All I can say is WOW do I have the coziest, most flavorful one pan meal for you. After my family (and the whole AK community) fell in love with this One Pan Tomato Basil Baked Orzo I knew I wanted to create another version with a new, bright flavor combination.
This new one pan chicken meatball pesto orzo is packed with your favorite basil pesto cooked right in the meatballs and orzo. The meatballs get perfectly juicy from shredded zucchini, which adds an easy boost of veggies, too! Golden, tender mushrooms add a wonderful savory element, and the whole dish gets topped with glorious, melty mozzarella cheese.
Just LOOK at that epic cheese pull. This one’s great for customizing and boosting the veggies, and is the perfect meal for busy weeks that the whole family will love.
Ingredients in this chicken meatball pesto orzo
This incredible one pan pesto orzo with chicken meatballs is bursting with savory flavors and packed with nutritious veggies and protein. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- For the meatballs: the pesto chicken meatballs are made with lean ground chicken, a whole shredded zucchini for extra moisture and a boost of veggies, panko bread crumbs, an egg, basil pesto, lemon zest, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- For the mushrooms: we’ll also be cooking down some mushrooms with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh garlic.
- For the orzo: you’ll cook the orzo in low sodium chicken broth, milk, more basil pesto, lemon juice & zest, salt, Italian seasoning, and melty mozzarella cheese.
- To garnish: top this beautiful pan with fresh basil, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and red pepper flakes for a little heat.
Make this baked pesto orzo your own
There are a few simple additions and swaps you can make in this pesto chicken orzo to customize it:
- Go vegetarian. Feel free to skip the meatballs and start at step 5 to make a lovely baked pesto orzo with mushrooms! Add a can of chickpeas for an extra boost of protein.
- Choose a new protein. You could also cube and sear chicken breast, or add sliced, cooked chicken sausage, ground, cooked Italian sausage, or even a can of tuna.
- Add extra veggies. Get even more veggies in by cooking sliced zucchini, spinach, or bell pepper in with the mushrooms.
Can I make it gluten free?
Sure! Simply use gluten free orzo or your favorite gluten free short pasta, and use gluten free bread crumbs in the meatballs.
Pick your pesto
You can feel free to use your favorite store-bought pesto, but I think my Cilantro Pistachio Pesto would be amazing in this baked orzo recipe! When choosing a pesto brand be sure to check the label in case you need this dish to be nut free.
How to make this one pan chicken meatball pesto orzo
- Form the meatballs. You’ll start by shredding your zucchini, squeezing out all of the moisture with a paper towel or cheesecloth, and mixing it with the rest of the meatball ingredients. Use clean hands to form 16 golf ball-sized meatballs.
- Brown the meatballs. Add olive oil to a deep oven-safe skillet and brown your meatballs in batches, placing them on a plate once they’re done browning.
- Cook the mushrooms. In the same skillet, cook your mushrooms in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, then stir in the fresh garlic.
- Cook the orzo. Stir the chicken broth into the pan, then stir in the milk, pesto, lemon juice and zest, orzo, and seasonings. Bring the orzo to a simmer, then nestle the meatballs in the pan and transfer it to the oven to fully cook. Remove it from the oven, top with mozzarella, and bake again for 5 minutes.
- Garnish & serve. Once the cheese is nice and bubbly, garnish with fresh basil, parmesan, and red pepper flakes, then dig in!
Make the meatballs ahead of time
You can easily prep these pesto chicken meatballs 1 day ahead of time so that all you have to do is brown them and cook them with the orzo the next day. Simply mix and form the meatballs, then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tightly cover the meatballs with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge until you are ready to cook them.
Storing tips
Store any leftover pesto orzo with chicken meatballs in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. Simply reheat in the microwave.
More one pan meals
- Bright & Herby Lemongrass Chicken Green Curry
- Sweet and Spicy Gochujang Chicken Bowls
- Sheet Pan Herby Lemon Garlic Chicken and Potatoes
- One Pan Tomato Basil Baked Orzo
- One Pan Lightened Up Hamburger Helper
Get all of my one pan meals here!
I hope you love this chicken meatball pesto orzo recipe! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
One Pan Baked Pesto Orzo with Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- For the meatballs:
- 1 small to medium zucchini
- 1 pound 93% lean ground chicken (or turkey)
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs, gluten free if desired
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons your favorite basil pesto
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Optional: ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- For the mushrooms:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound baby bella mushrooms (or a mix of mushrooms of choice), coarsely chopped
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- For the creamy pesto orzo:
- 2 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup milk of choice (I recommend whole milk or 2%)
- ⅓ cup your favorite basil pesto
- 1 pound uncooked orzo*
- Zest from 1 lemon
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- To garnish:
- ¼ cup fresh julienned basil
- Freshly grated/shredded Parmesan cheese
- Red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Shred the zucchini: Use a cheese grater to shred your zucchini. Measure out 1 heaping cup of shredded zucchini, then place shredded zucchini in a paper towel or cheese cloth and squeeze out ALL of the moisture/water. This is very important! Transfer shredded zucchini to a large bowl and discard the excess zucchini water.
- Form the meatballs: In the large bowl with the shredded zucchini, add the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, basil pesto, lemon zest, italian seasoning, garlic powder, red pepper flakes (if using), kosher salt and black pepper. Use clean hands to mix until well-incorporated and form into 16 golf ball sized meatballs. (You can make the meatballs up to 1 day in advance. Place meatballs on a large plate or baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then cover well with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until ready to cook.)
- Cook the meatballs: Place a large deep oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat and add in olive oil. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides. This should only take about 6 minutes total. Do not worry about cooking them all the way through, they will finish cooking in the oven. You may need to do this in batches, depending on how many meatballs you can fit in your skillet without overcrowding them. When the meatballs are done browning, transfer them to a plate and set aside. Keep the heat in the pan.
- Cook the mushrooms: Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and then add in the mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Stir occasionally until all liquid absorbs and mushrooms have cooked down and start to turn brown and caramelize on the edges, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.
- Cook the orzo: Slowly add the chicken broth to the pan while scraping up any yummy bits from the bottom of the pan, then stir in the milk, basil pesto, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir in the orzo, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and Italian seasoning until well combined. Bring mixture to a gentle simmer. Nestle the meatballs on top of the orzo then immediately transfer to the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the orzo is cooked. Remove from the oven, sprinkle mozzarella cheese all over the top and bake for 5 more minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly golden brown in places. Remove from the oven and top with fresh julienned basil, parmesan cheese and extra red pepper flakes, if desired.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
46 comments
Not a mushroom fan. Any suggestions for a substitution?
Feel free to leave them out!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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 🙂
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 🙂
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.
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 🙂
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 🙂
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!
Easy. Delicious. Not a single complaint! Will absolutely be making this again.
So happy to hear that!
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!
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!
*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!
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!
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!
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 🙂
So so delicious! Super easy to make and the meatballs were so moist, will 100% make again!
So glad you enjoyed!
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 🙂
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.