Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes have made grocery bills reach astronomical proportions. One way to stretch a dollar is to make meat a complement to a meal instead of the main course. Nothing does that more deliciously than combining meat with other ingredients in a one-pot meal.

Marry Me Chicken is also called Chicken with Orzo, but I think that the Marry Me title gives the dish a bit of interest.

One of my daughter’s friends was visiting us from out of town and offered to make us dinner. She made this dish which was delicious. My daughter now loves to make this recipe for herself as it is fast, and simple. She will portion it out into 4-5 dinners and have dinner prepared for much of the week.

The first recipe is the one that I’m illustrating here. The second is the one that my daughter uses and is more cost effective.

Use this recipe as a springboard. If you don’t have orzo, use some other pasta. No heavy cream? Try half-and-half, evaporated milk, regular milk with a flour thickener, coconut milk, or even sour cream.

In my daughters recipe the sun dried tomatoes and 3/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese are replaced by less expensive tomato sauce and smaller qualities of Parmesan Cheese. It is all good.

This is the recipe that I used (borrowed from the internet). It is a bit more upscale with greater quantities of ingredients and more expensive ingredients.

This is my daughter’s recipe (also borrowed from the internet). It is more cost effective. However, it is also delicious!

Here are the ingredients that I used. The sun dried tomatoes were drained and I did grate the Parmesan cheese. However, you could use the stuff in the green jar, if needed. You can also see the pesto bread that I made to serve with this dinner. I’ll have that easy recipe in another post.

The cut up chicken was cooked in some olive oil (any oil works) for a few minutes until it gained a little color.

In went the spices and the sun dried tomatoes.

I stirred it all up… oops, I forgot the garlic! No problem, I’ll add it now. Fresh is great, but I used jar garlic as that is what I had on hand. I cooked this mixture for a couple minutes.

In went the orzo and chicken broth. You could use water or water plus bullion if you wished. If you used bullion use less salt and adjust at the end. Orzo is awesome, but you could use some other sort of pasta if needed.

Cover the pan and cook on medium low for around 12 minutes. Every once in a while stir the pot to prevent the orzo from sticking. I tested the orzo at 12 minutes and mine needed a few more minutes to fully cook.

Add the heavy cream (or other dairy product). Stir it in.

Stir in a few handfuls of spinach and allow them to wilt.

Just before serving add the Parmesan Cheese.

Here it is served up with some asparagus, a salad, and my homemade pesto bread. Yummy!