Episode 002 Orzo Shrimp Skillet

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

There’s one recipe we’ve made. What’s it called again? Oh yeah, we love that one. I can’t even talk about this recipe without my mouthwatering. Okay. Those are some of the things that people say to me when they talk about this recipe. It’s called Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet, and it’s what we’re making for dinner today. This is probably one of the most talked about recipes on momsdinner.net. If I’m at a dinner party or I run into somebody at the grocery store, this is usually the recipe that is brought up when we talk about Mom’s Dinner.

I think there’s a couple reasons why people love this recipe so much. Number one, it’s ready in about 30 minutes, so it’s a really quick dinner to make. Number two, it is considered a skillet meal, and not only is it just made in one pan, the whole recipe together is its own dinner, so it’s not like you have to have any kind of side dishes. You can just eat the Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet and it covers all of your bases. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, some of the ingredients that you want to make sure you have on hand to make this dinner. Now, these are ingredients that you might not already have. A shallot, fresh garlic, a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth. Capers, Orzo pasta. Then you’ll need one pound of a medium to large sized shrimp. For this recipe, I like to use a raw peeled and de-veined shrimp. Whether or not the tail is on, that’s totally up to you. You’ll also need kalamata olives, fresh basil, and feta cheese. So I think from those ingredients you kind of get an idea of what this recipe is all about.

I also wanna give you a couple tips on a few of the ingredients. The feta cheese will probably be available in a couple different options in the grocery store. What I recommend is that you buy the block of feta cheese instead of the, it’s pre crumbled feta cheese that usually comes in a little container. The block feta cheese is going to be more flavorful and creamier and tangier and brinier. It’s going to be way better than that pre-crumbled cheese. 

The other tip that I wanna give you is for the shrimp. If you are buying frozen shrimp and you forgot to thaw it, because who remembers to thaw meat? I always forget. If you need to do a quick thaw on your shrimp, my best advice is to fill up either a bowl or the sink with a room temperature water, submerge the shrimp in its package. Now, if you’ve already taken it out of its package, then go ahead and put it in a Ziploc baggie, submerge it in that water, and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then swap out the water with some more room temperature water, pop that shrimp back in there, in the package for about another 10 to 15 minutes. You keep doing this until that shrimp is thawed, and that’s considered a quick thaw method. 

Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet Recipe: Let’s get into making this recipe one piece of equipment that you’re going to want to have to make this, is a large non-stick skillet, preferably with a lid. Pop that over medium heat, and you’re going to add in three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Once that’s nice and shimmery and hot, you’re going to add a half a cup of finally chopped shallots. Saute that around the pan for about two to three minutes. Then you’ll stir in three garlic cloves that have been chopped or minced, one and a half teaspoons of sugar. One teaspoon each of kosher salt and dried oregano. Half a teaspoon of black pepper and a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir that around the pan and you’ll begin to smell it and it smells so good. 

Then you’re going to add 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with the juice. Do not drain those tomatoes. Add one cup of chicken broth and two tablespoons of capers. Then you’re going to stir in one cup of that dried orzo pasta. Stir it around the pan so that it’s kind of nestled down into the liquid, so it begins to cook. You’re going to let that simmer for about 10 minutes, and you’ll want to make sure that you stir it occasionally just so that orzo doesn’t cook to the bottom of the pan. 

It’s time to add the shrimp. Go ahead and nestle one pound of medium to large size shrimp down into the liquid that’s in the pan. Then cover the pan. This is where you’re gonna need that lid. If your pan does not have a lid, you could also use foil or just like a sheet pan that you place over top. 

Let that simmer for about four minutes until the shrimp are cooked through. Now you’re going to remove that pan from the heat completely and add in mega flavor. I need to add like the background sound. That’s like boo boo boo, mega flavor. All right, here we go. Here we go. All right. All right, so add in a half a cup of chopped kalamata olives. A third a cup of fresh basil that’s been chopped. Then crumble in your six ounce block of feta cheese. 

Then pop the lid back on and let that just sit together for about two minutes, and your dinner is ready. It’s time to eat. 

When I serve this dish, I like to just spoon it into bowls rustic style and serve either warmed up pita or warmed up ciabatta bread on the side. If you want to bulk up the dinner, you could definitely add a green side salad. I would highly recommend a basil vinaigrette, and I have an excellent recipe for a fresh basil vinaigrette on momsdinner.net. I will link that in the show notes for you. 

That’s it for this recipe. As always, I will link the full printable recipe and any other recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the notes for you so you can always find the Mediterranean Shrimp Skillet whenever you crave it. 

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Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.