Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

New Year 2019. The year Rosa will get married. The year Lucas will turn one. The year I will turn fifty-four. The year Mami will turn eighty-three. The year the kitchen will keep spinning on its axis of sofrito and love, the way it has for three years and thirty years and three generations. The new year does not start fresh — it starts from exactly where the old year left off, at the stove, with a pot of pernil on the counter and the smell of garlic in the walls.

I ate twelve grapes at midnight. Twelve wishes. Same wish twelve times: health. Health for Mami. Health for Eduardo. Health for the children. Health for Lucas. Health for the sofrito, which sounds like a joke but is not, because the health of the sofrito is the health of the family, and the family is the sofrito, and the sofrito is the family, and the circle is unbreakable.

January is its usual miserable Hartford self. Cold, gray, the kind of weather that makes you question every choice that brought you to Connecticut. I combat it with soup. This week: sopa de pollo con fideos, the Puerto Rican chicken noodle that has seen me through twenty-nine Hartford winters. The soup steams and the kitchen warms and the windows fog and the fog on the windows is the opposite of the fog in Mami mind — the window fog is temporary, comforting, a sign of warmth inside. Mami fog is different. Mami fog comes and goes and comes again, each time a little thicker, a little longer, a little more insistent.

She forgot Ana name this week. Ana, her youngest sister, the one she survived the hurricane with, the one who held her in the bathtub while the roof flew off. She said, Carmen, the woman in Bridgeport, what is her name? I said, Ana, Mami. Your sister Ana. She said, Of course. Ana. And the name came back and the fog retreated and she was Mami again, full Mami, but I saw the retreat and I know retreats are not permanent. The fog always returns. The fog always wins eventually. But not today. Today she knows Ana. Today the names hold. Today the soup is hot and the names hold and the kitchen is warm and that is enough. It has to be enough.

This lemon chicken orzo soup is my closest translation of what I make every January — the brightness of the lemon is the brightness I insist on holding onto even when the fog thickens, even when Mami calls Ana by the wrong name, even when Hartford is gray for the seventeenth day in a row. When names slip and the cold presses in, I go to the stove. I put on a pot. The steam rises and fogs the windows, and inside the kitchen, for a little while, everything holds.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and black pepper, to taste
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
1 cup orzo pasta
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook for 4–5 minutes until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute until fragrant.
Add vegetables and seasoning. Stir in the carrots and celery. Season with oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add broth and chicken. Pour in the chicken broth and nestle the whole chicken pieces into the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and reaches 165°F internally.
Shred the chicken. Remove the chicken from the pot and transfer to a cutting board. Using two forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
Cook the orzo. Return the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the orzo and cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
Finish the soup. Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and garnish generously with fresh parsley. Serve hot with crusty bread if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup — The Bowl That Holds Us Together