Chicken and Tomato Stew with Orzo

Chicken and Tomato Stew with Orzo

This is my version of a recipe in Rick Stein's From Venice to Istanbul.

He uses a whole chicken jointed into pieces but I took the easy option to use skinless and boneless chicken thighs. 

It fits nicely with Slimming World if you use spray oil or no oil at all like I did and count syns for any cheese you add to your plate at the end. 

Serves 6

Olive oil or spray oil

12 Chicken thighs, skinned and boned chopped into big chunks

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped

100ml red wine (5 syns)

1 litre chicken stock (might need slightly less so don’t add altogether)

500ml passata

7cm cinnamon stick

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper

300g orzo pasta

Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole over medium heat.  Add the chicken and brown them. Reduce the heat and add the onion, garlic and red pepper and cook for about 5 mins.  Add the wine, half the chicken stock, passata, cinnamon stick, oregano, salt and pepper. 

Bring to the boil them reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook for 20-25 mins.

Add the orzo and stir.  Let the stew simmer  for another 10-15 minutes until the orzo is soft and the sauce reduced. Add more stock if necessary. (This is why I didn’t add all the stock as I wanted my sauce quite thick).

Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan, remembering to count the syns for this.