One Pot Garlic Butter Shrimp and Orzo.
This one pot shrimp orzo is so ridiculously delish!
If you can’t tell, I’m having a little moment with shrimp and butter and lemon. I mean, at least it’s a delicious moment?
This is weeknight dinner gold. I love a meal that can be thrown together in a few minutes and tastes like absolute heaven. When I make this, we cannot stop eating it. Every bite is more incredible than the last.
Why is orzo just oh-so good?! Sure, it’s like rice, but even better.
I love how it sticks to whatever you toss it with, in a good way. It makes a dish more satisfying too. Plus, it soaks up all the wonderful flavors in the pot.
Let’s make it tonight!
I toss the shrimp with some olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper and garlic. Crushed red pepper flakes too! Just give it a bit of flavor.
Then, the best part? Toasting the orzo in butter. Almost as if it’s arborio rice and you’re making risotto. Let it get a little toasty and golden. At the same time, the butter will brown too. THIS IS WHERE THE FLAVOR IS AT!
All the garlic butter feels start here. I’m all about layering flavor from the bottom up. The garlic butter is fragrant and wonderful and then the toasty orzo gives it even more of a nutty flavor. It’s perfect!
The only thing left to do is add the stock, cover the pot and let it go. About 20 minutes later, dinner is ready!
The beauty in this dish is that both the orzo and shrimp cook quickly. It tastes more flavorful than it looks, which is wild since there are only about ten ingredients in the entire dish.
This isn’t an overly complicated dish and it’s certainly not anything groundbreaking. But it’s just one of those recipes that is darn good. Easy but shockingly good. Everyone loves it and you may be tempted to make a double batch. Leftovers are fantastic. It’s simple enough that you can throw a roasted vegetable in the oven if you wish. The best kind of recipe!
Easy enough to throw on the menu tonight!
One Pot Shrimp and Orzo
One Pot Garlic Butter Shrimp and Orzo
Ingredients
- 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced and freshly zested
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- kosher salt and pepper
- 1 cup orzo
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 ¼ cups chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- lemon wedges, for spritzing
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the shrimp with the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, garlic, red pepper flakes and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Heat the butter in a large skillet (I like a 12 inch) over medium heat. Once melted, stir in the orzo. Cook, stirring often, until the orzo is slightly golden and toasty. Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Pour in the chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer and cover the pot. Cook until the orzo absorbs the water and is fluffed up, about 12 to 15 minutes.
- Add in the shrimp to the orzo and stir. Cover the pot again and cook for another 5 to 8 minutes, or until the shrimp is pink, opaque and cooked through.
- Sprinkle with fresh parsley and a spritz of lemon. I like to stir in another 1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter for optimal flavor, but this is up to you. Serve immediately!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Golden, toasty, buttery, garlicky wonderfulness.
99 Comments on “One Pot Garlic Butter Shrimp and Orzo.”
So delicious and so easy!
Really good recipe but mine came out a bit too soupy – next time I’ll use less chicken stock – otherwise great flavor and done perfectly!
Made this tonight. Very good! I threw in a bunch of broccoli when I added the shrimp to the orzo, and it was good!! Will definitely make again. Thank you!
Does this recipe double well? Also, could I use scallops instead of shrimp?
I doubled mine. It worked well!
I made it and loved it, my son loved it and it is a simple ingredients, easy to make recipe. I followed the instruction and made no changes and it turned out delicious. Will definitely make again, it was so simple and quick to make. 😋
So easy and delicious and just one pan to clean! My new favorite summer recipe!
Simple, easy to follow, and delicious! I’ll be making this dish again! I served some asparagus on the side, but any vegetable (or salad) would go well with it.
After reading all the comments, I decided to use two frying pans. Started the orzo in one and added two tablespoons of butter in the other to fry the shrimps. Did not add the marinade to the pan. (I read a couple of comments on what to do with it. Tossed it.)
Defrosted shrimps and let them marinate longer. Frying them up – could have done in two batches as the shrimps were small. Added the cooked orzo to the shrimp to absorb the flavours from that pan.
Delicious!!! No leftovers!
Do not know if use of gluten free orzo made a difference in this recipe. Just so so for my husband and I with a little too much lemon.
This is very easy to put together. Packs a lot of flavor. I will cut back on the chicken broth next time. It was a little soupy.
This was easy, quick and delicious! My husband whole heartedly approved!
Loved it and it was easy. Took advice from some of the reviews. I only added 2 cups of chicken stock, instead of 2 1/4 cup. I also added broccoli when I added the chicken stock. I did follow the advice at the end of the recipe and added 2 tablespoon of butter. I will make this again the same way it was so good.
This was delicious! Thank you! I think I could substitute chicken for my people who don’t like shrimp.
Wow! This recipe is incredibly good! And easy! I followed the directions exactly. Thank you so much.
I made this tonight, I have short time to prepare dinner, it was sooooo yummy, fast and easy. I didn’t ready the recipe all the way through because I was rushing 🤦🏻♀️so I blackened the shrimps first take them out then brown the orzo. I also had a tomato and some baby spinach need to be use so I added both at the end with the shrimps and it was delicious. Thank you for quick dinner recipe 🥰
Can you freeze this meal after it is cooked?
I made this in a pinch when I didn’t know what I wanted to make with the shrimp I defrosted. It was amazing!!!! Definitely going to make again :)
Made it for the first time last night for dinner and have given a definite five. However, if you look back at the NY Times version, Step 1 should state one half of the garlic goes into the marinade, and Step 2, the other half. I put it all in the marinade and it worked ok but I think having the garlic in the pan with the orzo and chicken stock would be a better choice. As note by others, I reduced the liquids by a half cup.
How much garlic? 4 or 2 cloves. Recipe has both
This was absolutely delicious. I don’t leave reviews, but I had to for this dish. I followed recipe exactly. I have a bunch of picky eaters and 2 of them don’t like lemons, but they really enjoyed this and came back for seconds. I’ll double the recipe next time. Thank you for the recipe!
Could you use brown rice instead of orzo?
This recipe is absolutely delicious!!! I’ve now made this a few times and it just gets better and better. We like spicy so I added a full teaspoon of crushed chillies, no parsley but I added fresh basil, so so good snd hubby just loves it!! Thanks for the recipe!!! It’s a keeper!
This is a must have recipe. It is a delicious quick and easy to make recipe. Great leftover too!
This really was fantastic. I used homemade chicken broth which elevates the flavor even more. Also added chopped fresh basil along with the fresh parsley.
Make this every few weeks. I saute some shallots and mushrooms in the butter then brown the orzo. Sometimes I stir in some sundried tomatoes in before I add the chicken broth and some dry white wine. Today I threw in some frozen spinach and capers in with the shrimp. Delicious. This recipe allows for lots of additions love it.
Delicious!! I didn’t have Orzo on hand used Uncle Ben’s Rice and it turned out perfect. Definitely will make again.
Good flavors and simple recipe, but the liquid to orzo ratio was way off. After 12 minutes it was still quite watery. More like orzo soup….maybe its my brand of orzo?
This is one of THE BEST recipes I have tried. Will definitely be adding to our rotation and can’t wait to have again!
Great recipe! I followed as written and it turned out perfect!
Against my Italian tradition I sprinkled with a little Romano cheese…YUMmmmm!
i have question, you say to add garlic to marinade and then to add to the orzo and butter?
That was way too much lemon, very overpowering. Will half that next time and not add it to the shrimp. Acid cooks shrimp, so they were very over done. In theory a good recipe though, with some tweaks.
Flavor is excellent but like other reviews, mine turned out too soupy. I will definitely make this again, but instead of reducing the broth I will add more orzo. I also added asparagus and cherry tomatoes and used whole grain orzo (trying to eat more healthy and get more veggies in my diet 😊).
Very good! However, the recipe should be updated to indicate how much of the garlic goes into the shrimp marinade and how much goes in with the cooking orzo.
I just tried this, followed the directions exactly how they are written and unfortunately it did not go so well. The orzo came out soupy and the shrimp came out poached with a weird and gross texture. This would of been better to cook
This was a spur of the moment meal. Raining so hard, had to cancel our dinner reservation and make dinner for our house guests. I quickly looked up orzo & shrimp. This recipe with 5 stars popped up first so we went for it. It was wonderful and will definitely make it again!!!!!
It’s a recipe you can modify a bit.
Loved the ideas in Comments.
We live in a remote area (think jungle) so we can’t always get ingredients. This time I had everything.
I doubled the recipe.
I only had clam broth
I will use a little less broth next time
I will use salted butter next time.
It’s an amazing recipe. Easy, one pot and delicious! Praise from my husband and our guests. Thank You
Do you add the liquid that the shrimp are marinated in or drain the shrimp?
Wow. Just wow. I did not expect this recipe to be THIS good. Will be a staple for sure. I added roasted cherry tomatoes and it was a great add. Paired it with asparagus and boom I felt like I was eating at a restaurant!!!!
This was excellent! I used whole wheat orzo and toasting it really gave it a better depth of flavor.
I’ve gotta say this was delicious! I invited one of my sons to dinner and this didn’t disappoint. I will definitely make it again.
This was exception (in flavor and ease). I only added some squeezed dry spinach during cooking of orzo. I also made my own shrimp broth which upped the flavor. thanks
This was very good. Added some dried basil and parmesan.
Ok. Some instructions unclear. 4 cloves of garlic or 2, or both? Thought it was 4 for marinade, then adding the two to the orzo…but then wasn’t sure if you add the marinade or just the shrimp to the orzo. Added shrimp with the marinade, and it was too garlicky even for a garlic lover. Some simple tweaks to the article would make this much clearer.