This soup is the perfect ode to fall! Chicken meets orzo in an almost tomato soup form plus lots of bread dips, of course. Let’s go!
Chicken Orzo Tomato Soup
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I never leave comments but I had to because this was SO good!!!
We ate it all up! It was quick and easy and perfect. The lemon brightened it beautifully and as my husband said “the heavy cream really makes this dish.” Yum yum yum
We added a handful of spinach which was easy and you couldn’t really taste it. Even my toddler ate this up.
Can’t say enough good things. We will definitely make this again (soon)!
Meredith Spangler
This recipe is sponsored by DeLallo
Chicken and orzo literally never fail. It can do no wrong. And make that chicken and orzo in an almost tomato soup form and you have a foolproof, everybody-likes-it dinner that is practically SOS-level easy. This soup as well as this baked orzo meal have been on my SOS hit list lately.
This soup is a pantry essential with just a few ingredients coming straight out of the cupboards: tomato paste, garlic, broth, and orzo. And this is one of those cases where simplicity just wins.
The Flavor Of This Soup
This chicken orzo tomato soup can be a little bit of a chameleon – you can give it the flavors that you like. You build the base by caramelizing tomato paste and garlic (idea coming from a recipe in a Milkstreet cookbook!) and you can spice to your heart’s delight. I like to stay in the mainstream flavor zone for this one with Italian seasoning (almost has a pizza-like flavor to it with the tomato paste and garlic), but I feel like smoked paprika or other more zippy herbs could also be successful. The version I was inspired by in the Milkstreet cookbook had mint as one of the herbs! I wasn’t quite ready for the mint jump, but I’m just saying, you have options. Let the spirit lead!
In This Post: Everything You Need For Chicken Orzo Soup
- The Best Orzo to Use
- Homemade Pesto and Pesto Bread Dips
- Variations on This Chicken Orzo Soup
- What to Serve with This Soup
- Chicken Orzo Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
My Preferred Orzo
I consistently use DeLallo orzo – it is made IN ITALY and it’s bronze cut, which gives it unparalleled texture. It’s available in both semolina and whole wheat varieties, which is just really wonderful. Whole wheat orzo can be almost impossible to find, so if you’re looking for a stock-up, DeLallo is your place.
We’ve worked with DeLallo forEVER and we love their products.
The Pesto Bread Dip Situation
Let it be known that I am a big fan of homemade pesto here, and I find that the best way to do things is to first dunk your bread in the pesto (it’s thick, flavorful, and delicious) and then dunk your pesto-ed bread into the soup. SO GOOD.
Fresh flavor in every nook and cranny.
I still have a bunch of basil left in my garden that is nearing the end of its life (aka winter is coming), so I am excited to be making a bunch of pesto right now. And the flavor – ugh. It’s so fresh and so good. I was licking the remnants of it right out of the food processor.
This recipe is so easy that I promise this extra step won’t feel like too much.
Variations On This Chicken Orzo Soup
Few ideas if you want to play around with it:
- Get some wilted greens right up in the soup!
- Try white beans in addition to (or instead of) chicken.
- Reduce the broth and use ground Italian sausage for your protein – think Hamburger Helper but Italian style and homemade. Yum.
- Omit any additional protein at all and just serve it like a spaghetti-o’s old school bowl of soup! Truly so magical.
- Use cashew cream instead of heavy cream.
- Add some pureed roasted red peppers for a red pepper flavor.
What To Serve With This
I mean, bread is a given. A take-and-bake loaf is great – but if you want to make your own, you need to try this No-Knead Miracle Bread.
Salad is nice – just something to really make this into a real you-pick-two lunch or dinner situation. And yes, once again, I would recommend the Simple Green Salad that goes with everything.
And if you want to go all-out with your veggies, Liz’s Roasted Broccoli Salad is legitimately exciting every single time.
This soup is cozy and comforting, easy and crowd-pleasing, and kind of just a love letter to all things simple and uncomplicated. Thank you, chicken and orzo!
Chicken Orzo Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make this soup vegetarian-friendly?
Easy! Just sub a can of white beans instead of the chicken and use veggie broth.
How do I make my own pesto?
Just blitz 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste), 1 cup packed basil leaves, and 1 cup packed other greens, like spinach (!), in a food processor until it makes crumbles; drizzle in about 1/4 cup olive oil until it comes together into a sauce. Finish with a bunch of lemon juice and you’re good to go!
How can I make my own bread for lots of delicious bread dips?
The very best (and incredibly easy!) bread recipe can be found here!
Chicken Orzo Tomato Soup
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This soup is the perfect ode to fall! Chicken meets orzo in an almost tomato soup form plus lots of bread dips, of course. Let’s go!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 tablespoons DeLallo Private Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced
- 1/4 cup DeLallo Tomato Paste
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 4 cups chicken broth
- salt to taste
- 1 cup DeLallo Orzo Pasta
- 2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken (I use the pulled meat from a rotisserie chicken)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1–2 cups water as desired
- parmesan, herbs, red pepper flakes, and lemon for serving
- bread for serving
- pesto for serving (optional – recipe in notes)
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. (See notes on types of pan to use!) Add the garlic; sauté for 1-2 minutes until soft and fragrant but not browned.
- Add the tomato paste and Italian seasoning; cook until it becomes caramelized and turns a deep red color, about 5 minutes.
- Add the broth gradually until the mixture incorporates into a smooth liquid. This is a good time to add salt; I recommend tasting the liquid to see how much salt it needs depending on how salty your broth was. Otherwise just add 1/2 teaspoon to start, and add from there.
- Add the orzo and bring the whole thing to a simmer for about 10 minutes until the orzo is soft. If needed, add a cup more of water and/or broth to get your desired consistency. Stir in heavy cream.
- Add the chicken and squeeze in a bunch of lemon juice to wake the whole thing up.
- Serve topped with Parmesan, herbs, red pepper flakes, and hot crusty bread. If you want, serve with a little side of pesto for dipping the bread in before dunking in the soup. YUM. So good!
Notes
I recommend using a nonstick pan for this – you can also use a Dutch oven or another type of pan, but you’ll need to stir periodically so that the orzo doesn’t stick. If the only nonstick you have is a large-ish sauté pan, I would use that!
For the pesto, I blitz 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste), 1 cup packed basil leaves, and 1 cup packed other greens, like spinach (!), in a food processor until it makes crumbles; then I drizzle in about 1/4 cup olive oil until it comes together into a sauce. Finish with a bunch of lemon juice and you’re good to go! Perfect bread-and-soup dunking companion.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian-Inspired
Keywords: orzo soup, chicken soup, chicken orzo soup
Thanks to DeLallo for sponsoring this recipe!
More Favorites with Orzo
- Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo (fresh, filling, and so vibrant)
- Greek Baked Orzo (all baked in a skillet)
- Chicken Meatballs with Peppers and Orzo (this is the BEST combo)
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Dutch Oven Fall Healthy Main Dishes Meat and Chicken Pasta Quick and Easy Recipes Soups Stovetop Sugar-Free Winter
October 17, 2022
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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I never seem to have heavy cream on hand. Can whole milk work as a substitute? Thanks!
It definitely won’t be as creamy. Do you have half and half by chance? That might be better.
I made this for dinner tonight and had high hopes. In the end, it was…fine. I used chicken Italian sausage in place of the chicken. I think it might have been too bland with rotisserie chicken. That said, with the sausage, I wish I had skipped the squeeze of lemon. There are too many other really good recipes out there – I won’t be making this one again.
Loved this soup! I had chicken thigh fillets at home and fried them with the garlic. Skipped the lemon since it tasted great without it. I will probably skip the cream next time since I prefered it when I tasted the soup before putting in the cream but it was still a great soup. The kids loved it too!
Delicious! Easy to make and easy to modify with what you have on hand. I made it with Italian sausage instead of chicken (what I had leftover from a Sunday sauce) and added in spinach. Served with garlic bread it was perfect and hearty. Skipped the lemon squeeze but def don’t skip the cream!
I never leave comments but I had to because this was SO good!!!
We ate it all up! It was quick and easy and perfect. The lemon brightened it beautifully and as my husband said “the heavy cream really makes this dish.” Yum yum yum
We added a handful of spinach which was easy and you couldn’t really taste it. Even my toddler ate this up.
Can’t say enough good things. We will definitely make this again (soon)!
So so good!! I used faux chicken from herbivorous butcher (please tell me you know them as a Minnesotan, they’re amazing) and cashew cream and it’s so freaking good! Major spaghetti-o vibes, so comforting!
This looks like one healthy and delicious entree for people looking to lose weight and cut back on calorie consumption.
So interesting! Normally I just do broth when I fancy chicken soup, what an interesting twist!
This was terrific, and oh so fast and easy! I made it vegetarian by using vegetable broth and subbed chickpeas for the chicken, then added a few handfuls of fresh spinach. A great, cozy weeknight dinner (served with crusty bread, of course!).
Excellent!
Yum! Made this (with a few alterations to accommodate food allergies) and it was so yummy! It did make rather a lot of dishes – but was super good 🙂
i realy love tomato soup
this sounds great
Yummy…! I really wanna try this dish i love chicken this dish looks very interesting. should i use more indian spices for more spicy.
Could I add spinach or kale to this to give it some greens?
Easy and comforting! Couple of small things I did differently, that maybe would circumvent it being too bland as one person commented, sauteed half an onion before adding garlic, used double concentrated tomato paste, included 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes with the italian seasoning. I also forgot to add the heavy cream and it was still great!
We really enjoyed this recipe, if you like a little heat I would definitely add the pepper flakes. My teens even enjoyed it, so we will be adding this to our soup rotation.
Loved this super simple recipe! I left out the chicken and added white beans, spinach and red pepper flakes. It was fab!
Looking for a quick/easy soup to make using items I had on hand in the pantry. This was the perfect solution. Came together with easy and enjoyed by all. Ended up adding about one additional cup of chicken broth before serving. Thanks you!
This soup was one of my favorite recipes from your site…and I’ve made a lot of your recipes. SO DELICIOUS!! I used unsweetened soy milk instead of cream and it still was phenomenal.
Fabulous soup! A delicious and easy weeknight meal for the whole family. I will be making it again and soon.
Does this soup freeze well?
We probably wouldn’t suggest it with the orzo in there. It might thaw kinda weird.
This was so quick to make, minimal ingredients and effort, but superrrr tasty! I made shredded chicken breast in the Instant Pot and used that. I didn’t need to add any extra broth and I used 4 tbsp of heavy cream. The soup had such a nice flavour to it. For anyone that said it was bland, they probably just didn’t add enough salt!
Really easy to make and super delicious! Definitely adding this one to my meal rotation.
Made this tonight and it was soooo good for a chilly evening! Added diced carrots, zucchini and celery after the orzo had been cooking a few minutes (I’m lazy with vegetable sides so add them in wherever I can) and it was great! Used leftover roast turkey that I had in the freezer too. Really loved how caramelizing the tomato paste made for a really deep savory tomato flavor. Adding to the rotation!