Today I made a great lunch for us - pan fried chicken thighs on a bed of toasty orzo.

I wanted to experiment with a new technique I saw for frying chicken thighs. You start by salting the chicken thighs on both sides, and then placing skin side down on a paper towel. This dries all of the moisture out of the skin that the salt pulls out, giving you some very dry skin for browning.

Then, I placed the thighs skin-side down in a cold cast iron skillet. Starting the pan from cold rendered the fat out of the skin - no extra fat is needed. I like to put the heat to a high-ish medium. I'll turn it up near the end to get a good crisp on the skin. The skin might stick to the pan - but if you let it keep going, eventually it will unstick itself.

Once the skin was as crispy and brown as I wanted it, I flipped them over to cook the underside. This didn't take long - a few minutes, or until the bottom is as brown as you wanted it. Chicken thighs are super fatty, so I wasn't worried about over-cooking them.

Once the thighs were done, I put them to the side. I drained off some of the chicken fat, and then toasted my orzo for a minute or two in the pan with the remaining fat. I sprinkled some chili flakes in as well. Toasting the orzo like this gives a really nice toasted nutty flavour, and the chilli flakes give a nice warm heat.

Once I could smell the toasted scent I was after, I deglazed the pan with some chicken stock. I scraped all the chicken fond off the bottom and then left the orzo to simmer, stirring it every now and then to prevent sticking.

Once the stock had started to reduce, I squeezed in half a lime and ground some black pepper. The acid here helps cut through some of the warm toasted flavours, which are increased by the black pepper.

Once the orzo was al dente and the stock had reduced to where I wanted it, I mixed in some chopped salad. I then laid the orzo in a bed on a plate, and placed the chicken thighs chopped on top. I squeezed the remaining lime over the top, making sure the chicken was well coated.

This was such a tasty healthy lunch-time meal. The crispiness of the chicken went so well with the toasted flavours of the orzo, and the heat of the chili and acidity of the lime punched through.

It was so good I made it the day after as well.