This easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake is the perfect dump and bake dinner for busy weeknights. Place the ingredients in a baking dish and the oven does the rest. In less than an hour, you have a delicious, comforting dinner the whole family will love.
Every home cook needs at least a few recipes they can pull out for those busy weeknights when time and effort are not something they have loads of. For me, this Easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake is one of them. It is extremely low effort – you just dump in your ingredients in a casserole dish and it bakes in the oven.
While you don’t need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you aren’t sacrificing taste. This Boursin orzo bake is creamy, comforting, and so delicious. It is a family favorite in our home and I am sure it will become one in yours too!
Pre-cooked chicken is used for this recipe so you can put leftover rotisserie chicken to good use if you have it (or even leftover holiday turkey). You can even swap out ingredients to use a different protein (sausage, meatballs, or shrimp, for example) or toss in different vegetables that you have sitting around in the fridge. Broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, green beans, or peppers are just some options.
Keep this recipe in your back pocket – it is one of those low-stress meals that fills you up and satisfies the taste buds. It’ll even earn you some praise – even from picky eaters!
Why we love this recipe
- This dish is loaded with chicken, veggies, and pasta all coated in a creamy, Boursin cheese sauce – it’s delicious!
- It’s convenient and easy. You don’t need to do much – just dump in the ingredients and the oven does the cooking.
- Minimal prep and minimal dishes to clean.
- It’s perfect for busy weeknights where you only have a few minutes to spare prepping dinner.
- You can easily change things up to suit your own tastes or ingredients you have on hand. You can add veggies or swap out proteins, for example.
Ingredients in Easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake
- Olive oil
- Orzo pasta: uncooked. The orzo pasta bakes in the oven so there is no need to pre-boil!
- Chicken broth: homemade or store-bought broth can be used. You can substitute a vegetable broth, if desired.
- Chicken: cooked, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces. You can use leftover grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken. If you don’t have leftovers on hand, you can pan-fry 2 small chicken breasts instead.
- Veggies: cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes and baby spinach. You can easily add other vegetables to this dish. Asparagus, green beans, broccoli, and sliced bell pepper are all great options.
- Garlic: 2 cloves are added for flavor but you can easily adjust this to suit your own taste.
- Seasoning: Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes (optional), salt, and black pepper.
- Boursin cheese: You can use any flavor your like. Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs and Boursin Basil and Chive are my favorites for this meal, but you can easily play around with a flavor you like.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make this Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake
- Prep. Preheat oven to 425F and grease a 8×13 baking dish with olive oil.
- Dump and bake. Add the orzo, chicken, broth, cherry tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and seasonings to the baking dish. Give everything a stir and then nestle the Boursin cheese into the center of the dish. Cover the baking dish with foil and then bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
- Stir and serve. Uncover and stir the pasta together. Taste and adjust seasonings. If needed, return to the oven uncovered to cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked to your desired doneness and the liquid has been absorbed. *Note: If you want a creamier texture, you can stir in a little more hot broth or some heavy cream before serving.
Storing leftovers and reheating
Once cooled, leftovers can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the fridge.
To reheat this dish, I usually add leftovers to a pot and heat it over medium heat, stirring often. Adding a splash of broth or heavy cream will be necessary to thin out the sauce again as orzo will soak up all of the liquid as it sits.
What to serve with this meal
Easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake is a whole meal in and of itself so it doesn’t require any sides. That said, it’s always nice to serve this up with some crusty bread or my Easy Dinner Rolls so you can soak up all that yummy Boursin sauce. A light side salad is also a great option!
Looking for more one-pan weeknight dinners? You may also like:
Sheet Pan Sausage Dinner
Baked Pesto Salmon Recipe
Maple Dijon Chicken Leg Quarters Dinner
Pork Tenderloin Sheet Pan Dinner
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Easy Boursin Chicken Orzo Bake
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups orzo pasta uncooked
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups chicken cooked, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (approximately 2 small chicken breasts)
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional (if you like a bit of heat), and adjust to suit your taste
- 1 Boursin cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F and grease a 8×13 baking dish with olive oil.
- Add the orzo, chicken, broth, cherry tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and seasonings to the baking dish. Give everything a stir and then nestle the Boursin cheese into the center of the dish. Cover the baking dish with foil and then bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
- Uncover and stir the pasta together. Taste and adjust seasonings. If needed, return to the oven uncovered to cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked to your desired doneness and the liquid has been absorbed. *Note: If you want a creamier texture, you can stir in a little more hot broth or some heavy cream before serving.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
Can this be frozen? TIA
While you technically can freeze and reheat this meal, I personally prefer not to – the texture of pasta changes when frozen and then reheated, becoming softer (and even mushy).