Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese Orzo

This recipe has so much going for it:
It is really easy, you won’t even have to measure anything the next time.
It lends itself to many variations (a lot of other veggies will work).
You can make a LOT of it easily at one time (leftovers!).
It is great either cold or hot.  So if you are like me, you don’t even have to heat it up at midnight during a kitchen raid.

What follows is a recipe that should make plenty for several dinners and lunches.  That’s just how I roll, but you can cut it down if you aren’t a big eater.  If it feels like a lot to juggle at one time, just cook everything separately, you can always throw it all together at the end.  No big whoop.

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Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese Orzo

The combination of goat cheese and grilled chicken with veggies and orzo make a great meal

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cups orzo
• 3 zucchini , cut into 1/2 inch thick strips
• 1 large red pepper
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 8 ounces goat cheese
• Kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat the grill for high, direct grilling.
• Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the orzo according to the directions on the package.
• Season the chicken with some salt and pepper.  I like to keep the chicken simple for this one because there is so much other prep work to be done.
• Grill the chicken breasts until they reach 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.  If you need refresher instructions on grilling chicken breasts, check out this article.
• Throw the whole red pepper on the grill at the same time.  We want to roast that bad boy, so first step is charring (I mean black) all of the skin so we can peel it off easily later on.
• While the chicken breasts are cooking, brush the zucchini strips with a little olive oil and then dust them with some salt and pepper.
• Grill the zucchini next to the chicken.  They should only take about 2 minutes on each side.  Again, if you want to read more about grilling zucchini, here are more details.
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• At this point, your red pepper should be nicely charred.  Put it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  The steam will continue to roast the pepper, as well as loosen the skin.  Here are complete instructions on roasting a red pepper.
• Cut the grilled chicken, zucchini and roasted red pepper (make sure you followed those directions above and peeled off the charred skin) into bite-sized chunks and combine in a large bowl.
• Add the hot (but drained, do I have to mention that?) orzo pasta to the bowl.
• Stir in the goat cheese and lemon juice and combine everything, allowing the hot food to get that great goat cheese all melted and gooey.  Yum!
• Serve hot or refrigerate for tomorrow's lunch.