- After 8 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven, toss the meatballs around the dish a bit and then add the orzo, hot water mixture, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili flakes and red onion. Gently stir to combine everything in the baking dish.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the orzo is al dente.
- Remove from the oven and stir in the cream, zucchini and parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 5 more minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the orzo is creamy.
- Serve in bowls topped with the cherry tomato and olive salad.
🗒 Tips and Tricks
- If your meatballs are crumbling, add a little more of a binder to help them stick together, such as egg or virgin olive oil.
- To prevent your meatballs from sticking to your hand, just simply run your hands under some water first so the meat doesn’t stick.
- Make sure that your sheet pan isn’t too crowded so it cooks evenly. If you don’t have enough room, spread it onto two baking sheets.
🗒 Variations
If you love this Chicken Orzo Bake, I have so many other sheet pan recipes you’ll love such as:
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers of this Chicken Orzo Bake in the fridge for up to 4 days. This is also a great meal prep meal that you can make on Sunday night and have on hand for easy lunches through the week.
🤔 Common Questions
You can use whatever ground meat you prefer in the meatballs for this sheet pan recipe. You can also even use this recipe as a base and make chicken thighs instead.
Your best bet is to cut into a meatball to make sure it’s no longer pink and to taste a little bit of the orzo.
Sheet Pan Chicken Orzo Bake
Ingredients
For the cherry tomato salad topping
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup chopped green olives
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
For the chicken meatballs
- 450 g (1 lb) ground chicken
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 3 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- zest of one lemon
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the orzo
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 cup dry orzo pasta
- 1 tbsp chicken stock paste
- 2 1/4 cups hot water
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes
- 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup 10% / light cream
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Add 2 tbsp olive oil a 9×13 baking dish and spread it around the bottom of the dish. Set aside.
- Make the cherry tomato salad by combining the halved cherry tomatoes, chopped green olives, olive oil, salt and pepper into a medium sized bowl. Gently mix together and set aside.
- Prepare the meatballs – Mix together the ground chicken, chopped basil, crumbled feta cheese, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and olive oil. Once combined, scoop about 2 tbsp at a time and form into meatballs – you’ll get 12-14 meatballs. Place each meatball into the oiled baking dish.
- Bake the meatballs for 8 minutes and then remove from the oven.
- In a mixing bowl mix together the chicken stock paste with the hot water. Stir until fully combined.
- After 8 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven, toss the meatballs around the dish a bit and then add the orzo, hot water mixture, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili flakes and red onion. Gently stir to combine everything in the baking dish.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the orzo is al dente.
- Remove from the oven and stir in the cream, zucchini and parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 5 more minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the orzo is creamy.
- Serve in bowls topped with the cherry tomato and olive salad.
Video
Notes
- We love this meal as an easy weeknight dinner for the whole family!
- Or, make this and portion it out for meal prep lunches.
- If you like this recipe, try our Chicken & Feta Baked Meatballs
Second time making this – absolutely LOVE! So flavorful and light. Thank you!
you are the best, thank you anna!!!
Love the recipe, but mine always comes out SO runny. No idea what I’m doing wrong, or what I could do differently??
Hmm!! That really shouldn’t be happening. Just want to make sure you’re following the exact ingredient and recipe instructions?
Yes I did, 2 1/4 cups water and Better than Bouillon. I was however adding the tomatoes into it for the last 5 minutes since my family preferred baked tomatoes. Could that be effecting it?
This was SOO good!!! Highly recommend
Thank you so much Alexia!!!