Recipe Inspiration- Lemon Chicken Stew

A couple months ago, I had some lemon chicken orzo soup at Panera.  It was so good!  So when I was looking through my recipes trying to decide what to make, I had to try this soup (plus, our area has been hit with a "Polar Vortex" the past week or so and it has been so, so cold).

I basically followed the recipe with a few slight changes.  I had a few frozen split chicken breasts, you know, the kind with the bones and skin still on them.  I boiled those to create my own chicken stock and cook the chicken.  I pulled out the chicken and let it cool, then poured out the stock, and then basically followed the recipe.  I only had baby carrots, so I used a few handfuls of those.  I also bought leeks (since the recipe calls for them), but when I bought them, they only had bunches of leeks that were HUGE, and since I had no other plans to use leeks, I used both the big leeks instead of one leek and one onion (too much detail here?)  I let that cook in a little bit of oil to soften up the veggies, then added the broth back in. By that time, the chicken was cool enough for me to shred it and add it back (after removing all of the fat, skin, and veins...ewww...)  I let that come to a boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  Then I added about 1 1/4 cups of orzo pasta because I really love a thick soup and because it's my soup so I can.   I did not buy the fresh tarragon to add to the top (the leeks were already super expensive!)  This is a very tasty soup.  It is not the yummy lemon chicken orzo soup from Panera, but it was very good.

You can find the Pin HERE.  I will be making this one again...