Golden Chicken, Corn & Orzo Soup

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corazon

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Joined
Jun 24, 2005
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3,859
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Native New Mexican, now live in Bellingham, WA
I made this a couple days ago. When it was finished, I promptly ate two bowls of it. It is soup weather, here in the NW but for many of you it is still too hot to even think about soup. Save this recipe for a rainy day. This recipe can be made in 45 minutes and would be great for a weeknight dinner. I omitted the saffron since it is so darn expensive and it still came out great, I feel like it could have used more corn though. I like corn.

Golden chicken, corn & orzo soup
Serves 5 to 6 as a main course
2 Tbs olive oil
2 large ribs celery, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 pinch saffron threads
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 qt. homemade or low-salt chicken broth
2 cups finely diced or shredded cooked chicken (such as leftover roast chicken or a rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup orzo
1 cup frozen corn (I used fresh since it's in season)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice; more to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a medium saucepan of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the celery, onion, saffron, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the chicken and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. While the soup simmers, cook the orzo in the boiling salted water until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.
Add the drained orzo, corn and parsley to the soup and cook just until the corn is heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if needed. Enjoy!
 
Thanks for sharing corazon90 this is absolutely the kind of stick to your ribs homemade soup I love :) (And orzo is such a great change of pace from rice...I love it cooked up in stock with nothing more than a hit of fresh parm.)
 
YUM! I made chicken corn chowder the other day so I will wait a bit to make this, but it looks right up my alley.
 
Corazon, I was just looking for a good chicken soup recipe for tonight that was different than my usual chicken-carrot-green onion-potato-celery one.
This one really sounds good, and I have all the ingreds on hand. Question -
does the lemon really stand out, or is it more of a "fresh" kind of taste?

Thanks!
 
Well, I made the soup and it was quite good - thanks Corazon!

After tasting, I decided the lemon was just for a "freshness" quotient. Good call.

I took your advice and doubled the corn and also doubled the saffron.
I can't eat regular onions, so used green onions instead.

Very pretty and went perfectly with a nice crusty french loaf.
 
Whoops! Sorry I didn't get back to you jkath! I'm gonna sat "yes!" to the lemon juice being a fresh taste. lol.
I haven't been on dc much lately. We don't get heat upstairs in our computer room and it's just soooo cold. Right now I am typing in my gloves and hat! lol!
 
This sounds tasty. I'm gonna have to try it. I like orzo a lot, but somehow don't use it much. Now here's the perfect excuse to pick some up next time I'm at the store.

Cooked in broth with loads of fresh parm sounds delish!
 
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