One-Pot Greek Beef & Orzo (Kritharaki Me Kima)

Print this recipe here: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/kritharaki-me-kima-one-pot-greek-orzo-with-meat-sauce-ready-in-under-1-hour/

Ingredients

2 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds (900 g) ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Kosher salt, 1½ teaspoons for the sauce plus 1½ teaspoons when the orzo is added (or to taste)
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon or 1 small cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 can (15 oz/425 g) crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon honey or sugar
1 pound (450 g) orzo (kritharaki)
6 cups hot water or low-sodium beef broth
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
Instructions

Warm the olive oil in a wide pot over medium heat and cook the onion until soft and golden.
Stir in the garlic and warm through just until fragrant.
Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up, until no longer pink.
Season with oregano, crushed red pepper (if using), 1½ teaspoons salt, black pepper, and cinnamon; add the bay leaves.
Stir in the crushed tomatoes and honey or sugar, bring to a simmer, and cook 15 minutes to develop flavor.
Add the orzo and the remaining 1½ teaspoons salt along with the hot water or broth; return to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium and cook about 18 minutes, stirring often so the orzo doesn’t sink and stick; adjust heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
Remove from heat, stir in the parsley, and taste for salt and pepper; the mixture will look a bit loose.
Let stand 5 to 10 minutes so the orzo absorbs the extra liquid; it will thicken to a creamy, risotto-like texture.
Serve warm with maroulosalata and, if you like, crumbled feta on top.

Notes
If using broth, start with slightly less added salt and adjust at the end.
Swap ground chicken or turkey for the beef and add a splash of olive oil if lean.
For deeper cinnamon flavor, use the cinnamon stick and remove it before serving.
Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge; splash in hot water or broth when reheating to loosen.

Music Used:
Greek Sun Time (With Intro)
ITEM ID: 66582698
By: tonyanthony

Its All Greek
ITEM ID: 84456733
By: LowNotes

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Hey everyone, yaso fet to another episode of Dimitro Dishes. Today I have a delicious meal for you that’s perfect for making on a busy week night. We’re making kisaraki mechima which is orzo that’s going to be baked in a rich and delicious meat sauce and it’s a ground beef sauce. Actually, you can use ground chicken if you want. And it’s very similar. It’s like a combination of macarona makima, which is a Greek classic comfort food, which is basically spaghetti that’s topped with a delicious rich meat sauce. the same one that we’re making today or it’s also similar to the orzo and meat that we make in the oven. Um, usually it’s known as uvetsi and that’s also so comforting and delicious. We’re just combining the two today and we’re making kitaraki mkima orzo in a meat sauce. Let me show you how I make it. Okay, we’re going to begin by making the meat sauce. So, I’m going to finally chop an onion and add it to my pot with some olive oil. This is going to cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes or so until the onion is nice and soft and golden. And then I’m going to go in and add four garlic cloves that are grated. Just warm them through until you could smell them and everything is nice and fragrant. And then go in and add the beef. So you’re going to need 2 lbs of ground beef for this. This might be a little bit over 2 lbs, but this is what I had. So it’s all going in. Break it up really well with your spatula. And then season it with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. A little pinch of cinnamon. Cinnamon is really good in this. If you love the flavor, you can add a cinnamon stick to this. My kids just like it in the background. So, I’m adding a/4 teaspoon. You can go a little bit heavier with it. It leaves such a great flavor. So, we’re just going to cook the meat for a few minutes until it’s no longer pink. And then I’ll go in with one or two bay leaves. Add them in. You can add some crushed red pepper flakes for this. And I always do for a little kick of heat, a 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes or you can use tomato sauce. If you’re using tomato sauce, it already has a little bit of sugar in it, so you can skip the sugar step. And this is tomato sauce, so I won’t be adding the sugar. But if you’re using crushed canned tomatoes, they tend to be acidic. And it will need either a little bit of honey, like a teaspoon of it, or a little bit of sugar just to offset that. It will not make the meat sauce sweet, but it you can really use it and it’ll be really good. It’ll go a long way. We’re making a big pot, so you won’t even know it’s there. I like to rinse out the can with a little bit of water just so that way I get all of that tomato in there. Mix everything all together and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium medium low and put the lid on. And you can cook this for about 15 minutes until the meat sauce is nice and thick and the ground beef is fully cooked. At this point, I’ll go in and add one pound of uncooked orzo pasta, also known as kryaraki in Greek. And then six cups of water, or you can use chicken broth or beef broth, whatever you love or whatever you have on hand. Of course, you’re going to have to season this. About 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt for that whole pound of pasta. Or if you like it a little bit saltier, more salt, less salty, less salt. It’s your kitchen, your rules. We’re going to bring this up to a boil. And once it comes to a boil, you want to make sure you continue cooking this because the pasta really likes to settle down in the bottom of the pot and stick. And once it sticks, it can burn. So go in every few minutes and mix it. You can lightly cover the pot, not all the way. But the orzo is going to need about 18 minutes or so to get fully cooked or al dente is what we’re looking for. We don’t want this to get mushy at all. After about 18 minutes, you’ll see that there’s still a lot of liquid in the pot. But if you’ve made pasta before, you know that it really absorbs the sauce as it sits. So, after a few minutes, you’ll see that it’ll dry up significantly. And if you’re going to be serving this after about an hour or two, then we’re going to have to thin this out a little bit with some more broth or water because the pasta will literally absorb every single ounce of liquid that’s in here. But you can give the meal a taste at this point to see if it needs any more seasoning. It tastes perfect to me. The only thing that I’m going to go in with is some finely chopped parsley for freshness. And it’s ready to serve. So, if you love Greek comfort food or any comfort food, especially if it’s already in one pot and so easy to make, you’re going to end up making this one over and over again for your family. It’s so good, so cozy and delicious. Perfect for any busy weekn night because, as you see, it’s just ready in under an hour. You can switch up the ground beef, like I said in the beginning, and use ground chicken or ground turkey, and your family is guaranteed to love this one. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. You can head on over to the website, demetrizdishes.com, to print this out and make it. If you want to learn how to make a traditional uvetzi, click over here, and I’ll see you right over there. The SS