Hi, I'm Amanda Hass, a professional cook, and founder of One Family One Meal,
and I'm so happy to be here with Pottery Barn Kids today, making on of my favorite recipes,
It's a Mediterranean chicken skewer with orzo pasta salad.
So let's go ahead and get started on the chicken.
I've already got boneless, skinless chicken breast, that I've cut up here into about one inch pieces.
And I've simply marinated it with a little bit of olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and then one tablespoon of chopped mint.
So this is so easy, because all I'm going to do is thread it onto these skewers.
And here's a great tip if you are grilling anything with these bamboo skewers,
you want to make sure that you soak them in water for about thirty minutes first,
otherwise they'll burn on your grill pan or even on the grill.
So I've already soaked these, and I'm just going to alternate the chicken with a little bit of chopped red onion,
which adds this beautiful color, and fresh mint. So I just take a mint leaf and fold it over a couple times,
it doesn't have to be perfect. I love this recipe, too, because you can do it for entertaining if you're having a crowd,
you can make it in advance, but my kids love it, and it's so simple.
You're not messing with a bunch of crazy ingredients, but it's fun enough to do for a party.
So I'm just going to try and get about four pieces of chicken on each small skewer.
And you can actually do all of this in advance for your party, and put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours before hand.
So let's do one more piece of chicken. And I'l add it to these that are ready to go,
The last thing I like to do is just finish off with a little bit of salt, and a little bit of freshly ground pepper,
And they're ready to go on the grill.
So now I'm just finishing cooking my Mediterranean chicken skewers,
So today I've actually chosen to do them in a grill pan, but you could just as easily do them on the grill outside.
And I'm just going to finish up by putting a little bit of this olive oil and lemon juice on them for added flavor,
If you wanted to do this on the grill, I would actually wait until you've taken them off the heat,
that way you wouldn't get any flare ups on your grill.
And I actually like to cook these at the very last minute, because boneless, skinless chicken breast can get dry really quickly,
so you make all of this in advance and take the last four to five minutes to grill these up.
So the best part is, if you choose to make the orzo pasta salad that goes with it,
you can actually assemble that salad while you're grilling the skewers,
so it all comes together in about five minutes.
These are ready, they look gorgeous and they smell even better.
Now it's time to make my orzo pasta salad that I'm going to be serving with my chicken skewers,
and I love this recipe because you can actually make the pasta in advance,
and this could actually come together a couple hours before, and you can let it sit at room temperature,
or you can just prep all of your ingredients and put it together at the last minute.
So I've actually already cooked a box of orzo pasta, and I only cook it to al dente, so it's about seven or eight minutes.
Otherwise, you risk it overcooking as it's cooling down. So I've got my orzo,
and all I'm going to add to it is some olive oil and lemon juice, for the base flavors.
And then this is where it's fun. You get to kind of add your own flavors and give it your own personality.
And today I've chosen to use pine nuts, and I've just toasted these pine nuts for a couple minutes in a pan to brown them,
and give them extra fragrance. I love them.
And I chose to use a feta cheese today, but you could even use blue cheese if anybody in your family likes blue cheese,
You could use cotija or any crumbly hard cheese like that.
Now I've used currants to add a little sweetness, but of course you could use raisins if you wanted,
you could use golden raisins, even cranberries, and they would be great,
and then for herbs I'm using fresh mint and a little bit of green onion that I've chopped up.
Again, just think about what you really love, and if you want to use basil, or thyme, or even fresh dill in this, it would be delicious.
So let me just mix it up, and I think most importantly, any time you're working with pasta,
you want to make sure that you season it really well. That salt will really bring out all of the other flavors,
so let me give it a little dose, and we will taste it.
Well, it smells great. A fresh grinding of pepper,
and then I always taste it before I take it out.
You can always add more, so let's see how it tastes.
We're going to make sure to find a bite that has a little bit of everything in it,
get some of that mint, I've got a pine nut in there, and the cheese,
That's perfectly seasoned, and I love that you get a little bit of the crunch with the pine nuts,
and the currants and the tartness of the feta, it's delicious.
It'll be perfect underneath the chicken skewers.
So now I'm ready to plate my orzo pasta salad and my Mediterranean chicken skewers.
And I'm actually going to present it in a little bit of a fancier way,
so if you were having say a baby shower, or a party, this would be a beautiful way to serve it.
It's certainly a lot fancier than I would do on a week night.
If you are serving this to children, make sure that you take the meat of the skewers first,
so they don't have to wrangle with these at the dinner table.
It's really beautiful. I love this warm or at room temperature.
And I'll just finish it off with a garnish of the mint,
And it's ready to go.
For this and other simple recipes, visit potterybarnkids.com and my website, onefamilyonemeal.com.