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Chicken and Orzo Soup with Garlic and Paprika
For this simple Turkish-inspired soup, browning a generous amount of tomato paste with chopped garlic builds a complex, deeply savory base. Sweet paprika lends bold color and earthy notes and dried mint infuses the dish with its unique herbaceousness. Simmering the orzo in the broth after the chicken is fully tender ensures perfectly cooked pasta, and also adds body to the broth. If you like, serve with crusty bread or a simple salad dressed with lemon vinaigrette.
4
Servings
40 minutes
15 minutes active
Ingredients
-
3
tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
-
⅓
cup tomato paste
Reviews
August 4, 2026
Love the color!
This is so vividly red, it looks like I made it from dragon meat. I was worried that that much paprika was going to be overwhelming, but it wasn't. Don't make the mistake I did and add some chicken stock instead of water - it will make it overly salty. Otherwise, excellent.
October 20, 2025
Delicious!
I swapped the chicken for butler soy curls - excellent!
March 6, 2025
Easy and tasty
Enjoyed this recipe.
January 11, 2025
Texas Connection
We enjoyed making this recipe. It was simple and easy to make. We were surprised by the mint. The orzo pasta serving was perfect. We added spinach, pumpkin seeds, and topped it with parmesan cheese. For a little more heat, we added sriracha sauce. We highly recommend it for a busy couple on a cool evening.
October 8, 2024
Delicious and easy to make!
Loved the taste of the herbs and paprika
This soup is delicious. I don't use a lot of mint in cooking, so I was a bit worried about the amount listed in the recipe; however, I was happy to find that it was actually very well balanced once the soup was fully cooked. The only changes I made were to use chicken broth in place of 4 cups of the liquid called for since I used chicken breasts instead of thighs to make sure I didn't lose out on too much of the chicken flavor for the switch from thighs.
Delicious! House still smells wonderful, too! To make this even easier, I used half of a rotisserie chicken -- prepared the soup according to directions, except added the orzo first -- cooked 15 minutes, then added the mint and chicken for the last 5 minutes to reheat. (Note - I used fresh mint.) I also used stock for the whole 7 c. Really good!
What exactly does "Simmer, uncovered, until a skewer inserted into the chicken meets no resistance. " mean? 30 minutes, 60, 90???? Please give us a little more guidance on these vague instructions? Thank you.
I would certainly temp it. The safe temperature for chicken is 165F, but I think at the point where the thighs would be in the state as described, the temperature would be closer to 190-210F.
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I've made this twice in the past two weeks. The first time I made it exact to the recipe. The second time I halved the recipe, but used the full cup of orzo, this made it come out almost between a stew and a risotto and made the perfect portions for two people. I will definitely be adding this recipe to my usual weeknight repertoire, simply delicious!