One-Pot Lemon, Chicken & Orzo Soup
This Lemon, Chicken & Orzo soup is clean, filling, refreshing, and a total crowd-pleaser!
Servings 8 people
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 cup peeled and diced carrots, approximately 3 carrots
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 8-10 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- ¼ tsp. dried oregano
- ¼ tsp. dried basil
- ¼ tsp. dried parsley
- ¼ tsp. dried thyme
- 1 cup whole wheat orzo I use gluten-free
- 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
- 3 whole eggs
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 1 cup fresh baby spinach
- Garnish with grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch Oven over medium-high heat until hot. Add carrots and onion. Sauté until tender, approximately 5-7 minutes. Add garlic in the last minute of cooking time to prevent burning.
- Whisk eggs and lemon juice in a small bowl. Temper the mixture by slowly whisking ¼ cup of the hot liquid of the soup mixture to the egg mixture. Slowly add the warmed egg mixture back to the soup. This method warms the egg mixture slowly without scrambling the eggs. Slowly continue to stir the soup until smooth and creamy.
- Add spinach and season to taste with additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve hot with parmesan cheese.
Notes
Tiffy’s Tips:
- I prepared in my Dutch Oven, however you could easily use a crockpot! Add the orzo in the last 30 minutes of cooking time.
- Eggs are key to achieving a creamy consistency without using actual cream. Tempering is essential to prevent scrambling.
- Tempering eggs involves gradually adding hot liquid to beaten eggs while whisking. This allows the eggs to warm up slowly, avoiding curdling when added to a larger amount of hot liquid. Check out this video for detailed instructions!
- For this recipe I used shredded rotisserie chicken. One chicken yields approximately 3 cups when deboned.
- I used gluten-free orzo but whole wheat works perfectly.
- Top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.
- Feel free to adjust herbs and spices in this recipe to your preference.