Cajun Chicken & Orzo

A simple dish ready in minutes and it is great cold too. This is lovely topped with some feta cheese as part of your healthy extra A choice. I topped mine with green chillies and cherry tomatoes.

Cajun Chicken & Orzo

Cajun Chicken & Orzo

 

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken breast, diced in small pieces
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow pepper, diced
  • 1 carrot, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp. Cajun seasoning
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
  • 3 tbsp. tomato puree
  • Fresh parsley and coriander to taste, chopped
  • seasoning to taste
  • 250g orzo pasta

Method

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water for around 9 minutes. Once cooked, drain the water (reserving some for later) and cool the pasta under cold water to stop it from sticking together whilst you cook the chicken.

Spray a pan with plenty of syn free spray oil of your choice and cook the onions for around 5 minutes till they start to golden. Add a little hot water if the onions start to stick to the pan. Add the garlic and the carrot and mix well. Cook until the carrot has softened slightly.

Add the diced chicken, Cajun seasoning, paprika, seasoning and chilli flakes (if using). Mix the chicken with the spices well.

Add the tomato puree, mix and let the chicken cook for around 15 minutes (cook for longer if your chicken pieces are bigger). Add some of the reserved water from the pasta to the chicken to stop it from drying out. Add the peppers in the last couple of minutes of cooking together with the parsley and coriander. Cook for another couple of minutes before adding the cooked pasta and mix it all well together.

Orzo Pasta Salad

This recipe is inspired by one of my members at our taster session. I usually use orzo pasta shapes in soups, I never though of using it as a salad! It was so nice that I have tried to recreate it and loved my version too. For convenience I have used Najma BBQ Chicken Chunks but you can cook chicken from scratch if you prefer. You can add any veg of your preference to it, I just used whatever I had in my fridge.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: less than 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Orzo Pasta Salad

Orzo Pasta Salad

 

Ingredients

  • 150g orzo pasta
  • Najma BBQ chicken chunks
  • Cucumber
  • Carrot
  • Red pepper
  • Spring onions
  • Green chillies
  • Fresh coriander
  • Season to taste

Method

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, finely chop all the veg and the BBQ chicken chunks and set aside till the pasta is cooked.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and run it through cold water under a sieve.

Mix the chicken and the veg to the pasta and season to taste.