cheesy orzo with broccoli and bacon

Tonight for dinner we had salmon, which we usually make with baked potatoes, however, salmon takes like 5 minutes to cook and potatoes take an hour in the oven. We also didn't really have good potatoes soooooo I had to improvise something. We are in desperate need of food so I was kind of limited in my options. Enter that Betty Crocker app Jacque told you about last week. I entered orzo and broccoli and didn't really get anything, so I took off the broccoli and started scrolling through the orzo recipes until I stumbled on this one. I did not have the right vegetable (asparagus) or cheese so I decided to make up my own version and here it is:

cheesy orzo with broccoli and bacon

4 slices of bacon
chicken broth (14 ounce can)
1 cup uncooked orzo
half a bag of frozen broccoli
1/4 cup roasted red bell peppers (optional)
1/2 (or more) cup shredded cheese

Assembling the mise en place for this one is fairly easy. First you need to cut the bacon into strips. I usually do this by layering all the bacon together and then cutting it with scissors directly into the pan once it is hot, or a small bowl. You will also need to do a rough cut on your roasted red peppers. I had some left over from a previous recipe so I was happy to add these guys in, but if I didn’t have them already I would have just left them out.

Start out by placing a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once that gets hot you’ll add the bacon and cook until it is nice and crispy.

Set your bacon aside and clean out your pan, or get a new one. I used a stainless steel pan and not a nonstick one because that’s what we have and I needed my nonstick for the salmon.

Add chicken broth to your pan and get that to a boil. Add the orzo, reduce to simmer and cook (covered) for five to seven minutes.

Add half a bag of frozen broccoli and the roasted peppers. Cook until the orzo is al dente.  I’m not really sure how long this took, I was too busy cooking my salmon. After my salmon was finished, roughly six or so minutes later, I tasted the orzo and it was under and the liquid had all cooked out. So I added some more chicken stock and cooked for another eight (maybe?) minutes. Basically you will want to keep an eye on this and you might have to bump the heat up closer to medium.

Once your orzo is cooked, add in your desired amount to cheese and give it a good stir. Garnish individual servings with bacon and serve with whatever you have going (for me this was salmon).

I hope you enjoy. Hit me up in the comments if you want to know how we cook our salmon. Here’s a tasty sneak peak look. MMMMMMmmmmm, salmon.