Greek Night

I love the vibrant flavours of Greece! A friend of mine went to Greece a long while back, he loved everything about Greece, except he said they used too much olive oil. well, there is an easy way to get the flavour, and make it lighter too!
Today I am making Orzo salad with baked chicken, in a lighter but full of flavour version.

Greek Chicken

Oven 350 degrees F

4-8 pieces of chicken(generally one piece of chicken per person)
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup Olive oil
1-2 tablespoons Fresh or dried oregano
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Wash and dry the chicken, Place in baking dish, then, in a small bowl mix the oregano and garlic, salt and pepper, lemon zest, then add about 1/4 olive oil, for 8 pieces of chicken, (less if you are using just a few pieces of chicken), mix all together. drizzle over chicken pieces lightly, put chicken in oven. If you have left over olive oil mixture, it can become part of the dressing for the orzo salad, so don't worry if you have made too much!

Bake chicken for about 25-35 minutes, for breast skin on bone in,  35-40 minutes for legs and thighs.

Meanwhile, put pot of water on about 8-10 cups of water for the Orzo Salad

Orzo is a small rice shaped pasta that takes very little time to cook, you can add it to osso bucco, or soups and stews, it's very versatile and good to have on hand. I like making it into a Greek pasta salad, as follows:

1/2 900 gram bag of Orzo
1-2 ripe tomatoes! sliced, then each slice quartered
1/2 English cucumber, each slice, quartered
1/2 red onion, diced fine
1/2 cup Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried Oregano,or fresh oregano to taste
1 clove Garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
Lemmon zest from one lemon
Lemon juice, about 1/4 cup
1/2 tablespoon of mint dried
1/2 cup feta cheese, or other strong cheese

Make sure that you don't overlook the orzo, it should still have a bit of a bite in the core, drain, cool the pasta by running cold water through it until just above room temperature, put into large mixing bowl, pour the dressing on it, taste for salt and pepper, Then when you are satisfied, add tomatoes, cucumber, onion,and cheese, mix thoroughly then sprinkle the top with a little mint. When serving, you can keep the chicken in whole pieces with the crispy skin on, or remove from the bone and add on top of the orzo salad. enjoy