Instead of chicken noodle soup, make this fresh and simple Mediterranean classic. Avgolemono (av-o-leh-mo-no) is made with a creamy lemon-egg sauce that adds a silky texture and brightens up the flavor. Thyme and oregano are perfect herbs…they really bring out the lemon and chicken flavors. This is a simple recipe with a touch of fancy! You. Will. Love. This!
Avgolemono – Lemon Chicken Soup
Ahvo-lemono is a creamy, comfy, aromatic chicken soup. The lemon-egg sauce makes is fragrant and bright. Fresh herbs and garlic will fill your kitchen with homey goodness. You can make it thicker like a stew or keep it brothy – either way, so comforting! And, you can make it in 30 minutes with simple ingredients you probably have on hand – Gluten Free? Yes! Sub arborio rice for the orzo.
Leave a comment and a review below. I'd love to hear how you liked this yummy soup! Share and tag me @JenniferGRichmond #JGRBlog and let's see your photos too. Happy Cooking!
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Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Onion diced
- 1-2 cloves Garlic minced
- 4-6 sprigs Fresh Thyme (tied in a bundle) or 2 T dried
- 1 T dried oregano
- 2 T Olive Oil
- 12 Cups Chicken Stock
- 1 1/2 Cups Orzo (for Gluten Free us Arborio rice) uncooked
- 3 eggs
- 1 Cup Lemon Juice
- 2 Cups Chicken cooked/shredded
- 1 tsp white pepper
- salt to taste
Instructions
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Saute – In large soup pot, saute thyme, oregano, onions, and garlic with olive oil over medium heat – avoid getting any color on the onions or garlic. You want a light color – no browning.
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Boil – Add chicken stock and bring to boil
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Add orzo, boil – Remove thyme bundle, add orzo, return to boil – 6 -8 minutes until cooked (al dente)
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Whisk – Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk eggs with lemon juice
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Temper – Temper the egg/lemon mixture with two ladles of broth (just the liquid). Tempering is really important. You drizzle one cup of the hot stock into the lemon/egg mixture a little bit at a time so the eggs won't scramble – which they'll totally do if you just pour that into the stock.
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Combine – Reduce heat (or turn off completely) and stir in the tempered soup/egg/lemon mixture to the soup
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Season – Add pepper and salt to taste
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Serve with a spritz of fresh lemon, a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt and some fresh thyme and cracked pepper
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Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
The recipe makes 10-12 servings which is a lot for our family of 2…but it keeps very well for a week in the fridge and we really love it the next day. Also, it thickens as it sits, so I add a bit of broth or even water when I reheat it. You can keep it thick and it will be more like a yummy chicken stew.
Leave a review and let me know what you think! Share and tag @JenniferGRichmond #JGRBlog
Sounds soo good! I think I even have some orzo on hand! At what point do you add the chicken? At the end, to heat through, I’m thinking, right?
this soup is amazing and freezes well. I serve it for two days and then freeze for another day.
few hints from my experience: I dont want to take the time to use the cloth for the herbs so I just add dried herbs. tastes the same but you do end up seeing the specs so it isnt as creamy looking as Jennifers picture. I add the chicken at the end. This is an amazing recipe and very easy. Do not let the tempering scare you.. it is very easy.
I made this soup last weekend with the ingredients I had on hand. I used low sodium chicken broth, Kirkland’s canned chicken breast (Costco), brown rice in place of the Orzo (GF pasta is harder to find), and because I didn’t have enough lemons, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice. While the soup is delicious, it was still too brothy and was a little bland (I have to figure out how much salt to use in recipes that imparts flavor but still keeps the total mg low because of my husband’s high blood pressure.) As I have been the one eating it the rest of the week, I’ve been adding more chicken and rice, and generously adding grated parmesan (my go to topping for soups.) My family agreed that the full cup of lemon juice would be more intense than we’d like (I did a sheet pan chicken & asparagus with lemon a while back and the lemon overpowered the flavors.) Thank you for sharing this recipe and I look forward to trying some of your other recipes,
Blessings! Julianne (Mills) Trahan
Hey there! So glad you tried this recipe. It’s definitely a challenge to find low sodium options and get good flavor. I recommend pink Himalayan salt as it has a lower sodium impact for those sensitive to blood pressure issues. Since you already like the flavor of Parmesan (yum!) consider this – you can also add the rind of parmesan reggiano cheese -only a good quality true reggiano will work. I save the rind and keep them in the freezer then add them to soups for added flavor. I try to keep my recipes simple and don’t usually include little tweaks like this for sake of simplicity and for helping people be successful without needing special ingredients. In your case, I’d also recommend making your own broth – way more flavor than storebought. I make my own and it’s always helpful since you get flavor without having too much salt. As for brothiness, swapping the brown rice for the orzo caused the recipe to come out more brothy. With the orzo it thickens every day. My hubby likes it like this. It’s a little more like a stew, but I prefer more broth in it. All to taste, right? Keep tweaking and enjoying and thanks again for sharing your experience with this yummy soup. I’d love to hear from you if you make it again!
What a great and yummy soup! I froze half of it for later. We had it when we were up in the mountains in the snow and it’s such a yummy warm treat. I have tried several other recipes and they do not compare to Jennifers recipe. It has a few steps that seem like they might be complicated but they’re not. It was very easy and worth the effort.
Yay! So glad you liked it and also glad to hear it freezes well! I haven’t tried that yet!