2 days Ago
A bowl of Lemon Chicken Orzo soup is the perfect complement to a cold or rainy day. Leftover turkey can also be used to make the soup. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In January, Linda Walker took home the "Golden Ladle" at her church's annual "Soup and Pie Day.
" For the event, church members bring homemade soups and pies, and event organizers appoint two teams of judges to taste all entries and decide upon a winner for each category. In a field of more than 18 soups, Walker's Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup was the winner — and I understand why. She said that a few weeks before the Soup and Pie event, she had a rotisserie chicken from Costco.
She was trying to figure out what she could make with the ingredients she had on hand, including the chicken bones. She found a recipe on Salt & Lavender's website and decided to give it a try, but opted to put her own spin on the recipe. Chopped vegetables for Linda Walker's Lemon Chicken Orzo soup I've made it both ways and can tell you that Walker's edits are a game changer.
(However, after I made it with her edited recipe, she told me about her "secret ingredient." I can't wait to make it a third time with the addition that I believe will add serious umami to the already flavorful soup.) Even after the first time she made it, Walker says she really liked the soup.
"Lemons, chicken broth, orzo — it was really good," she said. "It's one of those good winter, warms-your-insides kinds of things." After discussing the soup for a few minutes, Walker confessed to her "secret ingredient.
" "I do have an ingredient I didn't let on to, but I added this to that recipe — powdered mushrooms," she said. "I got a packet from Red Stick Spice — wild mushroom something. I think that really mellowed out the flavors.
" To start the soup, sauté vegetables. Walker says she cooked for years "to fill our bellies rather than have an adventure," but in the last 10 years she has gotten adventurous — largely influenced by the men in her family. Her husband, Doug Walker, bakes bread.
Their home sounds like the kind of place I would like to spend time — she says they "hardly ever have a day go by when there isn't a fresh loaf." "My son and sons-in-law all love to cook. Everybody has become foodies," she said.
"COVID was the same sort of influence on us as it did for so many others regarding cooking — it's fun. It's universal. You can really enjoy experimenting with the family.
" Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup Recipe is modified by Linda Walker from one by Natasha Bull. One great thing about this soup at this time of year is that turkey and a turkey carcass could be substituted to make the broth and add meat to the soup. 4 sticks celery, chopped finely 4 medium carrots, peeled & chopped finely 1 medium onion, chopped 2 tablespoons olive oil 5 cloves garlic minced 2 tablespoons flour (can use quinoa flour) 10 cups chicken broth 1⁄2 teaspoon Italian seasoning 1-2 tablespoons of Roasted Garlic and Wild Mushroom Blend Powder (Walker purchased from Red Stick Spice Company in Baton Rouge) 11⁄2 pounds uncooked chicken breasts/thighs (Linda uses cooked rotisserie chicken) 1 cup uncooked orzo 1⁄2 cup lemon juice or to taste 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, or to taste Salt and pepper to taste 1.
Sauté the celery, carrots and onions in a large soup pot with the butter and oil over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes. 2. Stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, then add the flour and cook for another minute or so.
3. Pour in the chicken broth and stir until the flour has dissolved, then add the Italian seasoning and chicken. Bring the soup to a boil.
4. Cover the soup (lid slightly open), and reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. 5.
Stir in the orzo and cook for another 10 minutes or until the orzo is cooked through. I keep the lid off and stir it fairly often because it tends to stick to the bottom of the pot. 6.
Take the chicken out of the pot and cut it up, then add it back in. Add the lemon juice (you may want to add more than I suggest – I didn't want to make the soup too lemony for some people) and parsley, and season the soup with salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately.
Notes: Two days before she made the soup, she picked all the meat off a rotisserie chicken and weighed out 11⁄2 pounds of dark and light pieces and froze it. She then boiled the carcass and refrigerated four cups for broth. She ended up adding another four cups of a store-bought carton of chicken stock.
(After Thanksgiving, you could easily substitute turkey and a turkey carcass, as well.) She took the chicken out of the freezer the night before as she did final preparations. On the day of, she brought the pot of vegetables/broth to a boil and added two more cups of broth.
She added and boiled the orzo for a few minutes, then added the thawed chicken and simmered low for 15 minutes. Finally, she added 1⁄2 cup of lemon juice from two freshly squeezed lemons..
