Egyptian Chicken and Orzo soup (Bird’s Tongue soup)
I found this recipe on the Food Dolls website when I was actually there for another chicken and orzo recipe. This one looked so much more appealling and very familiar in style to the Lebanese Mograbieh that was a slightly obsessive favourite of mine last year.
The principle appears to be the same – boil the chicken with onion and spices , toast pasta, remove chicken from stock and shred, add pasta to stock until cooked and then return shreddded chicken to the stock.
Predictably delicious and definately something that will be a regular dish for us this year. It’s been so miserable and cold this past year, not just weather but the global mood, so this was a perfect, if not temporary, antidote to the so-called January blues.
Things I learnt from reading the post from this recipe:
Orzo is the Italian word for barley
Orzo resembles barley
Orzo also resembles a bird’s tongue
Lesan el Asfour (sometimes written as lisan al-asfour) is Arabic for bird’s tongue.
For some reason I found all of this fascinating…
If you want to make this recipe and enjoy it as much as I did, the details are below 👇
Ingredients
- 6-8 cups water or enough water to completely cover the chicken
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- 3-4 whole cardamom pods
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 dry bay leaves
- 3 small pieces of mastic
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4-5 pound whole chicken cleaned and gizzards removed
- 8 ounces toasted orzo pasta
- Optional Garnish: fresh lime juice fresh parsley
Instructions
- Pour the water into a large stock pot. Add the quartered onion, cardamom pods, ground cardamom, bay leaves, mastic, salt, and pepper to the pot. Bring the ingredients to a boil. NOTE: For easy removal, wrap the bay leaf, cardamom pods, and mastic in a mesh bag.6-8 cups water,1 onion,3-4 whole cardamom pods,1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom,2 dry bay leaves,3 small pieces of mastic,1 Tablespoon kosher salt or to taste,1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Once boiling, add the chicken to the pot, breast side up. Turn the heat down to medium-high, and cover the pot. Cook for 1 hour or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. (See notes)4-5 pound whole chicken
- Remove the chicken and aromatics (bay leaf, cardamom pods, and mastic). Set aside.
- In a separate pan, toast the orzo pasta on the stovetop over low heat for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.8 ounces toasted orzo pasta
- While the water is still simmering, add the orzo to the pot. Cook on low for 8 minutes or until the pasta reaches al dente.
- In the meantime, shred the chicken to be added back to the soup. Or, slice it, and serve it on the side.
- Serve the soup warm with a fresh squeeze of lime juice and fresh parsley.Optional Garnish: fresh lime juice
Reference: https://www.fooddolls.com/shorbet-lesan-el-asfour/
