{recipes} Lemon Chicken and Orzo Soup

It was a rainy day here in LA and the perfect time to make some Lemon Chicken Soup. In my freezer I had a whole chicken, and my lemon tree had just yielded many lemons. Having this soup simmering all day made the house smell so good, and my husband was very pleased when he came home. I was planning on there being leftovers, but he almost ate the whole thing! So I had to share the recipe.

The Stock:

Ingredients:

1 4-5 lb whole young chicken

2 carrots, cut up

2 stalks of celery, cut up

1 onion, halved

1/2 lemon, sliced

1 bay leaf

15 or so peppercorns

Directions:

Rinse chicken and place it in a stock pot. Cover with water and add carrots, celery, onion, lemon, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Simmer until chicken is cooked through and begins to fall off the bone (About 1.5 hours).

Remove chicken from pot to cool. Skim fat off the top of the stock.

The Soup:

Ingredients:

Your stock (or if you are going to use store-bought, 6 cups of stock

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium carrots, cut into rounds

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1/3 cup white wine

8 oz orzo

2 tsp thyme (I used dried, but fresh would also work)

3 egg yolks

juice of 2 lemons

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped.

Directions:

Strain your stock into a separate bowl.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive or canola oil in your stock pot. Saute the onion over medium-high heat until golden and tender. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute more.

Deglaze the pan with white wine and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the broth and carrot. Bring to a boil. 

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and lemon together. Add 1 cup of hot broth from the dutch oven very slowly to the egg yolk mixture, whisking as you pour. Then, transfer the mixture to the dutch oven. Stir in the orzo and chicken.

Add the thyme. Continue cooking over medium-low until the pasta and carrots are tender. 

Just before serving, stir in parsley. Serve immediately with crusty bread, or a greek salad.

Forgive my iphone photos.