Dinner Was a Disaster

I used a recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine, Everyday Food. It's called Chicken, Lemon, and dill with orzo. Not good. I don't believe it was Martha's fault, or anyone at the magazine's fault for that matter, but ick. I must admit, I did cook it a little long, but still....

So anyway,

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 lb. chicken tenderloins, cut into one inch pieces (i used turkey tenderloins)
1 pound orzo
2 cups crumbled feta (4 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill (I hate dill, I used Italian seasoning, about 2 tablespoons.)
2 tsps finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Preheat oven to 400. In a saucepan, bring broth, 3/4 cup water, butter, salt, and pepper to a boil. Combine chicken, orzo, feta dill, lemon zest and juice in a 3-quart baking dish. Pour broth mixture over orzo and stir once to incorporate. Bake until orzo is tender and cooking liquid is creamy. 40 minutes. (This is my problem, I cooked it way too long, because I had to tutor.) I cooked mine at 300 closer to 80 minutes. When I took it out and put the Parmesan cheese on it, it was just beige and mushy.

So I thought I'd try to spice it up a little bit, I stirred it all up, hoping that if the orzo was exposed to air it would be less mushy. It worked a little bit, but not really, so then, I chopped up some tomatoes finely, added some salt to get the juices flowing and sprinkled them with a little bit of goat cheese over the top. Still not great, not much flavor, and well, not much flavor. Bland. Really, really bland. Plus, it says it makes six servings. It sure does for linebackers for the Kansas City Chiefs. I served it with green beans and multigrain bread. Thank goodness for the green beans and bread.

Anyway, not one I will try again.