Orzo (also known as melon seed pasta) is one of my favorite choices for pasta salad. I really like the shape and texture, and it makes for a very interesting cold sidedish. Here, I had the idea of using it for a hot dish in the same way one would use an Arborio rice to make risotto. Instead of boiling the orzo in salted water and draining, I thought it would be interesting to cook it the same way risotto is cooked, by adding small additions of flavorful stock until it’s tender (or al dente if you prefer). I made that flavorful stock by braising chicken and sausage, as you’ll see.  This dish is really all over the place; most of the ingredients are kind of Spanish/Portuguese, there are techniques from India and Italy involved, and just to make things even stranger, I use a chili pepper usually found only in Mexican cuisine. But, none of that matters, this dish tastes great and is pretty easy to make. The other good thing is, whoever you serve this to probably hasn’t had it before, so no matter how it comes out you can always say, “yeah, that’s how it’s suppose to be!”