Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Sausage Orzo—orzo pasta with a tangy dijon-balsamic sauce, chicken smoked sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and parmesan cheese. Loads of flavor and an all in one pot dinner!
Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Sausage Orzo
This is a perfect summer supper made easy by your Instant Pot. I had a couple of friends over while I was cooking yesterday and they both agreed that they wanted to make this orzo dish for their own families! I told them the recipe would be on my website today. So Mindy and Katie…here it is!
I love the tanginess from the balsamic vinegar, the slight crispness from the zucchini and peppers, and the flavor that comes from the chicken sausage. I found my chicken sausage on sale a couple of weeks ago at Smiths (Kroger). It has great flavor and it really makes dinner easy. No browning, pre-cooking or thawing. It’s just ready to go. If you can’t find chicken sausage you can totally just use a regular smoked sausage of your choice.
I chose to use whole wheat orzo pasta. I was so excited to find it at my grocery store. I’ve been looking for whole wheat orzo for a long time! It was the Delallo brand and well worth the extra cost. You can also use white orzo. Keep the recipe times/ratios the same.
The veggies are tender so I did not pressure cook them. Even with a 1 minute pressure cook time the zucchini and peppers would be indistinguishable. So instead I chopped them up while the pasta was cooking and stirred them into the hot pasta after it was done pressure cooking. I covered the pot for just a few minutes afterwards and the hot pasta cooked the tender veggies.
You can get creative with what veggies you choose to add in. I added in zucchini, cherry tomatoes and peppers. But you can use summer squash, mushrooms, asparagus, green beans and broccoli. It’s really up to you and what’s in your fridge. Please comment below and let me know what you use and how it turns out!
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Sausage Orzo I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Sausage Orzo
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 minute
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Orzo pasta with a tangy dijon-balsamic sauce, chicken smoked sausage, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and parmesan cheese. Loads of flavor and an all in one pot dinner!
Ingredients
- 1 (13 oz) package Hillshire Farm Roasted Garlic Chicken Smoked Sausage
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 pound (16 oz) uncooked whole wheat orzo
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 small/medium zucchini diced
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 1 3/4 cup shredded/grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Slice the smoked sausage into quarter inch slices. Add them into the Instant Pot. Pour the broth into the pot. Add in the orzo, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, mustard, basil and oregano.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 1 minute. When the time is up release the pressure and remove the lid.
- Add in the zucchini, tomatoes, pepper and cheese. Stir. Cover the pot and let it just sit on warm with the lid for about 5 minutes. This will slightly cook the veggies. Remove the lid. Stir. Season to taste.
- Scoop into serving bowls and enjoy!
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This recipe is one of our favourites. There are just 2 of us, so we have a repeat meal for the next day. It works perfectly and tastes just fine as leftovers the next day (although the veggies get softer warming up). My husband even made it for his Mom on one of their “date nights” and she loved it as well as being quite impressed with his Instant Pot skills.
★★★★★
That’s so cute of your husband to have a date night with his mom! I love that!
Love the flavors in this. I have made it twice and both times the orzo has burned and stuck to the bottom of my Instant Pot. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong. I add a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes in before cooking but I don’t think that is the problem. Should it not be stirred before putting the lid on? Possibly that is my mistake? Should it be layered? I love your recipes and use my IP probably 5 times a week.
★★★★★
Layering is the best technique to not get the burn message. Perhaps increase broth by a quarter cup as well. You can also try pot in pot method.
We love this dish at our house & it turns out well every time, despite me being a mediocre cook. There are just 2 of us, and this makes a lot. The other half doesn’t do leftovers well. Could I freeze half of it or would it be gross after it thaws out? Hate to keep throwing some out. Thanks!
★★★★★
I bet it would freeze pretty well!
I used some white orzo and whole wheat pasta and it expanded way too much! Other than that I was good. Where did you get your whole wheat orzo from? I’m trying to cut out white pastas and haven’t been able to find the whole wheat orzo yet. It wasn’t at my nearest Whole Foods or the store that I usually go to.
★★★★
I think it was at Winco in the bulk section! Or maybe it was the barilla brand.
This recipe was a major fail. The Instant pot quickly said “burn” even though I followed the recipe precisely, no steam built up, and the olive oil was overwhelming. It was Way too much Olive oil. The orzo was not edible. Most of it stuck to the pot or was too mushy or too crunchy. We picked out the sausage, mixed it with some instant rice I heated in the microwave and threw out the rest. What a disappointment.
★
This is a real favorite in our house, adults and children alike. We’ve made it with different varieties of sausage and mustards and it always works beautifully. We do use a drained can of diced tomatoes instead of the cherry tomatoes, I’ve found the kids prefer the texture that way. We just tried doubling it for dinner tonight so there would be leftovers for work lunches. Thank you!
★★★★★
I really like that idea with the tomatoes!
I made this with chicken breast, 1.5 cups orzo, and a whack load of veg – a-mazing! Didn’t have parmesan but didn’t miss it. I felt that the 1/4 cup oil was a lot, but sauteed the chicken in it first so it wasn’t too much in the end. There was more than enough liquid so no burn as mentioned by others. Really love the flavour of Dijon and balsamic vinegar. Thank you!
★★★★
Your version sounds so tasty Gloria! 👏
There was not near enough liquid and I got ‘burn’ warning twice. Either needs a lot more liquid or a lot less orzo
★★★★★
Sorry yours didn’t turn out! Next time perhaps add 4 cups of broth.
I used Aidells chicken sausage with artichoke and garlic (couldn’t find Hillshire Farm), regular orzo (couldn’t find whole wheat), and grape tomatoes (couldn’t find cherry tomatoes). Mine came out more wet than the picture shows but recipe was easy to follow. Lots of flavor! Only negative was the skin on the tomatoes were a little tough to chew. I enjoyed and I’m not a veggie person!
★★★★★
Sounds great! Glad you liked it.
Am I reading it right? 1/2 cup of olive oil? Seems like a little much…..but not sure.
yes that’s right
Usually pasta in the IP is 2 cups of water for every 4oz of pasta. This recipe calls for 16 ounces of orzo so three cups of water is too little. Should the recipe have read 8 cups of water? When followed as written, orzo was uncooked and much was stuck to the bottom of the pot. I added a lot more water as well as the peppers and zucchini and recooked for an additional two minutes. Perfect!
With the addition of the oil and vinegar it should be enough total liquid.
This looks so yum! Can’t wait to make it. Can you use a different pasta- ziti, rigatoni, etc.? Would it change the taste and texture? How would the cooking time change? Thank you!
yes you can use another type of pasta. The cooking time will change. Take the time on the pasta package divide by 2 and substract 1. So if it says to boil 10 minutes it would be 4 minutes in the pressure cooker.
How do I make this in a crockpot?
I’d make it on the stove before the crockpot. It’ll get mushy. Cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain.
Add in:
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 small/medium zucchini diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bell pepper, diced
1 ¾ cup shredded/grated parmesan cheese
Toss and serve.
Can we use brown rice or does it need to be orzo whole wheat? Love the site by the way. Always looks for IP ideas!
Brown rice takes 22 minutes plus a 10 minute NPR. The ratio of rice to water is 1 cup to 1.25 cups.
Oh my goodness I saw this & almost licked my phone. I will definitely be making this one very soon in my IP duo 6qt!
Hope you like it! The leftovers tonight were yummy 🙂