This easy, one-pot, 30-minute Creamy Pesto Orzo is loaded with ground meat, veggies, and orzo pasta. Plus: minimal chopping, minimal dish clean-up, and minimal hands-on time. What’s not to love?!
We love creamy pasta dishes, especially when they’re light like this one! No heavy cream, no half-and-half, and minimal butter! Try some of our other lighter pasta dishes next time, like this Chicken Penne Pasta or this Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.
Creamy Pesto Orzo
This dish is the perfect easy weeknight meal! It’s not only loaded with flavor and texture, but it’s also filled with some good-for-you ingredients and packed with protein. Between the ground meat, peas, and whole milk, you’ll be amazed how much protein is in this dish! I personally love adding protein (plant-based or animal-based) to dinner recipes for my family, because they’re so much more filling and satiating. And that’s important for my active little kiddos — especially as the weather warms up and they’re outside playing hard.
Beyond how filling it is, it’s also ridiculously easy to make and the clean-up is pretty minimal. While it’s a creamy and hearty dish, the pesto adds freshness and lightness to the meal. And we’re actually not using all that much butter (2 tablespoons for the whole recipe!), plus no heavy creams or half-and-half. So, yes, it’s creamy, but in a lighter way than a typical heavy Alfredo sauce.
Ground meat
This Creamy Pesto Orzo works great with either ground chicken or ground turkey. Use whichever your family prefers! If using ground chicken, I’d recommend ground chicken thighs if they’re available. That way, the meat will be nice and juicy in the end dish!
For ground turkey, I recommend ground turkey that is sold in a carton, rather than in a chub. Chub-style ground turkey is the kind that comes in the plastic tube and it tends to be less flavorful. I recommend 93/7% ground turkey (we love JennieO® or Butterball® ground turkey). We’ve found 99/1% ground turkey to be far too dry and flavorless.
Sometimes grocery stores sell seasoned ground turkey (taco flavored or similar) and it’s easy to mistake for regular ground turkey. Be sure to select plain, unseasoned ground meat for this recipe.
Let’s Talk Pesto
Since the pesto is a big part of this Creamy Pesto Orzo, make sure you use a really tasty one. You can of course make your own, but if you’re looking to save some time (this dish is supposed to be super quick and simple after all!), I’d recommend getting a refrigerated, freshly-made basil pesto, which you can find near refrigerated fresh pastas and gourmet cheeses. Rana’s® Basil Pesto is my personal favorite store-bought pesto sauce (not sponsored).
Freshly made pesto can certainly be spendy, but it lasts a good amount of time and a little goes a long way to add loads of flavor to so many dishes.
Consider adding some leftover pesto to some of our favorite dishes like:
- Pesto and Sausage meal made in tin foil packets
- Pesto Pizza made on Naan (super quick!)
- Creamy Pesto Pasta with sun-dried tomatoes
- Pesto Chicken Tortellini easy 30-minute meal
- Pesto Chicken with a Corn and Bean salsa
What’s orzo?
Although orzo looks a bit like rice, it’s not a grain. Orzo is a type of short-cut pasta that looks like larger grains of rice. It also goes by the names risoni and risi, and they’re all the same thing: small pasta made from durum and semolina wheat. In Italian, orzo means barley…and that’s what it looks like, too! Because of its small size, orzo is a kid favorite and goes well in soups and salad. You’ll find orzo on the pasta aisle of most grocery stores.
It’s a common misconception that rice and Orzo can be interchanged, but they are different and won’t cook the same in this recipe. This is pasta, not rice, so it cooks much quicker and is creamier in this recipe.
Creamy Pesto Orzo tips
- Prep everything before you start cooking. This is a dish where the cooking goes pretty quickly, so you want to make sure to have everything cut up and ready to go before starting.
- Seasonings. This dish doesn’t have a whole lot of seasoning because it’s relying on the chicken stock (which has plenty of seasonings already), the Parmesan cheese, the pesto (which typically has more Parmesan cheese as well), and the salt and pepper. That said, you still might need a pinch extra at the end — don’t be afraid to add more salt and pepper until the flavors sing.
- Use whole milk. While 1% or 2% milk will work, I highly recommend whole milk in this recipe — we don’t find it creamy or flavorful enough with lower fat percentages of milk.
- Use a large, nonstick pot and stir often. The orzo pasta cooks up better in a nonstick pot and being stirred frequently. Without being stirred frequently, it can catch and clump at the bottom of the pot.
More Easy Pasta Dishes
- Zucchini Pasta Sauce with spaghetti noodles
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad with a lemon vinaigrette
- Broccoli Grape Pasta Salad with a creamy dressing
- Red and White Pasta only four ingredients!
- Chicken Tortellini with broccoli
Creamy Pesto Orzo
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic (~2-3 cloves)
- 1 pound (16 oz.) 93/7 ground turkey (or ground chicken -- thigh meat preferred)
- Fine sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
- 1-1/2 cups frozen corn
- 1-1/2 cups frozen sweet peas
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons white, all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken stock or broth (we love Swanson)
- 2-1/4 cups whole milk Note 1
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Note 2
- 1/2 cup fresh basil pesto Note 3
- Optional: 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley
Instructions
- PREP: Finely chop the onion and garlic and set out the rest of the ingredients -- cooking goes quickly!
- COOK: Heat olive oil in a large (nonstick) pot over high heat. Add onion and stir around for about 5 minutes or until turning golden; add in garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the ground turkey and season with salt and pepper to taste. (I add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.) Cook, crumbling as you cook, until mostly cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add in the frozen corn and peas (no need to thaw). Stir for 1-2 minutes or until veggies are thawed and meat is fully through. Dump this entire mixture onto a plate or bowl and cover it with foil.
- COOK CONT.: Return the pot to burner. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour, and cook and stir for 1 minute. Gradually add in the stock, whisking constantly. Add in the milk and all the uncooked orzo.
- FINISH COOKING: Bring the mixture to a simmer, and then lower the heat until it is just barely bubbling at the edges. Cook for 7 minutes without a lid, stirring occasionally and making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan so the orzo does not stick. After 7 minutes the pasta should be almost tender (the mixture will still be soupy). Add the plate of veggies and ground turkey to the pot and stir. Add in the Parmesan and stir to melt. Mix in the pesto and optional parsley. Mix well. Taste and season to taste with any additional salt and pepper as needed. Don't be afraid to add a bit more-- the salt and pepper really pull all the flavors together.
- SERVE: Consistency should be similar to risotto and very creamy. Add a splash of milk if needed to thin consistency a bit. Enjoy while hot.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
will be making this soon can i use mushrooms vegetable broth almond milk and vegan cheeses as am a vegan can i skip frozen corn and peas as am not a big fan of them i love pesto sooooooooooooo much perfect for my after office meals will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
Hope you enjoy it!