A bunch of food blogs I follow started 2016 with suggested meal plans giving you new meals for weeks or months. Personally, I started the year eating leftover meatballs from New Years until I finally threw out the remainder last night. Time to move on! And what better way to start than with delicious soup? This soup is made pretty quickly, and requires very few dishes, and it disappears quickly too! Don’t expect many days of leftovers with this one!

Ingredients:

• 5 slices bacon
• 2 cups yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup uncooked orzo
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or to taste
• chopped fresh parsley to taste

In a large dutch oven or a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, cook the bacon over low heat until enough bacon grease has melted out to cover the bottom of the pan. Raise the heat a bit and cook the bacon until crisp, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate. If you have more than 2-3 tablespoons of bacon grease remaining in the pan, discard the extra.

Add the chopped onion, garlic, celery, and carrots to the remaining bacon grease in the pan and top with a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have begun caramelizing. Keep an eye out for brown edges to have an idea when they’re ready.

Place the whole chicken breasts on top of the vegetables, then pour in the chicken stock.

Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low, simmering for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it – low turned out to be too low for mine, as it wasn’t bubbling at all at the end of the 20 minutes, so my chicken hadn’t cooked quite enough yet. Remove the cooked chicken to a cutting board and shred with 2 forks. Set aside.

Return the soup to a boil and add the orzo. Cook 8 minutes, then add the chicken back and season with salt and pepper.

Dice the cooked bacon (which hopefully you haven’t eaten all of by now) and use bacon and parsley to garnish each bowl.

There will be a lot of good flavors going on in your bowl!

Chicken, Bacon, and Orzo Soup

From Savory Simple.

• 5 slices bacon
• 2 cups yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup uncooked orzo
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or to taste
• chopped fresh parsley to taste

In a large dutch oven or a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, cook the bacon over low heat until enough bacon grease has melted out to cover the bottom of the pan. Raise the heat a bit and cook the bacon until crisp, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate. If you have more than 2-3 tablespoons of bacon grease remaining in the pan, discard the extra.

Add the chopped onion, garlic, celery, and carrots to the remaining bacon grease in the pan and top with a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have begun caramelizing. Keep an eye out for brown edges to have an idea when they’re ready.

Place the whole chicken breasts on top of the vegetables, then pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low, simmering for 20 minutes. Remove the cooked chicken to a cutting board and shred with 2 forks. Set aside.

Return the soup to a boil and add the orzo. Cook 8 minutes, then add the chicken back and season with salt and pepper.

Dice the cooked bacon and use bacon and parsley to garnish each bowl.