Queso Smothered Chicken

Wow, I can’t believe how good and super easy this was! I’ve never tried Lawry’s marinades until now, but I’ve always used their seasoned salt in recipes. The marinade makes the chicken so moist when it’s cooked on the grill. To save even more time, I had a jar of queso cheese dip in the fridge and all I had to do was warm some of it up in the microwave. Ben doesn’t like cheese sauce on top of anything so that was really nice and I could just portion whatever of that I needed to use.  The cheese sauce on top of the orzo and chicken almost made me think I was eating some kind of nacho pasta. So delicious. I will definitely make this again, and now I want to try more of Lawry’s marinades.

Thank you Plain Chicken, this was an awesome recipe.

Update: 12/12/15

I decided to give this recipe a little update. Since there’s so much salt in Lawry’s marinades, salt in the orzo, and salt in the queso I thought I’d give myself a challenge to see if I can lower the sodium conent. I made my own marinade for the chicken and left out the salt. Chipotle powder, smoked paprika and cumin are packed with flavor! Then for the orzo pasta use 55% less sodium chicken stock, no salt added tomato paste, and Mrs Dash Chipotle seasoning. Mrs Dash is so great. She has a ton of seasoning packets without any salt now. Then for the queso, I just use some Medium Tostitos Queso Dip which only has 280 mg of salt per serving. That isn’t bad in my opnion. It’s  a lot easier than making your own queso and saves a step. Just heat some up in the microwave. To garnish, top with fresh diced roma tomatoes and scallions. This is my favorite way to eat chicken.

Queso Smothered Chicken

• Author: Jenna

Ingredients

• For the marinade
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of onion powder
• 1 tsp of garlic powder
• 2 or 3 medium chicken breasts
• 1/2 juice of 1 lime
• Orzo pasta
• 1 cup of orzo
• 2 cups of low sodium chicken stock
• 2 tsp of Mrs Dash Chipotle Seasoning blend
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (no salt added)
• 1 jar of Tostitos Medium Queso Cheese Sauce
• 2 or 3 medium scallions, chopped
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced.

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a bowl. Place the chicken inside the marinade and let it sit for 30 minutes.
2. You can grill or cook the chicken in the oven. I cooked mine in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Then I let the chicken rest for 5 minutes.
3. While the chicken is cookig, make the orzo pasta. Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan and add in the uncooked orzo. Stir the orzo around in the olive oil for a bit so that it gets toasted. Be careful not to let it burn. Pour in the chicken stock and let the chicken stock cook for 8 minutes. Add in tomato paste and seasoning. The water should be all obsorbed when the orzo is done.
4. Serve the chicken with the orzo and top with scallions, diced roma tomatoes, and queso dip. Enjoy!

Notes

6 smart points per serving. 1/2 cup orzo + chicken breast and 2 tablespoons of queso