Chicken-Hunter's Stew for Orzo

 

It took me a long time to find a name for this recipe.  I can trace its ancenstry back to this recipe, but about the only remaining bit is the orzo and the neglect.  I honestly can't remember exactly how it evolved.


I'm afraid that this recipe cannot be rushed, I tried once and the result was not fantastic.  I have yet to see if throwing this recipe into a crock pot is a good substitute for turning the frying pan to low and ignoring it for two hours.

This is also the ultimate in flexible ingredients.  You can use any spice that you want, or adjust the vegetables to suit seasonal availability.  It can be made with just the thighs, or a whole chicken cut into chunks.  I've also made this with different types of pasta, though some pastas like egg noodles should be cooked seperately.

Cooking ahead

Cooking from scratch is fun and healthy, but it often creates a time-consuming mess.  I decided to cook a few meals for the freezer so that I could occasionally start my day without having to clean up the previous night's mess.  The meals I chose were lasagna and un-stuffed pepper casserole.

Local produce

I'm a lazy localvore. I can conceptually get behind supporting local farmers and making sure my food hasn't consumed huge amounts of fossil fuels in reaching me, but the truth is that I like things to be easy and cheap. I was trained to go to farmer's markets while growing up, but that was as easy as taking the road past the strawberry fields on the way home from church or girl scouts. Going to a farm stand here takes a bit of planning to not get stuck in a huge traffic jam, but it's worth doing once or twice a year.