Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Orzo

Ingredients

• 600 g chicken breast, cut into 3cm strips
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 80 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, sliced, 1 tbsp oil reserved
• salt and black pepper
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 1 tsp dried Italian herbs
• 600 ml chicken stock
• 300 g orzo pasta
• 100 g baby spinach
• 100 ml double cream
• 50 g parmesan, finely grated
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve
• Fresh basil, to serve

Method

1. Heat the reserved sun-dried tomato oil in a large, deep-sided frying pan over high heat. Pat the chicken strips dry — water means steam, and steam means no browning — then season generously with salt and pepper before they hit the pan.
2. Fry the chicken in two batches, 4–5 minutes each, turning until deep golden on the outside and just cooked through. Don't crowd the pan: all at once and the strips steam in their own juices instead of browning. Lift out and rest on a plate.
3. Drop the heat to medium and add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes, until soft, translucent and starting to catch at the edges. Stir in the garlic, smoked paprika and dried Italian herbs and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant — burnt garlic and scorched paprika both turn bitter, so watch the pan and don't let them go past pale gold.
4. Bloom continues as you add the sliced sun-dried tomatoes and stir through for another 30 seconds. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble hard for 2 minutes, scraping up the brown stuck bits from the base — that fond is half the flavour of the finished dish.
5. Tip in the orzo and stir to coat in the oil and aromatics, then pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a steady simmer and cook for 10–12 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes so the orzo doesn't catch on the base, until the pasta is tender and has drunk up most of the liquid. The starch the orzo releases here is your sauce — there's no separate pasta water to salt, so taste the stock now and adjust: it should taste properly seasoned, like the sea, before the orzo finishes drinking it.
6. Stir in the double cream and parmesan until you have a glossy sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Add the spinach in handfuls and fold through until just wilted and bright green. Return the chicken and any resting juices to the pan and toss everything together.
7. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt and pepper now, at the pan, not at the table. The parmesan brings salt of its own, so go in measured.
8. Spoon into warm bowls straight away — the orzo keeps drinking the sauce as it sits. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, scatter torn basil leaves over the top, and finish each bowl with a flurry of extra grated parmesan.