This recipe is very easy to pull off, and comes together very quickly. I have modified it slightly away from the browned chicken chunks and replaced those with pulled poached chicken.

Greek Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Ingredients:

• Chicken Broth – 8 Cups
• Orzo Pasta – 1 Cup
• Chicken Breast – 1.5 Pounds
• Chicken Eggs – 3
• Lemon Juice – 1/3 Cup
• Lemon Zest – 1 Tbsp
• Parsley – 2 Tbsp
• Cornstarch – 2 Tbsp
• Water – 1 Cup
• Salt and Pepper

Procedure:

1. Poach Chicken: Bring roughly two gallons of water to a vigorous boil. Add whole chicken breasts to water, reduce heat to medium and cover. Boil for 10 minutes. When time elapses, turn off heat completely and leave for 20 minutes. When done, remove from water, drain, let dry 5 minutes, pull chicken breast meat apart using two forks into fine pulled fibers. Set aside. Dump water.
2. In pot, add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
3. When broth is at boil, lower heat to medium and add Orzo pasta. Cook for 15 minutes.
4. When time elapses, add the pulled chicken to the pot.
5. While pot is cooking, whisk eggs together, add lemon juice and zest.
6. Temper the eggs with a ladle of broth, then add egg mixture to broth.
7. Lower the heat to low, if the soup doesn’t thicken to your liking whisk the cornstarch and water together and add that to soup to thicken. You could add a white roux if you wanted instead of the cornstarch, up to you.

It’s best to prepare this soup immediately and eat it promptly. The orzo will continue to expand until they burst, greatly damaging the texture of the soup. If you enjoy this recipe, please let me know. 🙂