One Pan Baked Pesto Orzo with Chicken Meatballs

Lisa

says:

Not a mushroom fan. Any suggestions for a substitution?

Feel free to leave them out!

Alyssa

says:

Delicious! My son requested this be added to our rotation. Only change – used ground turkey instead of chicken (just what is easy to buy in bulk), used skim milk (what we have on hand) and son declared it plenty creamy, and didn’t add mozzarella to the top – don’t think we missed it! Plan on making more meatballs and just freezing them tomorrow!

Perfect! Glad it was a hit – and great idea to freeze some meatballs for later.

Anonymous

says:

So good…..loved the flavor combos. I realized last minute I only had about half of the orzo I needed so mixed in some pearled couscous. The cooking time was the same for both and it turned out perfect.

Great swap! Glad you loved it!

Nikki

says:

Couldn’t wait to try this and OH MY GOODNESS!!! This was mouth watering, going back for seconds GOOD!! My kids devoured it as well and I have some picky teens!! This will definitely be made again and again!!

Amazing!! So happy to hear that!

Lauren

says:

Solid recipe! Made meatballs earlier in the day which helped speed up cooking. Was very tasty, satisfying and comforting. Meatballs are very moist – yum! I served with green beans, which resulted in a lot of leftovers that held up beautifully.. Our family of 4 got two meals out of this!

Love that! Great idea to make the meatballs earlier, and love the addition of green beans.

Alena

says:

This is my first time making a recipe from AK, and I was not disappointed. I loved the combination of flavor and it was so easy and quick. The only thing that was a little bit of a struggle were the meatballs, browning them had the first few fall apart, but I also had to use 96 lean. This is such a comforting delicious meal, while still have veg.

So glad you loved this one! I recommend using a 93-94% lean so that they stay together a bit better, but happy to hear this still turned out.

Sarah

says:

Really delicious. I added some chopped spinach before putting in the oven as it needed to be used and added some greens. Will definitely be making again!

Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!

Erin

says:

Another amazing AK recipe! Delicious flavors. A bit of a labor of love but so worth it. The meatballs were juicy, the pesto and mushrooms added such a great depth of flavor and the lemon beautifully brightened the whole thing up.

The perfect dinner! Glad you loved it 🙂

Cath

says:

We enjoyed this, but it was a tad heavy on the pesto for my taste. Will make again, but reduce the amount of pesto added to the orzo – perhaps we just had a really strong pesto as it was made fresh. (I realize this is a pesto based recipe – it was just too much/overwhelming for me personally)

The meatballs were delicious and the lemon zest is a very nice addition.

I will also try making it with an additional vegetable. The mushrooms were amazing – I’d like to try maybe with some fresh tomato added.

Thanks Monique for another great dinner rotation recipe. 🙂

Glad you enjoyed it regardless! Yes, feel free to reduce the pesto a bit to your liking 🙂

Diane Pierce

says:

Made this for dinner tonight. My husband said it was a “million dollar” meal. The lemon zest added such a nice zip and the meatballs were moist and juicy. Lots of good pesto flavor and oh the baby Bella mushroom flavor. Well I just can’t say enough about how wonderful this dish was. Followed the instructions almost exact except I was out of garlic (didn’t miss it) and used Parmesan Romano on top because that was all I had. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

Amazing! So glad you both enjoyed.

Alannah

says:

THIS RECIPE IS A WINNER! Sooo good!! It earns a 10/10 from me and my family! I did have to substitute 3/4 of the milk for heavy cream. It’s so incredibly delicious.

Love that!! One of our new favs, too 🙂

Chelsie

says:

This was so yummy! It is super low effort and high reward. The perfect dinner for one with leftovers or for a whole family! Monique is the “meatball lady” in my house and praise be she is!

Absolutely! I’m all about the meatballs haha 🙂

Emily

says:

I can’t express how much my husband and I loved this dish (he requested we eat it every week…). I added in spinach for some extra veggies! Delish!

Amazing! So happy to hear that!

Michelle

says:

Easy. Delicious. Not a single complaint! Will absolutely be making this again.

Tara

says:

This was delicious! The lemon zest truly takes it up a notch. I used the DeLallo GF orzo but reduced chicken broth to 2 cups since it is only 12 oz of pasta. Turned out great!

Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!

Kelsey

says:

Comfort food at its finest! Want to make it again already. I used lean ground turkey, agree the meatballs fell apart a little more but I just scraped all the bits in and that was delicious. I’m not a huge fan of mushroom texture but like the taste so I used a food processor to go finely chopped on the pound of baby bella and it was delish, it really cooks down well and blends in seamlessly. I love the idea to add spinach too, maybe next time. Substituted Italian seasoning with 1/2 tsp oregano in meatballs and 1/4-1/2 tsp in orzo and it was great.

Perfect! So glad you loved this one!

Sam

says:

*TIP FOR GF PEOPLE* If you are cooking with gluten free orzo you MUST add extra liquid. Maybe up to a cup more. You also need to stir the orzo halfway through in the oven because the gluten free orzo tends to stick together and it won’t bake evenly.

Thanks so much for this tip!! Very good to know!

Sarah

says:

Hi! This recipe looks great – if I wanted to cook the whole thing on the stove, would I just leave it on for the 10-12 minutes of oven time? Thanks!

Hi! I think that should work 🙂 I might suggest cooking the meatballs all the way through and then continuing with the recipe. Let me know if you give it a try!

Lisa

says:

Do you bake in the oven with a lid on or no lid? This looks like it will be a huge hit with my family.

It goes in without the lid 🙂 Hope you get a chance to try it!

Sasha

says:

It’s INSANE how good this meal is. It tastes incredible for how quick and easy it is to prep and make. Wonderful weeknight meal and devoured by adults and kids, alike. The meatballs are out of this world and I would follow the recipe even if I wasn’t making the rest of the dish! Really, really good. Never a miss, Monique!!! 🙂 Thank you!

Right?! The perfect weeknight meal! Glad you loved it 🙂

Jordan

says:

So so delicious! Super easy to make and the meatballs were so moist, will 100% make again!

Stephanie

says:

This is WINNER! My husband and toddler both loved this, and it was a perfect cozy meal with added veggies which I loved. I did have some leftover zucchini after using the amount for the meatballs, so I just shredded up the rest and threw it in with the orzo to use it up. Definitely adding to the weekly meal rotation!

So happy to hear that! Great way to get extra veggies in 🙂

annie

says:

So sorry but just not a fan of this dish. There were so many steps, so many dishes to clean. The flavor was just not there. I was very disappointed due to the multiple steps, ingredients and lackluster taste. We can’t all love the same thing. I will keep trying your recipes.

So sorry to hear that! This one is a bit of a labor of love, but I’m not sure what could’ve gone wrong with the flavor.

Fallon

says:

Going to try this recipe, sounds delish! Do you cover the pot when you add it into the oven?

It’s so good! And nope, no need to cover the pot 🙂

karla

says:

wow, I am going to try this tonight. thanks

Katie

says:

One of the best things I’ve made in a long time!! Was pretty easy to make and was absolutely desirous! Definitely will be making again very soon!

Abby M.

says:

Very good! The orzo was very flavorful and yummy and the meatballs were good, though they didn’t stay together very well. An easy dish to make.

So glad you enjoyed! Did the meatballs come out mushy?

Vikki

says:

Tried this tonight for the first time and it was absolutely delicious. I had a bit of extra shredded zucchini, so I threw that in with the mushrooms, and grated a bit of asiago on top of the dish at the end but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Definitely adding this to my rotation!

Amazing! So glad you loved it!

Katie

says:

Made this for dinner last night and it was Amazing!!! My husband and I had to get seconds and talked all night about how good it was.

Alyssa

says:

Absolutely delicious! A hit with the whole family (even my toddler). Thank you for these nutritious, flavor-packed meals!

So happy to hear that! One of our family favs, too 🙂

Cara

says:

This was so, so good. The meatballs were a delight, bright and zippy and savoury. We used 93% lean ground turkey and it was perfect, tender and moist. The grated zucchini in brilliant in them, and I topped it with grated gruyere I had some left that needed finishing. I didn’t have Italian seasoning so I subbed with half dried basil and half dried oregano.

My orzo took a little over 20 mins to get cooked to al dente in the oven, before I was able to top with cheese for the final 5 mins, I’m not sure why. I cooked it in an oven-safe skillet placed on top of a sheet pan in case of spills, so possibly that had a little insulating effect. No matter, it was so tasty that it’s definitely going into the rotation. My 4yo who normally eats like a bird cleared his whole plate enthusiastically and kept giving it a “thumbs up” gesture.

With the meatballs shaped the night before, it comes together easily the day of. The finishing time in the oven is perfect for throwing together a salad, setting the table, and pouring a drink. A company worthy dish!

So happy this was a hit with the whole family! Great idea to prep the meatballs beforehand, too 🙂

Jackie Lawlor

says:

This recipe is delicious! My orzo took about 15 mins to get fully cooked in the oven. I also ran out of lemon, so I was only able to put zest in the meatballs, and then juice in the orzo, but no zest in orzo, still great flavors! Will make again.

I’m glad you still enjoyed! Such a great dinner 🙂

Kathy

says:

I took this to a potluck tonight and it was big hit. Several people asked for the recipe. Will definitely make again.

Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe.

Love that! Glad it was a hit 🙂

2025-02-02 03:38:04WP_Comment Object
(
[comment_ID] => 527874
[comment_post_ID] => 88117
[comment_author] => Cali
[comment_author_email] =>
[comment_author_url] =>
[comment_author_IP] => 64.85.245.82
[comment_date] => 2025-02-01 21:38:04
[comment_date_gmt] => 2025-02-02 03:38:04
[comment_content] => A little time-consuming, but easy to follow and so delicious and satisfying.
[comment_karma] => 0
[comment_approved] => 1
[comment_agent] => Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 16_6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.6 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1 Ddg/16.6
[comment_type] => comment
[comment_parent] => 0
[user_id] => 0
[children:protected] => Array
(
)

[populated_children:protected] => 1
[post_fields:protected] => Array
(
[0] => post_author
[1] => post_date
[2] => post_date_gmt
[3] => post_content
[4] => post_title
[5] => post_excerpt
[6] => post_status
[7] => comment_status
[8] => ping_status
[9] => post_name
[10] => to_ping
[11] => pinged
[12] => post_modified
[13] => post_modified_gmt
[14] => post_content_filtered
[15] => post_parent
[16] => guid
[17] => menu_order
[18] => post_type
[19] => post_mime_type
[20] => comment_count
)

)

Cali

says:

A little time-consuming, but easy to follow and so delicious and satisfying.

Liz

says:

Really delicious recipe. The orzo is so flavorful and creamy. We had a side green salad and I bought pre made turkey meatballs to save on time. We nixed the mozzarella on top because it really didn’t even need it. Highly recommend!

Perfect! Great swaps to customize 🙂

Jean

says:

This is a winner. Great flavors, easy prep and cleanup. We will have this on regular rotation.

The perfect weeknight dinner!

Anonymous

says:

Absolutely delicious. This will be on repeat!

Dana

says:

Incredible recipe- swapped spinach & sundried tomatoes instead of mushrooms. 10/10 for us!

Hannah

says:

I made the meatballs with turkey and they are so lemony, fresh, and filling! I even forgot to add an egg to the mixture but they still came out moist. Will try them with the orzo next time- yum!

I’m glad they still turned out well! Such a great dinner 🙂

Caroline

says:

I’m making this as I write and I’m wondering if coconut milk ( the canned kind) could be subbed for the dairy milk? Can’t wait to taste this delicious looking dish.

I think that should work! Just note that the “sauce” may have a slight sweetness to it.

Mary Ann

says:

So good! This is a company meal as well as a family meal. Next time I will add more vegetables, spinach, red bell pepper and peas. Also maybe some calabrian chili peppers instead of the chili flakes.

Absolutely! This one’s great for customizing 🙂

Erin

says:

Made this tonight and it was delicious! We used frozen meatballs for convenience and added some frozen veggies. Thank you for sharing this recipe it is so versatile.

Heather

says:

We loved this recipe! We skipped the mushrooms and just made extra meatballs. We actually ended up with too many meatballs and used the extra for subs, but I’ll do that on purpose next time because it gave us two totally different meals! We’ll definitely make this again.

A good problem to have! Glad you loved it!

What's Hot

One Pan Baked Pesto Orzo with Chicken Meatballs

TRANSFORMATION 6 Darkness – Ali Kamenova

Strawberry Coconut Cream Pots with Mint and Black Pepper

One Pan Baked Pesto Orzo with Chicken Meatballs

Everything Spring Green Salad | Ambitious Kitchen

Amazing Mother’s Day Brunch Recipes

Lemon Blueberry Baked Oatmeal | Ambitious Kitchen

Parmesan Crusted Salmon – A Couple Cooks

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal with Chocolate Chips

How to Grow Herbs – A Couple Cooks