This lemon chicken orzo soup is a healthy, creamy, and dairy-free soup made using eggs to thicken the soup and make it creamy.
It is made by cooking the chicken in the instant pot so it can be ready in under an hour and make for a delicious dinner! Hungry for more soups? Try my Hearty Tuscan Tortellini Soup next!
What do you need:
- Chicken Breast - You could also buy precooked rotisserie chicken to cut down on time
- Orzo- use Jovial brand if you need it to be gluten-free
- lemon
- eggs
- spinach - fresh or frozen works!
- chicken broth
- diced white onion - I buy the frozen kind to cut down on time
- minced garlic
Substitutions:
If you are vegetarian you could try using northern white beans instead of chicken
No eggs? If you are not dairy free you could add some heavy cream of greek yogurt
Over the Spoon for:
- Fresh lemon zest flavor
- Creamy dairy-free soup
- Full of protein, fiber, and vitamin- C
How to make:
- Sauté garlic & onion. Then pressure cook chicken.
- Set to sauté mode, add broth and bring to a boil.
- Add orzo to broth mixture and cook orzo.
- In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, the juice of 1 lemon, and about 2 tsp lemon zest.
- *Slowly* whisk in about 5 tablespoons of heated broth from instant pot to egg mixture to prevent the eggs from cooking to quickly in soup.
- Stir egg, lemon, and broth mixture into soup and turn off sauté mode.
- Add in spinach allowing to wilt.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.
If making on stove top with pre-cooked chicken:
- In a large pot sauté onion and garlic.
- Add chicken, orzo, and all of broth.
- Continue from step 3 above.
**Important Tip**
If soup gets too thick - possibly from different types of orzo, just add some more broth or water to each bowl when serving!
Serve with:
It’s great on its own or serve with a size salad and a piece of fresh bread.
If you like this soup try some of my other favorites like this Chicken Sausage Quinoa Soup or my Vegetable Orzo Soup.
I hope you are Over the Spoon for this recipe!
It is my goal to inspire you to create healthy and easy meals.
It would mean the world if you could leave a review or a star rating below!
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lb. chicken breasts
- ¾ cup orzo pasta
- 1 large lemon
- 2 eggs
- 5 cups spinach
- 5 cups chicken broth
- ½ diced white onion
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
Instructions
- Turn instant pot on saute mode and saute onion with oil for about 3 minutes, add garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.
- Hit cancel and add chicken and add 1 cup broth, set to pressure cook for 11 minutes and cook chicken. Turn off instant pot remove chicken to shred chicken thoroughly.
- Return chicken to instant pot and add additional 4 cups of broth, set to sauté mode and bring to a boil.
- Add orzo to broth and chicken.
- In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, the juice of 1 lemon, and about 2 tsp lemon zest.
- *Slowly* whisk in about 5 tablespoons of heated broth from instant pot to egg mixture to prevent the eggs from cooking too quickly.
- Stir egg, lemon, and broth mixture into soup and turn off sauté mode.
- Add in spinach allowing it to wilt.
- Serve with fresh pepper and salt.
I am making this soup now. How long does shoot it take the orzo to cook/boil? Happy NewYear!
So delicious especially with the lemon flavor. Super easy to make! I made a double batch and we enjoyed it for a few days. Good hint to add extra broth when re-heating . I made it once when I was getting over a cold and it tasted so healthy! Will make this again and again -this is a winner!
Love this one.