Simple Recipes and Common Sense: Baked Asiago Chicken-Mushroom Orzo

Hello my foodie friends,

With midterms around the corner, fall sports in full swing, and every club imaginable having events, there's barely enough time to eat a meal let alone "learn" how to cook. So here I am to provide you with a "college friendly" recipe that can require as many or as few ingredients that you have and that'll be sure to satisfy your craving for a home cooked meal.

I tested out a new recipe with my flatmates this week. We had decided we wanted to make dinner, but rather than run to Safeway, I rummage around to see what I had for ingredients already. Among random spices and noodle cups, we had some veggies, pasta, chicken, and cheese. Therefore I'm providing you with my recipe for a simple baked pasta dish, but honestly, you can substitute the type of vegetable, pasta, meat, etc based on what's available. Hence the reason this recipe is "college friendly" so be creative!

Baked Asiago Chicken-Mushroom Orzo

STEP 1: Chicken Prep (NOTE: make sure when you handle chicken you wash (scrub!) your hands, knife, cutting board, etc with soap and waterafter since you are handling raw meat).
-Chicken breast tenders (chopped into small pieces)
-Dash of Cayenne pepper (optional)
-Dash of salt
-Dash of pepper

1. Rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry with paper towels,
2. Chop chicken into small pieces and place into a bowl,
3. Add a bit of cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want), salt/pepper to chicken and mix to make sure all pieces have some seasoning,
4. Heat frying pan to high/medium heat, add 1/8 stick of butter (or 1-2Tbs Olive Oil), add chicken and cook thoroughly (until chicken is slightly browned on the outside and no longer pink on the inside)
5. once chicken is cooked, turn off burner and set aside.

STEP 2: Pasta Prep
(roughly 3-6 servings depending on how hungry you are)
-1 cup orzo pasta
-1/4-1/2 cup of diced Asiago cheese (or some other cheese you like)
-pinch of salt (for boiling water)

1. Bring a few cups of water to a boil, while waiting for the boiling point add your salt,
2. Pour orz0 (or your choice of pasta) into boiling water and let boil for 9-11 minutes, until cooked to al dente (a.k.a. slightly chewy).
3. Once pasta is cooked, strain the water, (if you don't have a colander, you can use the pot lid by covering most of the pot but leaving just enough open to let water out but keep pasta in),
4. Add a little olive oil to pasta (so that it doesn't stick to the pot) and set aside.

STEP 3: Mushroom Mix
3 cups chopped mushrooms (about a small package, I used white mushrooms)
1/4 stick butter
2 Tbs breadcrumbs (optional)
Dash of salt
Dash of pepper

1. dice mushrooms into small pieces
2. heat up a frying pan to medium heat, melt 1/4 butter and add mushrooms,
3. Saute mushrooms until most of the butter is absorbed, then cut heat to low, add salt/pepper to taste,
4. add bread crumbs, set aside.

Bringing it all together! Congrats, the worst is over :) However, if you don't want to bake the dish, you can just mix everything together add some cheese and enjoy!
Final Steps
-Oven safe dish
-Pasta, Chicken, and Mushroom mix
-Cheese

1. Set oven @ 350
2. place pasta in the oven safe dish, add chicken and mix, then add mushrooms and mix,
3. Mix some of your diced or shredded cheese into the pasta dish and sprinkle remaining on top
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes (checking every 5 minutes, you want the cheese to be melted!)

To add a veggie as a side, steam your favorite or grab some frozen veggies and put them in the microwave for a quick zap.

All the best and hope this has you saying "nom nom nom."

-The Georgetown Foodie