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
- 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
