Grilled Chicken and Lemon Orzo Salad by Brenda

Summertime was made for pasta salads. Easy to tote to a picnic or backyard gathering, they’re our one-bowl-meal kind of friend.

I started making this Grilled Chicken and Lemon Orzo Salad early this past spring, while our girls were still in school. The salad turned out to be a bigger hit than I was anticipating, with them wanting to pack it in their lunch bags every single day for a week at a time. They never tired of it. It’s just that lovely.

 
 

If I can incorporate grilling into every single meal of the summer, I certainly will. This recipe includes the grilling of two different ingredients.

First, a couple lemon halves.

Have you ever grilled citrus? It’s such a beautiful thing. The heat from the hot grill grates sears the cut citrus flesh and caramelizes it, lending a hint of smokiness to both the flavor and aroma.

Two grilled lemon halves are juiced and zested for the lemon orzo in this recipe. And then I like to offer a couple of additional grilled lemon halves for squeezing over individual salad portions right before eating. It adds a pop of brightness, not to mention a bit of fun. Our daughters LOVE this component of the lemon orzo salad, and even made sure that a small wedge was included when they packed their lunches during the school year.

 
 

This lemon orzo salad also includes grilled chicken breasts, seasoned very simply with salt and pepper. After the chicken comes off the grill, it’s shredded into bite-size pieces and folded into the lemony salad.

Feel free to bulk up this salad with more grilled chicken for an even bigger protein boost.

 
 

Maybe some of the reason our girls have liked this salad so much is that I also included a couple of their favorite fresh vegetables: sweet red bell pepper and snap peas still in the pod. Both ingredients add lively color and bites of snappy texture, lovely contrasts to the orzo and chicken.

I’ve been checking our garden, waiting on crunchy, juicy snap peas to harvest, just so we can make this salad again with homegrown pea pods!

 
 

You’ve got the perfect picnic salad right here. Pack some in the cooler and head out for a picnic this summer. Just don’t forget those grilled lemon halves!