Creamy lemon chicken orzo soup (30-minute recipe) (2024)

Anything with the words ‘creamy’, ‘lemon’ or ‘orzo’ in, and I’m sold. So how could a soup with all three of these in, plus CHICKEN, be anything but delicious? And the best thing is, this creamy lemon chicken orzo soup only takes 30 minutes to make!

There are so many cool things about this creamy lemon chicken orzo soup, I’m not sure where to begin. I think what I like most about it is that while it’s a nice chunky soup with plenty of veggie goodness in it (don’t you just hate those soups that you buy from the supermarket that are all watery and have about half a veggie in them?), it’s also ‘light’ enough to throw in a Tupperware and take to work for lunch.

And of course, as I’ve already said (but I’ll say it again just so you get how much I love this soup), it’s got that triple whammy of creamy, lemon and orzo in it to make it extra yummy.

You might be wondering why I didn’t use milk to win a few more points in the ‘healthy’ department? Well, to be honest I did consider it, but I was worried about the lemon juice curdling the milk, which doesn’t happen so easily with cream.

And the thing is, there is really quite a small amount of cream in it – only a third of a cup in the whole pot, which serves at least 4, if not more.

Not that we’re worried about a little cream, of course.

The other little trick I used to make this lovely and lemony (but not overwhelmingly so) was to add just 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, which isequivalent to about the juice of a small lemon. But then I added the zest of the lemon, too. This way there’s no chance of any unpleasant curdling.

What’s orzo, anyway?

The orzo, or risoni – which is sort of rice-shaped pasta, in case you were wondering – is the soup version of the icing on the cake. You only need about ¾ of a cup, less if you like, to make a lovely hearty soup.

And if you can’t find orzo where you live (it’s fairly tricky to find here in the UK, actually!), giant or Israeli couscous would work instead. Or any small pasta shape really.

If you want to go completely wild, why not sub the orzo for gnocchi, or tortellini? Both of these cook quickly, so you could just add them in at the appropriate moment just before the soup’s finished cooking.

Do you cook the orzo before adding it to the soup?

Nope. Add it with the stock and let it simmer for 10 minutes as you would regular pasta. Delicious!

This is definitely going to be a regular in our soup rotation. It’s a perfect winter warmer for this time of year, exciting and filling enough to cheer you up on a dreary mid-winter day, butnotso heavy that you don’t have room for dessert! 😉

P.S. like to use a cast iron Dutch oven pot like this one to cook this soup! This pot is great. Just like a Le Creuset cast iron pot, but not as expensive.

And if you like this recipe…

• You might also enjoy this baked Greek chicken orzo. It’s also a perfect quick and easy meal for midweek that the whole family will enjoy!
• How about this 30-minute Greek mac and cheese bake? It has a creamy evaporated milk and egg sauce (no roux and flour) and works great as an easy midweek main dish or side.
• This easy crockpot chicken gnocchi soup is very popular and you can make it either in your slow cooker or pressure cooker.

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