You’ll love this delicious, silky Greek Avgolemono soup filled with chicken, rice and dill with a lemon-egg sauce. Delish!
Avgolemono Chicken and Rice Soup
Avgolemono is a traditional Greek soup made with chicken broth, rice, and eggs. The eggs are beaten and mixed with lemon juice to create a thick, creamy texture. The soup is known for its bright, tangy flavor and comforting warmth. This recipe is made from scratch, with all the coziness of a chicken noodle soup, but the lemon juice adds a pop of sunshine. More comforting chicken soup recipes you should try are Chicken and Cavatelli Soup, Chicken Barley Soup, and Chicken Shiitake and Wild Rice Soup.
What country is avgolemono from?
Avgolemono means “egg-lemon” in Greek, but the soup is also found in “Arab, Sephardic Jewish, Turkish, Balkan and Jewish-Italian cuisine.”
Is avgolemono soup healthy?
This Greek chicken, lemon and rice soup is nutritious and comforting. It’s creamy without the cream, so it’s relatively low in calories, and the protein content is high because of the chicken and eggs.
Avgolemono Soup Ingredients
- Dill: Fresh dill is essential, so don’t substitute it with dried. To prep the dill, pull all the fronds from the stem and reserve a half cup of them for garnish.
- Broth: Use two quarts of low-sodium chicken broth.
- Chicken Thighs: You’ll need 1 ½ pounds of boneless, skinless thighs.
- Rice: I like this soup best with white rice, but brown rice would work too.
- Egg Lemon Mixture: You’ll whisk some hot broth into the eggs to temper before adding them to the pot to keep them from scrambling. Then add fresh-squeezed lemon juice from about two lemons.
- Salt and Pepper for seasoning
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling before serving
How to Make Avgolemono Soup
- Cook the Chicken: Put the dill stems, chicken, rice, and chicken stock or broth in a large pot or dutch oven and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium-low, stir, and cook covered for about 25 minutes until the chicken is tender.
- Shred the Chicken: Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and stems from the broth. Discard the stems and shred the meat with two forks.
- Make the Egg Sauce: Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the stock to an active simmer. Whisk the eggs until frothy in a medium bowl, and then stir in the lemon juice. While you’re still whisking the eggs, gradually drizzle in about a cup or ladle of the hot broth and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Finish the Soup: Pour the lemon-egg mixture into the pot with the broth and immediately remove it from the heat so that the eggs don’t start to cook. Stir in the shredded chicken, taste, and add more lemon juice as needed. Garnish with dill, pepper, and olive oil.
Variations and Tips:
- You can use chicken breast or turkey breast in place of chicken thighs
- If you wish, you can make this with orzo or small pasta in place of rice. Add it at the end before adding the avgolemono sauce and cook according to package directions. Once cooked, proceed with adding the lemon-egg mixture.
- If you wish, you can add more vegetables such as diced carrots, onions and celery in step 2.
- Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container up to 4 days. You can also freeze this soup up to 3 months in freezer-safe containers.
How to Freeze
Leftovers will last in the fridge for up to four days, or since this simple Greek lemon soup doesn’t have any dairy, it can be frozen. Store the soup in glass containers, leaving a little space at the top, and freeze it for up to three months. To thaw it, place it in the refrigerator the day before and microwave it until warm.
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More Chicken Soup Recipes You’ll Love:
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Chicken Lentil Soup
- Chicken Sweet Potato and Kale Soup
- Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup
Your comments are helpful! If you’ve tried this healthy Avgolemono Chicken and Rice Soup recipe or any other on Skinnytaste, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. And if you took a photo of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can reshare it on my Stories!
Avgolemono Chicken and Rice Soup
Ingredients
- ½ ounce container fresh dill
- 2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3/4 cup uncooked white rice
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- ground black pepper, to taste
- drizzle extra-virgin olive oil for serving
Instructions
- Pull the dill fronds from the stems; reserve 1/2 cup of the fronds for garnish.
- In a pot, combine the stems, chicken thighs and rice with the chicken broth and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and stir. Cover and cook the chicken until tender, 25 minutes.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and stems from the broth. Discard the stems and transfer the chicken to a plate then shred with 2 forks.
- Meanwhile, increase the heat to medium-high and bring the stock up to an active simmer.
- In a large heatproof bowl, vigorously whisk the eggs until frothy. Add ¼ cup lemon juice and mix to incorporate.
- While you whisk the eggs, gradually drizzle in 1 ladleful (about 1 cup) of the broth (it’s OK if some grains of rice tag along) and mix until fully combined.
- Pour the lemon-egg mixture into the pot with the broth, immediately remove from the heat, and stir in the shredded chicken. Taste and add more lemon juice to taste.
- Garnish with a generous amount of fresh dill, black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
So the egg is uncooked? I’m confused by that.
Could I make this in a slow cooker?
Soooo good! I’ve made this soup twice. The first time followed recipe exactly and really enjoyed it. Such a bright, springy soup for winter, but I missed having veggies with dinner that night. The second time i made it, I added the celery, carrots, and onions. At the end I put in about 1 cup of frozen peas. It was still great with the additions!
Hi! I loved this recipe. When do you add the salt?
I had really high hopes for this soup b/c I normally love it and make a similar quick version for myself for lunch when I have leftover rice & rotisserie chicken and it definitely has great reviews!. However other than the dill (I do like that addition), this recipe missed for me -2 qts of chicken broth seems way too much for only 3/4 cup rice and 1/4 cup lemon juice. I had a lot more broth than expected and very little lemon flavor- I had to add juice of 2 entire lemons at the end to make it lemony in flavor. I think I’ll save time & stick to winging it with precooked chicken & rice and make the lemon/egg broth, but add the dill!
Been itching to try an avgolemono soup for years and this one was quite good despite turning out a bit runnier than expected (I’m sure it was a “skill issue” and not the recipe itself). Used cauli-rice. So delicious!
Maybe the cauli rice was the reason? Regular rice absorbs a lot of liquid!
This soup is sooooo good!!! My whole family loves it! I’d never frothed eggs before, used an electric mixer.
My husband doesn’t like soup and he LOVES this soup. He has requested it twice in the last 2 weeks. The fresh dill and the lemon were delicious. The soup was light but filling. I serve it with fresh homemade bread. Thank you!
Perfect!
I love this soup! Few edits: I used the dill fronds, not the stems because I made a mistake, but it turned out fine! I used chicken breast instead of thigh for preference. I also doubled the lemon juice.
Highly recommend this recipe!
This soup is so good.
I had to sub dried dill with fresh, fresh would be better. I also added carrots and celery and substituted chicken with lean ground beef. And subbed white rice for a mix of brown and wild, I only cooked it for about 5 extra minutes and it turned out great. The lemon taste is the best part
I’m making this now.
A suggestion. How many dill stems and how many eggs?
I’m making my best guess
This is so fresh and delicious. Super easy too! I’ve made it twice in the last 2 weeks.
Made this the other week and it was delicious! Didn’t have fresh dill so used ~ 3Tbsp of dried dill. Also didn’t have chicken thighs so I used tenderloins instead and added some carrots. It was easy to prep and tasted great! Served it with a side of bread. My carnivore husband went back for seconds and asked me when I would make it again so I consider that a win! The leftovers stored well too.
Yummy!! Will make this again.
This soup reminds me of my Greek great grandmother making this for our family when I was growing up. It was delicious & super easy!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Can I use brown rice? Is the ratio and cooking time the same?
I have not tested but this would take longer.
This was really easy to make and it was delicious. I seared the chicken first and I used oregano instead of dill and I added more lemon. Thank you for this recipe! It is going in my rotation!
Delicious! Came together quickly and tasted incredible.
This soup was easy to make and quite delicious. I would go light on the deal and it just to taste. Will definitely make again.
Sooooooo good!!!
What a fabulous soup! I must have cooked the chicken/rice too hot as there wasn’t much broth, but it still came together nicely. It was actually quite easy to make. I have never heard of this soup before, but the flavor was amazing made as directed. Thank you!
So delicious and easy!
Easy and delicious – can’t ask for more than that!!
This was delicious!! I used chicken breast and subbed ‘palmini rice’ to make it low to zero carbs and it was so, so good!! Definitely will make again!
Incredible. Loved the flavor and reminds me of the soup from my favorite Greek restaurant.
This soup is so delicious, thick, and refreshing. I would never use the word “refreshing” with a soup, but the lemon and dill make it refreshing, and the egg’s creaminess makes this dish a comfort food. I love it! I could remove the rice and make it lower in carbs. I’ll make this again. Thank you.
This was amazing! We have a favorite Greek restaurant near us and we always go for the soup. This is just as good, if not better! And it’s so easy!!
Delicious! I’m Greek and this tastes exactly like my mom’s.
This soup was delicious! The dill and lemon remind me of springtime on this cold January day. I added carrots and spinach because I had them on hand and used Jovial cassava orzo. Another great recipe, thanks Gina! Btw love the updated website!!
Delicious. Tastes just like the Greek takeout from home! It was so nice to taste this soup again.