Instant Pot Chicken Orzo Soup

Instant Pot Chicken Orzo Soup–a brothy chicken soup with orzo pasta and a splash of lemon juice.

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Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in the recipe card below

Instant Pot Chicken Orzo Soup

This soup is like chicken noodle soup or chicken and rice soup but with orzo instead of noodles or rice. You might notice from the pictures that I actually used half orzo and half spaghettios type of pasta. I didn’t have quite enough orzo and I had some O shaped pasta that I bought from the bulk bins at Winco, so I used that too. It turned out really tasty and was perfect for some of us who were feeling under the weather. There’s just nothing like a simple bowl of chicken soup. It always makes me feel good!

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Chicken broth–or Better than Bouillon chicken base and water
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs–frozen is okay, use the same cooking time. You can also use a combination of the white and dark meat. You can also make this recipe with cooked, chopped rotisserie chicken. You won’t need to pressure cook it as long though. Try a 5 minute pressure cook time instead of 10 for cooked chicken.
• Diced onion–for convenience sake I like to use frozen diced onion found next to the other frozen vegetables at the grocery store
• Carrots–you can also use baby carrots and forego the chopping step
• Celery ribs
• Garlic powder, dried parsley, dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried sage, bay leaf, kosher salt–for flavor
• Juice from 1 lemon–if you’re in a pinch you can also use bottled lemon juice. One thing I try to do is buy a bag of fresh lemons and squeeze the juice* from them and freeze it in ice cube trays (about 1 Tbsp increments).
• Orzo pasta–or another small, quick cooking pasta like dry spaghettios type of pasta.

Instructions

Instant Pot Instructions:

1. Turn your Instant to the sauté setting and add in your chicken broth. The sauté setting will start heating up the broth and help the pot come to pressure quicker while you prepare the rest of your ingredients. 
2. Add in the chicken, onion, carrots, celery, garlic powder, parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaf and salt. Turn off the sauté setting.
3. Pressure cook: Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the soup button to 10 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then move the valve to venting. If liquid comes out of the valve move it back to sealing and wait a few more minutes and then try again. Remove the lid.
4. Cook pasta: Move the chicken out of the pot. Discard the bay leaf. Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Add in the orzo and lemon juice. Let orzo cook through, about 5-10 minutes.
5. Shred the chicken or cut it into pieces. Stir it back into the soup.
6. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Slow Cooker Instructions:

1. Add broth, chicken, onion, carrots, celery, garlic powder, parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaf and salt into slow cooker.
2. Slow cook: Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. All slow cookers cook differently so some may take more time and some may take less time. Add in the lemon juice and orzo and cook on high for another 30 minutes, or until orzo is done.
3. Move the chicken out of the slow cooker. Discard the bay leaf.
4. Shred the chicken or cut it into pieces. Stir it back into the soup.
5. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Notes/Tips

• This soup tastes really good with Amish White Bread slathered with butter.
• You can store the leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or you can freeze for up to 3 months. The pasta will likely become bloated and soak up a lot of the broth though, to it’s best served the day that you make it.
• I used a 6 quart Instant Pot* but you can also make this in an 8 quart pot. You can halve the recipe for the 3 quart pot.
• I like using the soup button for broth based soups because it keeps the broth clear by bringing the pot to pressure more gently. If you don’t have a soup button you can just use the pressure cook/manual button.
• Instead of pressure cooking the pasta and risking overcooking it I decided to just add it in after the pressure cooking time was up and cooking it on the sauté setting. This works great for quick cooking pasta like orzo.
• Deliver some of this soup to your neighbors! Use deli soup containers* so they don’t have to worry about returning dishes.

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More Delicious Instant Pot Orzo Recipes…

Instant Pot Chicken Lemon Orzo Soup

Instant Pot Smoked Sausage With Parmesan And Orzo

Instant Pot Green Chile Chicken Orzo Soup

Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Sausage Orzo

Instant Pot Cheesy Taco Orzo

Instant Pot Tomato Basil Parmesan Orzo

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.