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!
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.
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.
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
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
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!
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Jamie says
Do you think this could be cooked in a crock pot? Maybe leaving out the orzo and lemon juice until the end?
Lorena Grater says
In theory that should work but I haven’t tried so I don’t know. I’m sorry.
Tiffany says
Could I use couscous? I don’t have orzo…
Lorena Grater says
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.
larry daye says
what is your recipe for regular chicken soup
Lorena Graeter says
Hi Larry, I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean with “regular” chicken soup.
kelly iles says
can you subsitute orzo with barley?
Lorena Graeter says
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.
Kerry says
Made this yesterday and loved it will be making this again
Kiley DeGreen says
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.
Vicki Cunningham says
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!
Lorena says
I’m so so happy to read this Vicki!
Julie says
Where did you get the herb container?
Lorena says
At a small shop in Germany. You can find all shapes and sizes and materials on Amazon though :)
Dee says
Absolutely delicious! No orzo in my area so I used fideo worked fabulously! Highly recommended this soup!
Jennifer says
Is there a version of this you could do in your instant pot?
Lorena says
I haven’t tried it but this version should work. Simply replace fussili with ozro: https://greenhealthycooking.com/instant-pot-chicken-noodle-soup/
Helene says
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!
Lorena says
You’re welcome and thank you so much for coming back and rating and commenting. I really appreciate it! Guten Appetit!
Tina says
I have frozen this soup completely combined and it defrosts wonderfully either with bags in warm water or overnight in the fridge. No worries.
Lorena says
Great to hear!! And the pasta didn’t overcook when you reheated it?