Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup (Instant Pot or stovetop)

This lemon chicken orzo soup is a delicious and easy recipe that comes together quickly. Perfect for a week night dinner!

Lemon chicken orzo soup is a meal that happens to be pretty healthy, which I love. It has tons of immunity boosting ingredients. 👊🏻 So it is great to make when you or somebody you love isn’t feeling well.

This recipe reminds me of my chicken noodle soup from scratch…but with an Italian twist.

Lemon chicken orzo soup has a few different herbs like rosemary and thyme, plus a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end for a little pop of flavor. It is so, SO good! Warm, comforting, filling and delicious, y’all.

Ingredients

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To make this lemon chicken orzo soup recipe, you will need the following:

• onion
• carrots
• celery
• garlic
• chicken stock
• cooked chicken shredded
• thyme
• rosemary
• bay leaves
• orzo pasta
• lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional toppings: fresh chopped Italian flat leaf parsley & parmesan cheese

How to make lemon chicken orzo soup

Heat cooking spray or oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.

Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook the vegetables, and stir occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.
Stir in garlic, thyme and bay leaves until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Pour in the chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Stir in orzo, rosemary and cooked chicken.

After re-boil, reduce heat and simmer until orzo is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir in lemon juice, and add salt and pepper, to taste. Remove bay leaves and rosemary sprig. Optional: Top with parsley and parmesan cheese.

Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

• If you are in a more homemade and made-from-scratch mood, feel free to use homemade chicken bone broth or homemade whole chicken.
• It is not any quicker to make this in the Instant Pot than it is on the stovetop. However, it does infuse flavor. So I know a lot of you will prefer to make it that way.
• Feel free to use every shortcut available to you: pre cut carrots, pre diced onion, minced garlic, store-bought rotisserie chicken. Anything to make cooking more attainable and easy!
• My Instant pot shredded chicken or slow cooker shredded chicken both work well in this recipes.

Tools Used to Make This Recipe

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• Knife and cutting board
• I am using an enameled cast iron dutch oven. I have also used this pot to make it.
• Ladle for serving
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Lemon Juicer (optional, but it sure helps!)

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5 from 2 votes

Print

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

This lemon chicken orzo soup is a delicious and easy recipe that comes together quickly. Perfect for a week night dinner!

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword lemon chicken orzo soup

Prep Time 8 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 28 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 153 kcal

Author Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy

Ingredients

• cooking spray or 1 Tablespoon oil of choice: olive or avocado would be my top picks
• 1 medium onion diced
• 3 cups carrots peeled and diced (I used 2 of pre-sliced carrot chips)
• 2 stalks celery diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 pound cooked chicken shredded or cut into bite-sized chunks (I used store bought rotisserie chicken)
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or half teaspoon of dried
• 1 sprig rosemary or half teaspoon dried
• 2 leaves bay
• 1 cup uncooked whole wheat orzo pasta
• Juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional toppings: fresh chopped Italian flat leaf parsley & parmesan cheese

Instructions

Stovetop Instructions

1. Heat cooking spray or oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.

2. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook the vegetables, and stir occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in garlic, thyme and bay leaves until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Pour in the chicken stock, and bring to a boil.
5. Stir in orzo, rosemary and cooked chicken.
6. After re-boil, reduce heat and simmer until orzo is tender, about 10 minutes.
7. Stir in lemon juice, and add salt and pepper, to taste.
8. Remove bay leaves and rosemary sprig.
9. Top with parsley and parmesan cheese.
10. Serve immediately.

Instant Pot Instructions

1. Spray the inner pot with cooking spray (or add oil), and set to sauté, allowinbg the pot to heat up for a minute or two.

2. Add onion, celery and carrots, and cook about 3 to 4 minutes.

3. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.

4. Add chicken stock, chicken, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and pasta.

5. Place the lid on, and lock it to sealing.

6. Cook on low pressure for 4 minutes. (Note: mine took about 20 minutes to come up to pressure.)

7. Allow the pot to release naturally for 5 minutes, and then use the quick release lever to release the remaining pressure.

8. Stir in lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

Nutritional information is approximate and was calculated using a recipe nutrition label generator.

Nutrition Facts

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Amount Per Serving

Calories 153 Calories from Fat 36

% Daily Value*

Fat 4g6%

Cholesterol 5mg2%

Sodium 300mg13%

Potassium 420mg12%

Carbohydrates 22g7%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 5g6%

Protein 7g14%

Vitamin A 8090IU162%

Vitamin C 5.4mg7%

Calcium 38mg4%

Iron 1.2mg7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Note: This recipe originally appeared on A Pinch of Healthy January 29, 2016. The recipe is the same, but I refreshed the photos.