CHICKEN ORZO SOUP

I can not say this enough, I LOVE SOUP.  I love playing around with soup.  I love throwing stuff in a pot and seeing how it tastes.  I also love to utilizing pasta in soup.  I also happen to love orzo.  I mean orzo is a great little pasta.  That's correct orzo is pasta, not rice.  You can do so much with orzo.  Orzo pasta salad is freaking amazing.  But, back to soup.  

When making a soup that is solely broth based, I highly suggest you use a good quality broth.  I am fortunate because I can my own bone broth.  When I say broth based, I mean no tomato products.  So, the liquid part of your soup is broth.  Since broth is going to be the primary base you want it to taste good.  The better quality you use the better the soup.  That makes sense, right?

In making this chicken orzo soup I started with a saute of celery, carrots, and onion in a small amount of olive oil.  In a lot of soups I make, those 3 ingredients are the base of my vegetables.  With this soup, I added mushrooms.  Of course, I added garlic.  I added the mushrooms and garlic right before I added chicken bone broth and chicken.  When I made this soup I had just found an excellent deal on boneless skinless chicken breast, which I decided to can but I left a couple breast out to saute for this soup.  At the very end, I added a bag of spinach which I think makes soup heartier.  It is extremely important to add spinach at the end so it does not wilt too much.  

CHICKEN ORZO SOUP

Ingredients

• 2 quarts chicken broth 
• 3 stalks of celery sliced
• 3 carrots sliced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1 carton of mushrooms sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 pound chicken breast
• 1 cup orzo
• 1 package of spinach
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bay leaf

Directions

• Cut chicken into small pieces and saute in olive oil until done about 5 to 6 minutes.  Take out of the pot and set aside.
• Slice and dice celery, carrots, and onion.  Place in a dutch oven and saute in olive oil for 10 minutes.  Add minced garlic and mushrooms and saute an additional 3 minutes.
• Add chicken breast back into the dutch oven.  Pour broth into the dutch oven and add Italian seasoning, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.  
• Cook on medium low heat with the lid on for 30 minutes to an hour.  
• Pre-cook 1 cup of orzo per package directions.  Strain and add to soup along with spinach a few minutes prior to serving.

It is important to cook your orzo prior to adding to your soup.  Cooking pasta in the soup will not only change the flavor, it will also add more starch then you need and reduce the amount of liquid.  

I personally cook my soup longer than the above-stated amount of time.  I think the longer it can cook on a low heat setting the more your soup can marinate with the flavors of all ingredients.  Kind of like when people say it is better the next day.  Soup is always better cooked low and slow.  I am not saying you can not make a good soup quick because you can, just if you have time go low and slow.