Greek Chicken Orzo Meal Prep
Charred chicken thighs, orzo, cucumber, olives and feta: a lunch that tastes best cold, so the office microwave queue stops being your problem. The trick is keeping the dressing out of the box until you eat.
You need
- 1 large pot
- 1 large frying pan or griddle pan
- 1 sieve
- 1 knife and board
- 1 small jar with a lid
- 4 meal prep boxes and 4 small dressing pots
Ingredients
For 4 servings
- 800 g (1.75 lb) chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
- 300 g (10.5 oz) orzo, dry
- 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 for the chicken and 2 for the dressing
- 1 large lemon, zest for the chicken and juice for the dressing
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 250 g (9 oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 50 g (1.8 oz) kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 100 g (3.5 oz) feta, crumbled
- to taste salt and black pepper
How to cook
Toss the chicken thighs with 1 tbsp of the oil, the lemon zest, 1 tsp of the oregano, 1 grated garlic clove, salt and pepper. Leave them while the water comes to a boil.
Zest on the chicken, juice in the dressing. The zest survives the heat; the juice would just steam off in the pan.
Cook the orzo in well salted boiling water for 1 minute less than the packet says, drain it and rinse it briefly under cold water.
Rinsing pasta is usually wrong, but here it stops the orzo from setting into one solid block in the fridge.
Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat and lay the thighs in flat. Cook 5 to 6 minutes a side, until the edges are dark and the thickest piece is no longer pink inside.
Thighs forgive an extra minute that breast would not. You want real color on them, not a pale poach.
Rest the chicken for 5 minutes, then slice it.
While it rests, dice the cucumber, halve the tomatoes, slice the onion and halve the olives.
Soak the onion slices in cold water for 5 minutes and drain them. It takes the harsh bite out and keeps the crunch.
Shake the remaining 2 tbsp oil, the lemon juice, the rest of the oregano, the second garlic clove and a pinch of salt in the jar, then divide it between the 4 small pots.
Keep the dressing out of the boxes until you eat. Dressed orzo drinks it overnight and tastes flat by day two.
Once the chicken and orzo are completely cool, pack each box with orzo and chicken on one side and the cucumber, tomato, onion, olives and feta on the other.
Keeps 4 days in the fridge, dressing included. Skip the freezer: cucumber and tomato turn watery. Eat it cold, or lift off the salad and microwave the chicken and orzo until steaming hot.
Why it fits a build muscle goal
- 53g protein per box, most of it from 200 g of chicken thigh, without a shake on the side.
- Orzo packs far more carbs into a lunch box than salad leaves do, which is what makes a surplus easy instead of a chore.
- Thighs stay juicy on day four in a way chicken breast does not, and that matters for a box that waits in the fridge.
- Want this in a prep? Pann plans a week of meal prep around recipes like this: one cooking session, and a box for every meal with its day and how long it keeps.
Cooking guides
Pann plans meal prep around the days you pick: one cooking session, a box for every meal with its day and how long it keeps, and the shopping list. Free for 7 days.
