LEMON CHICKEN ORZO SALAD: Light & Refreshing, Perfect on a Hot Summer Day

When it comes to Summer Salads, it’s tough to beat this Lemon Chicken Orzo Salad. It’s Light & Refreshing and packed with all sorts of goodness: orzo pasta, chicken, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, & feta cheese coated in a bright citrus dressing. Serve it as a side dish or a light meal all on it’s own. This really is your new favorite summer salad. Read on for the recipe:

Lemon Chicken Orzo Salad

1 lb. uncooked orzo pasta
1 English cucumber, chopped
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
2 cups (loosely packed) fresh arugula
2 cups cooked chicken
6oz. feta cheese, crumbled
small bunch fresh basil, chopped

For the Dressing:

juice & zest of 1 large lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta in boiling water with salt, according to package directions. Once cooked al dente, drain and rinse in cold water to stop cooking process. Transfer to large bowl. To it, add the chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, arugula, chicken, feta cheese & fresh basil.

In separate bowl, whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, minced garlic, salt & pepper.

Pour dressing over salad and mix to get everything coated in the lemon dressing. Chill for 30 minutes and enjoy!

(If you’re not going to be eating it right away, hold off on adding the arugula, so that it stays crisp. This salad will keep well in the refrigerator, but the dressing will dry out, so you may want to add more olive oil and lemon juice the next day. Or, you can double the recipe for the dressing, and drizzle it over individual servings.)

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*All music in this video used with rights from Storyblocks:
1:45 “Happy Go Lucky Jammy Jam” – Music Design by Jason Inc.
7:14 “I Feel Better” – Neil Cross

hi everyone I’m Marcy and today I’m continuing my series of summer salads with a light and delicious lemon chicken orzo salad this is a perfect thing to make on a hot day cuz it’s not going to heat up your whole house and it’s not going to leave you feeling heavy after you’ve eaten it i’d say it’s pretty healthy and it’s so yummy [Music] [Applause] for this recipe you’re going to need a one- lb package of uncooked orzo if you’re not familiar with it orzo is just a rice-shaped pasta then you’ll need one English cucumber if you can’t find an English cucumber go ahead and use a regular one the difference is that English cucumber is slightly sweeter and the skin is a little thinner and I like to leave a little skin on the cucumbers for this recipe you’ll also need one cup of either grape or cherry tomatoes about a four of a small red onion chopped two loosely packed cups of fresh arugula two cups of chicken cooked however you like it grilled chicken would be excellent in this recipe but I’m going with just some leftover rotisserie chicken that I had you’ll need one 6 oz container of feta cheese and a small bunch of fresh basil then for the dressing you’ll need the juice and the zest of one large lemon you’re hoping to get at least 2 tablespoons of juice just so you know then you’ll need 1/4 of a cup of olive oil two cloves of garlic about 2 tablespoon of honey and plenty of salt and pepper to taste because this is a pretty big salad so let’s go ahead and get started [Music] first I’m going to cook the orzo in a pot of boiling water that I’ve already seasoned with salt and we’re going to do this according to the package directions which say it takes about 8 to 10 minutes to become al dente so while that’s cooking I’ll quickly prep the remaining salad ingredients that need chopping [Music] [Music] now I’ll check back in on the orzo and it’s almost done by the way for those of you asking about Rocky our Roadrunner unfortunately we haven’t seen him in several weeks and we’re really missing him because uh we got really used to him just kind of staring at us through the window and of course we loved feeding him multiple times every day uh what we have been seeing is a coyote uh in fact we’ve been seeing him almost every single day in our neighborhood and even in our own backyard which is a little too close for comfort because we know that he’s in the exact areas where Rocky would be so we’re just hoping that Rocky was smart and just uh got away and is laying low until the coyote is gone and um anyway just wanted to give you that update cuz uh that’s what’s going on and like I said we’re really missing him anyway this is done so let me go ahead and drain it you’ll want to rinse the orzo in cold water to stop the cooking process and drain it as best you can before transferring it to a large bowl [Music] [Music] to it i’ll add the chopped cucumber the tomatoes the red onion [Music] the arugula [Music] the chicken [Music] the crumbled feta cheese and the fresh basil [Music] you know what i think I’m going to grab a bigger bowl just cuz it makes it easier when you mix it it’s what I did last week but I thought I could get away without doing it this week but I still need it so let me grab one it’s nice and handy and this is just going to make it a whole lot easier to mix [Music] [Music] yeah much better [Music] now I’ll grab a small bowl to make the dressing i’ll go ahead and zest the lemon directly in it [Music] then I’ll squeeze in the fresh lemon juice again you want a minimum of 2 tablespoons [Music] next I’ll add the olive oil followed by the 2 tablespoon of honey [Music] i’ll mince and add in the garlic cloves [Music] [Music] and finally I’ll add the salt and pepper and whisk everything together this smells so fresh and citrusy and garlicky the dressing really does make this salad so as soon as I’ve got a nice smooth consistency all we got to do is pour it over the salad and we’re pretty much done i actually like a little more lemon in it i’m going to see if I can squeeze a little more juice in there so more than two tablespoons [Music] we’ll see if that made a difference either way it’s good [Music] love it okay I’m going to pour it over the salad and we’ll just stir we’ll be done [Music] heat heat [Music] now I can transfer to the serving bowl clean up a little and we’ll give it a taste [Music] all right time to eat and doesn’t this look fantastic i love all the colors and I should say that it uh tastes better after you’ve chilled it for at least half an hour cuz all the flavors sort of meld together but uh if you’re not going to eat it right away hold off on putting the arugula because the arugula will wilt after a while if it’s been sitting in the dressing for a long time but let me give this a taste [Music] i love it the lemon dressing just gives it a brightness that’s perfect for summer and then when you bite into one of those crunchy pieces of cucumber it’s just super refreshing then you’ve got the chicken and the feta and the orzo that really makes it a well-rounded meal all on its own albeit a light meal which is really great take this to a potluck and I guarantee you it will fly fast i hope you try it [Music] thanks so much for checking out this video if you liked it please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel if you haven’t already done so i also invite you to follow me at Marcy Inspired on Instagram and Facebook until next time blessings from my kitchen to yours [Music]