Greek Lemon Soup is seriously the best kind of comfort food. It starts with humble ingredients like onions, carrots, celery, and a few chicken breasts or thighs. We’ll also need some dry rice that will simmer and cook right in the chicken stock. And right at the end we’ll do a little egg drop into the soup – Greek style and add plenty of lemon juice to make this one comforting yet spring-ready bowl of soup! This one checks all the cozy and comforting boxes! This Greek Lemon Soup is actually what inspired my Greek Chicken Meatballs in Lemon Cream Sauce. Sure, I took the liberty of swapping the shredded chicken for meatballs and opted to serve the orzo on the side. But this is the soup that inspired it all. So many of you had made and enjoyed that recipe that I’m confident you’re going to love this one too!
What is Avgolemono Soup?
Avgolemono (pronounced: aHv–go–LE–mon–o) literally translated means egg-lemon. ‘Avgo’ means egg and ‘lemono’ is pretty self-explanatory! Avgolemono is a silky and creamy soup or sauce made with eggs, lemon, and chicken stock. The addition of eggs helps thicken the soup or sauce without having to add flour, cream, or cornstarch.
Ingredients for homemade Greek chicken soup:
Butter: I like to add a tablespoon of butter right at the beginning to saute the veggies before simmering the soup on the stove.Veggies: You’ll need a carrot, 2 pieces of celery, and an onion that’s peeled and cut in half. We leave the veggies whole so that they are easy to fish out later. The veggies actually play a two-part role in this recipe. The first is to add additional flavor to the quick homemade chicken stock. And the second is to add a deliciously golden hue to the greek lemon chicken soup.Garlic: You can add as little or as much garlic as you’d like for this recipe. I use about 5 cloves and it’s at that perfect sweet spot for us.Chicken: I prefer to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for this recipe, however, chicken thighs would also work. If you like the flavor of dark meat, chicken thighs would undoubtedly yield better results when you’re making homemade chicken soup!Eggs: The egg mixture adds both a beautiful golden color and acts as a thickener in this soup. We’ll combine the eggs with the lemon before adding it to the soup towards the end. The egg yolks are what give this soup a vibrant yellow color.Lemon Juice: The lemon juice gets mixed with the eggs and added in towards the end of the soup. The lemon flavor is nice and pronounced making this soup taste silky and zesty!Water: For my Greek soup, I like to use water and a couple of bouillon cubes instead of chicken stock. This helps control the sodium content better as we’ll be simmering down the soup quite a bit as it cooks. However, you could also use a split of water and chicken broth.Bouillon: I like to use bouillon cubes to help control the amount of sodium in this soup. But you could also use 50:50 of water and chicken broth as well.Bay Leaf: Gets added in with the veggies and just adds a depth of flavor to the soup.Rice: You’ll need plain old long-grain white rice for this recipe. Keep in mind that using parboiled or even basmati rice may change the amount of simmering time required. Check the directions on the package and boil accordingly. Most brands I tested for this recipe required roughly 20 minutes to be cooked through.Fresh herbs: This is purely optional but I love adding something green on top of my bowl of soup! Dill goes really well with the flavors of this soup and is more traditional to Greek cuisine, but you can also use parsley if that’s what you have at home.
How to make Avogolemono:
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
The Easiest Greek Grilled ChickenGreek Meatballs (Keftedes)Greek Spinach PuffsHerb-loaded Lemon Chicken Orzo SoupWinter Lemon Chicken Barley Soup
BROTH: You can replace the water and bouillon with a 50:50 mix of water and chicken broth if you’d like. Make sure you don’t use all chicken broth otherwise you run the risk of making the soup too salty!
