Avgolemono Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Avgolemono Greek Lemon Chicken Soup has all the deliciousness of a cream-based soup with zero cream! Healthy comfort food to the max.

Okay, so where should I start with this soup?

Let’s start with the name, which is pronounced Ahv-go-leh-MAN-o.

I think.

It’s Greek, and I am Irish-American, and so I am on shaky ground here.  I’ve now written the recipe, tested the recipe, photographed the recipe, eaten the recipe, and I am STILL asking the Southern husband how to both pronounce and spell it.

What I DO know is that it is a warm, hearty, comforting, creamy, dreamy soup…that has no cream in it. Not a drop.

It is the perfect thing to plan for lunch when you wake up, look out the window and your car looks like THIS.

(Full disclosure: this is my mama’s car at my little sis’s house in upstate New York. MY car is lounging around snow-flake free here in North Carolina.)

What is avgolemono soup?

In it’s purest form, it is a Greek soup made with chicken broth, lemon juice and chicken broth, usually with shredded chicken and rice, and sometimes carrots or other veggies.

So it’s basically your favorite chicken soup, but the magical part comes with the addition of the lemon juice and egg, which come together to create that silky creaminess. More on that below, because adding those two is a super important step!

Here’s how you make Avgolemono Greek Lemon Chicken Soup!

Bring 6 cups of chicken broth and a handful of chopped dill to a boil in large pot and add ½ cup of orzo.  

(Side note: orzo is a rice shaped pasta that you can find pretty easily in your supermarket, but you can also use rice – it will just add a little to the cooking time). 

Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and remove one cup of broth from the pot (without any orzo/rice in it – this is going to help with adding the lemon and egg) Let the pot cool for 5 minutes.

Next! Put 4 eggs and 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice in a blender and let it rip until everything is smooth and frothy.

With blender on, slowly pour the one cup of cooled broth that you removed from the pot into the blender through that handy opening in the blender lid and process until smooth. (This step is to thin out the eggs a little more so they will blend into the soup obediently later on.)

Add a cup of shredded carrot, a pinch each of salt and pepper and 8 ounces of cooked shredded chicken to the broth and orzo in the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until orzo is tender – if you are using rice, you might need it to simmer a little more. Reduce heat to low.

Here comes the magical part! Slowly pour in egg mixture, stirring constantly, until soup is creamy and just the right amount of thick and all heated through, about 1-2 minutes.

Do not let it boil or it may curdle a little. If it does, remind yourself that it is still going to taste just fine.

Ladle into bowls and serve at once.

As you can see, this soup is as healthy as you can get – the ingredients are pretty much chicken broth, a few eggs, lemon juice, chicken, shredded carrots, a handful of that orzo pasta and some herbs – but because of how it is put together, it comes out in this rich, creamy format that feels positively sinful. 

If you didn’t know better, you would swear that there was a boatload of heavy cream lurking in this one…but there isn’t!  Not a drop!  That in and of itself makes this worth a try.   That and coming in from shoveling 34 feet of snow off your car.

Love you, my Northern friends!

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