Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
Broth given body with tempered egg and lemon instead of starch. The orzo keeps its bite in the pot and again the next day.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
About 10 cups.
- ThinSlim 1 cup ThinSlim Foods Impastable Low Carb Pasta Rice (Orzo)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/2 lb boneless chicken thighs
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, from about 2 lemons
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup chopped dill
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Shop this recipe
Made with ThinSlim. Figures are the product label, not the finished dish.
ThinSlim
Impastable Low Carb Pasta Rice (Orzo)
$10.49
- Per
- 2oz (57g)
- Calories
- 55
- Net carbs
- 8g
- Protein
- 4g
- Fiber
- 36g
Swap it
Method
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium. Cook the onion, carrot and celery with a big pinch of salt until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic for the last minute.
- Add the stock, chicken thighs and bay leaves. Bring to a bare simmer and cook until the chicken pulls apart easily, about 18 minutes.
- Lift out the chicken, shred it with two forks, and fish out the bay leaves.
- Taste the broth and salt it properly now, before the pasta goes in.
- Add the orzo and simmer to the package timing, then turn off the heat.
- Whisk the eggs and lemon juice together in a bowl. Ladle in a cup of the hot broth in a slow stream while whisking hard, then do it again with a second cup.
- Pour the tempered mixture back into the pot and stir it through.
- Return the chicken, add the zest and dill, and season again. Do not let it boil after the egg goes in.
Tips
Orzo normally ruins soup twice. It clouds the broth on the first day and keeps swelling in the fridge until the second day is porridge. Impastable sheds almost no starch, so you can cook it right in the pot and still have soup tomorrow. The trade is that the pasta gives the broth no body at all, which is why the egg and lemon is doing that job here.
Tempering is the only fussy part. The pot must be off the heat, the stream of broth slow, and the whisk must not stop. Once the egg is in, the soup never boils again or it will break into threads.
Salt the broth before the orzo goes in, not after. This pasta tastes flat cooked in an under-seasoned liquid and you cannot fix that later.
Tempering is the only fussy part. The pot must be off the heat, the stream of broth slow, and the whisk must not stop. Once the egg is in, the soup never boils again or it will break into threads.
Salt the broth before the orzo goes in, not after. This pasta tastes flat cooked in an under-seasoned liquid and you cannot fix that later.