This is a great meal to make when you're short on time and don't want to do a lot of dishes. The skillet dinner is easy and inexpensive as well as being quick. Pre-cooked spinach-feta chicken sausages are the key ingredient. I get a large package of 10 sausages from Lidl for about five dollars (other stores carry similar sausages, usually in packages of 4-6 sausages). The sausages flavor the pasta, which cooks along with everything else. I use fresh spinach in the dish, but if you don't have any, substitute a small package (10 ounces) of frozen spinach that you've thawed in the microwave. The frozen spinach will work fine in a pinch. This is a dinner that's just as easy--maybe easier--than crowd-pleasing spaghetti with sauce. Will people like the sausage, spinach, feta, and orzo dinner? They certainly do at my house. The savory sausage and salty feta combine in a creamy sauce that gets a nice nutritional boost from earthy green spinach. The orzo in the meal also appeals to young and old. If you have any, the leftovers are easy to reheat in the microwave and make great lunches. Enjoy!
Chicken Sausage, Spinach, Feta, and Orzo Skillet Dinner -- Serves 6+
2-3 teaspoons of canola oil
1/2 cup of chopped onion
24 ounces of fully cooked spinach-feta chicken sausage, sliced into rounds
1 cup of uncooked orzo pasta
2 cups of boiling water
4-5 ounces of fresh washed spinach
2-4 tablespoons of feta cheese (depending on how much you like feta and how salty you
want the dish)
1 cup of light sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste (I don't bother, as the sausage and feta are salty enough)
Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet or chef's pan. Add the onion and saute it for five minutes or until it has started to soften. Add the sliced chicken sausage and saute it with the onion for a few minutes until the sausage starts to brown. Add the orzo to the pan and saute it with the sausage and onion for a minute or two. Add the boiling water and stir everything well. Turn down the heat to a simmer, cover the skillet, and let the mixture cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring it periodically. Remove the cover and add the spinach, a handful at a time, stirring it into the sausage/pasta mixture. Not to worry. It may look like a lot of spinach, but the spinach will wilt into the sausage/pasta. Turn off the heat and stir in the feta and then the light sour cream until combined. Let the mixture sit a few minutes and then serve it.
