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Home » Uncategorized

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

October 19, 2019 By Lorena Grater

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Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup is the ultimate comfort food! It tastes fresh and hearty at the same time and gives your belly kisses from the inside!

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup in a white pot

If there is one thing that screams fall and winter food, it’s soup! But what if you’re just not ready yet for the colder months? How do you hang on to that last hope for warm weather? By warming your body from the inside with a hot lemony soup that tastes “fresh”.

What is Orzo?

So, if you’re like me, you might have mistaken orzo for rice when you were first served it in an Italian restaurant. Even though it looks like rice……guess what….it’s not rice. Ha! It’s PASTA!

Orzo is made out of durum wheat just like any other regular pasta. The texture is really nice though because it’s like firm rice.

Closeup of Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup in pot

What is Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup made of?

The main components of the soup are broth, chicken, orzo, and obviously lemon soup. From there it’s all about getting creative. I like adding sautéd onion and garlic for extra flavor and carrots and celery because they are vegetables that hold their shape after cooking.

It is basically a fancy version of my Slow-Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup. The orzo makes it so much fancier.

Can Orzo Soup be frozen?

As a whole, no. Decomposed, yes!

The problem with freezing pasta and chicken breast is that it overcooks when warming it up again. So I like freezing this soup in the form of individual ingredients.

You can freeze the broth with onion, garlic, & diced veggies as one. The chicken breast, once you shredded it, freeze it in a separate container. And the orzo I recommend cooking fresh on the day you’re eating it. Simply in water like you always cook pasta.

12 hours before you plan on eating the soup, place the broth and shredded chicken in the refrigerator to defrost. 20 minutes before eating, cook orzo as instructed on the packaging and then drain it. Pull the broth out of the fridge and bring the broth to a rolling boil in a pot, add your cooked orzo and defrosted shredded chicken and cook it all for maybe 30-60 seconds, then immediately serve.

That way you avoid soggy orzo that soaked up all the broth and overcooked chicken.

closeup of texture of lemon chicken orzo soup

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
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Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 2 small chicken breasts (7oz each)
  • 8 cups flavorful chicken broth
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 3-4 sprigs thyme
  • 3-4 sage leaves
  • 1.5 cups orzo
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • sea salt
  • pepper
  • 1 juice of whole lemon
  • parsley
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Instructions

  • Peel and finely chop onion and garlic.
  • Peel and dice carrots and wash and dice celery.
  • Preheat a large pot over medium heat, once hot add a splash of olive oil and then sauté onions and garlic until translucent. Add diced vegetables and stir-fry until bright (about 5 minutes).
  • Add chicken breasts to pot and then pour broth over everything. Add herbs either loosely or in an herb infuser.
  • Bring everything to a boil and once boiling, put on the lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the chicken breasts are cooked through to 165F internal temperature.
  • Remove chicken breasts from the soup and place on a cutting board.
  • Add orzo to the broth and cook for about 10 minutes or until al dente.
  • In the meantime, take two forks and shred the chicken breasts. Once the pasta is cooked, add the chicken back into the soup to reheat for about 1 minute.
  • Add frozen peas (they will defrost immediately in the hot broth).
  • Remove the herb infuser, add lemon juice, and taste test to see if it needs more seasoning with sea salt and pepper (this will depend on how flavorful your broth was).
  • Serve in a bowl, sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley, and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 334kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 32mg | Sodium: 1807mg | Potassium: 879mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 5313IU | Vitamin C: 51mg | Calcium: 67mg | Iron: 2mg
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine International
Keyword lemon chicken orzo soup
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Filed Under: Main Dish, Soups

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alice Wann says

    August 29, 2021 at 5:13 am

    5 stars
    My family loved this soup. We’ll definitely be making this one again. Thank you for sharing. 😊

    Reply
  2. CareyBerry says

    August 4, 2021 at 4:43 pm

    5 stars
    My teen son is under the weather so I was looking for something that might be appealing to him. Made it per the recipe (half store bought broth/half homemade) and added a wedge of lemon to the side of his bowl so he could add more juice to his taste. He seems to be enjoying it and it is very tasty. I highly recommend it.

    Reply
  3. Jamie says

    March 3, 2021 at 5:55 am

    Do you think this could be cooked in a crock pot? Maybe leaving out the orzo and lemon juice until the end?

    Reply
    • Lorena Grater says

      March 3, 2021 at 4:17 pm

      In theory that should work but I haven’t tried so I don’t know. I’m sorry.

      Reply
    • Mandy says

      June 3, 2021 at 11:28 am

      Well i had a cold so when i made this dish, it was heart warming and very nice. Will make it again.

      Reply
  4. Tiffany says

    December 16, 2020 at 5:36 pm

    Could I use couscous? I don’t have orzo…

    Reply
    • Lorena Grater says

      December 19, 2020 at 4:13 pm

      No, couscous will become super soggy in seconds and then make the whole soup doughy. You can use any other type of pasta but it has to be pasta.

      Reply
  5. larry daye says

    January 27, 2020 at 10:17 am

    what is your recipe for regular chicken soup

    Reply
    • Lorena Graeter says

      January 29, 2020 at 10:33 am

      Hi Larry, I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean with “regular” chicken soup.

      Reply
  6. kelly iles says

    January 25, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    can you subsitute orzo with barley?

    Reply
    • Lorena Graeter says

      January 26, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      You could but I recommend cooking it separately. Barley takes quite a while to cook, not like pasta. I also recommend mixing it in the bowl you’ll be serving the soup instead of the pot because barley absorbs much more liquid than orzo pasta.

      Reply
  7. Kerry says

    January 15, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    Made this yesterday and loved it will be making this again

    Reply
  8. Kiley DeGreen says

    December 15, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    Made this for my family tonight. Everyone loved it! Including my 16 year old son who has a bit of a cold. He said it made him feel better! I did add more lemon but that’s just my taste.

    Reply
  9. Vicki Cunningham says

    December 7, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    5 stars
    Made this tonight with my husband and son. It turned out fabulous! Reminds me of the soup my Greek neighbor used to make! Love the lemon flavor. Perfect for a cold Dec. night!

    Reply
    • Lorena says

      December 8, 2019 at 9:53 am

      I’m so so happy to read this Vicki!

      Reply
  10. Julie says

    December 1, 2019 at 10:55 am

    Where did you get the herb container?

    Reply
    • Lorena says

      December 1, 2019 at 2:51 pm

      At a small shop in Germany. You can find all shapes and sizes and materials on Amazon though :)

      Reply
  11. Dee says

    November 28, 2019 at 1:39 am

    5 stars
    Absolutely delicious! No orzo in my area so I used fideo worked fabulously! Highly recommended this soup!

    Reply
  12. Jennifer says

    November 27, 2019 at 2:18 pm

    Is there a version of this you could do in your instant pot?

    Reply
    • Lorena says

      November 27, 2019 at 3:42 pm

      I haven’t tried it but this version should work. Simply replace fussili with ozro: https://greenhealthycooking.com/instant-pot-chicken-noodle-soup/

      Reply
  13. Helene says

    October 23, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely delicious!
    The only difference is that I used greek kritharakia instead of orzo and cooked them for about 8-9 minutes instead of the 10-12 to avoid overcooking. Worked perfectly.
    Danke Lorena!

    Reply
    • Lorena says

      October 24, 2019 at 2:18 pm

      You’re welcome and thank you so much for coming back and rating and commenting. I really appreciate it! Guten Appetit!

      Reply
  14. Tina says

    October 20, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    I have frozen this soup completely combined and it defrosts wonderfully either with bags in warm water or overnight in the fridge. No worries.

    Reply
    • Lorena says

      October 21, 2019 at 9:57 am

      Great to hear!! And the pasta didn’t overcook when you reheated it?

      Reply

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