Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Chicken Soup)

Avgolemono Soup is a traditional Greek Lemon Chicken Soup that gets richness from eggs and tang from fresh lemons. It’s silky smooth, light, bright, and wonderful!

My love for anything lemon knows no bounds. So, there’s no surprise how much I adore this Avgolemono soup, which is Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. Love lemon, too? Check out our Balsamic Lemon Chicken and Shrimp Scampi with Lemon Cream – they’ll both make you weak in the knees!

What is Avgolemono Soup

Avgolemono (pronounced ah-vo-le-mo-no – “ah-vo”, which means “egg”, and “lemon-o”, which means “lemon”…the “g” is silent, just like in “gyro”) is basically Greek Penicillin – the equivalent to Greeks as Chicken Noodle Soup is to Americans.

It uses rice and eggs as a thickener, but the texture is velvety smooth and the flavor is light and bright. Perfect for when you have the sniffles or just want to curl up on the couch during a blistery winter day, longing for springtime. It’s heavenly!

Authentic Avgolemono soup uses two-hour+ long, from scratch, chicken stock from a whole chicken, and then using that to shred and add in at the end. But I don’t have that kind of time when I’m trying to get dinner on the table during the week. This is my cheater version and it never disappoints. It’s similar enough and just as comforting as the traditional soup. You will love it!

How to Make Avgolemono Soup

The complete printable recipe card and video tutorial are below, but here are some key points to making this Avgolemono soup recipe:

• Rice: Arborio rice is best for Avgolemono Soup because it absorbs the liquid and thickens the soup as it cooks, but I’ve also made this with Basmati rice and it was great. I’m sure even brown rice would work, but it will need to cook longer and you’ll end up needing additional broth.
• Chicken: You can season and bake your own chicken or use rotisserie chicken for an even quicker meal!
• Herbs and Zest: I highly recommend fresh dill and a little lemon zest at the end – it brings it all home. But you can omit that if you want.
• Temper the avgolemono sauce. At the very end of cooking, 2 cups of the hot broth is whisked with the eggs and lemon juice and then slowly added back into the pot of soup, which becomes a thickening agent.
• Immediately remove the soup from the heat. Once you’ve added the sauce into the big pot of soup, you will need to immediately remove it from the heat. Otherwise, you could end up with scrambled eggs or stringy egg ribbons like in Egg Drop soup.

Storing Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

• In the refrigerator: Wait for the soup to cool completely and store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Be aware that the rice continues to absorb the liquid and plump up as the soup cools, making it thicker. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can either separate the rice from the soup and store them separately, or simply add more broth as you heat the soup up.
• You can also freeze leftovers. Make sure to leave enough room in the container for the soup to expand. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then reheat on the stovetop over medium heat; adding in a small amount of water or broth to the bottom of the pan, to prevent the rice and chicken from sticking or burning before the soup melts. The soup will separate when reheated, though (even if it wasn’t frozen), so make sure it is well stirred before serving.

Greek Lemon Soup Video

What to Serve with Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

When I make this soup, I usually serve it with garlic bread or Irish Soda Bread, which are both perfect to mop up the last dribbles at the bottom of the bowl, but Avgolemono is definitely satisfying on its own!

Other Soup Recipes We Love

• Chicken and Rice Soup
• Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
• Lemon Orzo Meatball Soup
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Chicken Soup)

5 from 9 votes

Avgolemono Soup is a traditional Greek Lemon Chicken Soup with rice that gets richness from eggs and tang from fresh lemons. This recipe is silky smooth, light, bright, healthy, and wonderful!

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small sweet onion , diced small
• 2 stalks celery , diced small
• 2 medium carrots , diced small
• 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (not table salt)
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup Arborio rice
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
• 1 large bay leaf
• 2 (6 ounces each) chicken breasts seasoned, cooked, and shredded
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Instructions

• Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onion, celery, and carrots; saute until the vegetables are tender and the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute until slightly browned and fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
• Add in the rice and stir to coat in the oil.
• Add in the chicken stock and bay leaf; bring to a simmer. Simmer until the rice is tender, about 10 minutes.
• Add in the shredded chicken and maintain a gentle simmer.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and eggs until light and frothy.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat (see note) and slowly whisk 2 cups of the hot broth into the egg mixture, then slowly pour the egg mixture back into the soup; stir and incorporate. (This process equalizes the temperature between the two mixtures to avoid curdling the eggs.)
• Stir in the dill.
• Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
• Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

Video

Notes

• *Do not put saucepan back on the heat once the egg mixture has been added or the eggs might scramble or turn into ribbons.
• For recipe tips and how to store leftovers, please refer to the full article.

Nutrition

Calories: 199kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 322mg | Potassium: 421mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 3572IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 45mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.

Other Notes

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Greek

Keyword: Avgolemono Soup, Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

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