Lemon Chicken Orzo Chickpea Soup (Instant Pot cooked chicken)
Light lemon chicken orzo chickpeas soup. The chicken cooked fast in the Instant Pot. Light bright flavors with fresh spinach and dill, loaded with veggies. Warm with the chicken, chickpeas, and orzo.
This recipe is so delicious. So filling without being heavy. Add the egg and lemon to make the soup creamy add so much protein without the dairy to weigh the soup down. I added chicken to make sure we could eat the lemon chicken orzo chickpea soup as a main dish for dinner. It can easily be a vegetarian main dish leaving out the chicken as it has vegetable broth as the base.
Orzo a little bitty pasta, adds to the texture of the soup. Easy to find in any store in the pasta aisle. Cooks up fast.
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Why Cook the Chicken in the Instant Pot
I wanted to make this soup for our family as a main dish and the men in our family are meat-eaters. The girls tend to lean to the vegetarian side. I cooked the chicken in the instant pot and not in the soup that way the base of the soup does not have the meat in it.
Quickly cook the chicken on high pressure for 5 minutes with a 5-minute release. Remove the chicken and allow it to cool and the chicken shredded quickly and easily. It was done in no time to be added to the soup for a hearty dinner.
Prepare Before You Start The Lemon Chicken Orzo Chickpea Soup
The first time I made this recipe it took me over an hour. I try to make a recipe that is healthy, quick, and simple. It is important to feed our families fresh whole foods make fresh in our kitchens. Our families’ health and well-being depend on keeping out of the fast-food line and out of the processed food section in the store.
When the soup was done it was so good and delicious that I had to find a way to make it more friendly to cook for a home with kids. My first suggestion would be to make the recipe on the weekend. We ate the soup for 3 meals and loved every bit.
I then reworked the recipe so that all the prep work is done before you start cooking. You could even have the onions, carrots and the chicken cooked the day before.
Regardless of the time, it takes to make the Chicken Orzo soup you will not regret it. So delicious.
(I will try to make the soup in the Instant Pot and update the recipe if it turns out, I will keep you posted)
Check Out These Budget Friendly Instant Pots
Chicken Lemon Orzo Chickpea Soup (chicken made in the Instant Pot)
A warm light healthy lemon chicken orzo chickpea soup. The chicken is made separate in the instant pot for a quick and easy add of protein to the recipe. This soup is a light chicken lemon soup that is light a flavorful. Loaded with veggies.
This recipe was inspired by a recipe from Gimmesomeoven.com where you can see the original recipe.
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 to 10 servings 1x
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
- 1 package of fresh chicken tenders
- 1 1/2 cup of water
- Salt and pepper
The Soup:
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 large onion, dices
- 6 large carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 tablespoon of prepared chopped garlic
- 10 cups or 2 and 1/2 box of vegetable stock
- 2 cans of chickpeas
- 1 cup orzo
- 4 eggs
- the juice of one fresh lemon
- 3 cups of fresh spinach (about one box of pre-washed spinach)
- 3 tablespoons of chopped dill
Instructions
Cook the Chicken:
- Put one cup of water at the bottom of the inner pot of the Instant Pot
- Place the cooking rack in the bottom.
- Salt and pepper the chicken to taste
- Place the chicken on top of the cooking rack
- Close the lid, set to high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow for a 5 minute natural release.
- Remove from the instant pot and shred with two forks
While the chicken is cooking, prepare all ingredients before you start the soup:
- With a Vandalia chopper or food chopper, chop the onions, carrots to uniform bite size pieces.
- Juice the lemon
- Finely chop the dill
- Rinse and drain the chickpeas
- Wash the spinach
Start the soup in a large soup pot or large dutch oven:
- Heat the dutch oven over medium to high heat.
- Add the olive oil and saute the onions for 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots and saute for 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic.
- Next add the vegetable stock and chickpeas and bring to a soft boil.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Add the orzo and stir, cook on simmer for the time noted on your box of orzo. For my orzo this was 10 minutes. When done remove from heat.
- While the soup is simmering mix together the eggs and the lemon juice.
- Add a drizzle a spoonful of hot soup into the egg mixture a very small amount at a time whisking continually until you have added about 1/2 cup of soup liquid to the egg. (Do this very slowly as you do not want the egg to cook but warm up, or what is called temper)
- Next whisk the soup mixture while adding the egg mixture to the soup pot. Again do this very slowly. (This makes the soup look like a cream soup without adding any cream)
- When the egg and lemon are added to the soup return back onto the heat and bring to a low simmer.
- Add the shredded chicken to the soup.
- Add the dill and the spinach until the spinach is wilted.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- You can make this dish vegetarian by not adding the chicken
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
