Chicken, Pea & Tomato Orzo

Chicken, Pea & Tomato Orzo — 23 mins family dinner · Summer salad set · Uses leftovers. Part of a three-meal shopping base with household scaling. 8 mins, 15…

Chicken, Pea & Tomato Orzo — finished dish

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Ingredients

  • 85g leftover cooked chicken from Dinner 1
  • Any leftover roasted vegetables from Dinner 1
  • 85g dried orzo or small pasta
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 1 courgette, grated or finely diced
  • 60g frozen peas
  • 2 medium tomatoes diced
  • 1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
  • 190ml boiling water
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 1 tsp dried oregano or mixed herbs

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add onion and courgette. Cook for 5 minutes until softened.
  2. Add orzo, tomatoes, herbs and 500ml boiling water. Simmer for 8–10 minutes, stirring often.
  3. Add peas and leftover chicken. Cook for another 4–5 minutes until the orzo is soft and the chicken is steaming hot throughout.
  4. Add a splash more water if it gets too thick. It should be creamy and spoonable, not dry.
  5. Remove babies portion before adding any adult seasoning. Shred chicken finely and squash peas.
  6. Stir lemon juice through the main pan.
  7. Adults can add black pepper, chilli, salt or a small amount of cheese at the table.

Storage and reheating

Cool leftover chicken and roasted veg quickly, refrigerate within 2 hours, and use within 48 hours. Reheat chicken only once until steaming hot throughout. For babies and toddler, watch round or firm foods: peas, beans, lentils, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, raw carrot and chunks of meat all need modifying. Squash, quarter, grate, cook soft, finely chop or shred depending on the food and your child's eating skills. For babies aged 7–9 months, keep salt out of the shared cooking, avoid honey, and modify raw salad foods into soft, mashed or finely chopped versions.

Safety and substitutions

Peas should be squashed for babies. Chicken must be reheated until steaming hot throughout and only reheated once. Keep adult cheese, salt and chilli away from babies portion. NHS guidance treats balanced eating over the day or week rather than every single plate needing to be perfect, so this lighter leftovers meal is fine as part of the three-dinner set.

Why this recipe works

23 mins family dinner · Summer salad set · Uses leftovers. Part of a three-meal shopping base with household scaling.

Part of a three-meal set

Warm Summer Salad Dinners — A meat meal, a vegetarian-protein salad and a leftovers meal from one summery base.

Updated 2026-07-20

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