The One-Pot Dish Ina Garten Wants To Cozy Up To In The Fall

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If you've ever wondered what Ina Garten tends to eat in a day, there's a one-pot dish that she tends to gravitate towards during the fall. As the leaves start to change color and the weather begins to cool down, the celebrity chef and TV personality takes a recipe out of her own cookbook, "Go-To Dinners," that's fit for the season. It's her chicken in a pot with orzo that we're hinting at. 

In an October 2022 Instagram post, Garten hinted at the recipe, and it's one worth visiting now that fall has returned. The dish uses a whole chicken, which means it makes for an easy weeknight dinner that will feed the whole family (or provide leftovers). It has celery and carrots, but the standout ingredients are leeks, fennel, and fresh herbs like parsley and thyme. Then there's the saffron, which is pricey but will really elevate the flavor of this dish to set it apart from other one-pot meals.

We'll let you refer to Ina Garten's 2022-published cookbook "Go-To Dinners" or check out her website for the full recipe, but we have some important highlights to help elevate the dish. First, you'll want to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit so that the chicken cooks fully without burning. A Dutch oven is also the ideal cooking vessel so that you have plenty of room for the whole chicken, orzo, and other ingredients. Another important tip is that you'll cook in stages, which means you'll cook the chicken first, remove it, saute the aromatics, and then add the chicken back later in the cooking process. At the end, you'll remove the pot from the heat and allow the orzo to finish cooking before you dig in (so you have to be a little patient).

If you want to try another one-pot orzo dish, give our one-pan cheesy orzo bake recipe a try. The orzo bake only takes about 30 minutes to cook, and is sure to be a comfort meal during the cooler months. And if orzo isn't your thing, cook our creamy chicken pot pie soup recipe that only requires one pot and will also keep you warm as the weather cools down. Considering her fall favorite, Garten would likely approve of either of these recipes.