This Greek Lemon Chicken Soup recipe will most definitely be a hit! It is hearty, bright, delicious, and so flavorful - it's creamy without being over the top or too rich. This soup is very similar to traditional greek avgolemono soup - but without the egg - making this version MUCH easier to make.
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🎥 Recipe Video
You'll ❤️ This Greek Lemon Soup
"This soup is delicious! If you have ever made an avgolemono soup recipe, you will love this simplified version - NO tempering eggs, it's easy, and it has terrific flavor."
Love Greek-inspired recipes? Be sure to try this Greek Salad - it's fresh and amazing, and these tasty Gyro Burgers slathered with Authentic Tzatziki Sauce. Enjoy! 🙂
Eggless Avgolemono Soup
Greek lemon chicken soup is very similar to Avgolemono soup, but it just doesn't use any egg. The sauce base is chicken stock, egg, and lemon juice. When using eggs, you have to temper the soup, which can be a tedious task, so that is why I decided to make this soup without them. You can't even tell the difference!
Quick!
When compared to the traditional Greek version of Avgolemono soup, this recipe is much faster to make. Enjoy a bowl of this delicious, tangy, indulgent soup in less than 40 minutes from start to finish!
Healthy
This recipe is great because you can adapt it to your dietary needs.
Make it keto by replacing the orzo with cauliflower rice and using a full-fat dairy and chicken thighs instead of chicken breast! Use xanthan gum as the thickener.
Make it lower in fat by using fat-free half and half, chicken breast, and low-fat broth. Spinach is added so you can get more veggies in - and you can always sneak in more if you want.
🥘 What You'll Need
Here are the ingredients you will need to make Greek Lemon Chicken Soup:
Olive Oil - use any preferred oil option.
Onion - use yellow or white onions.
Celery Stalks
Chicken Broth - you can get the fat-free or reduced sodium broth.
Fresh Lemon Juice - fresh squeezed lemon juice has the best best flavor!
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast - you can use shredded chicken by adding whole chicken breasts, then simmering until they are very tender and then shredding.
Dried Thyme - feel free to use fresh thyme in place of the dried.
Dried Oregano - fresh can be used instead of dried.
Bay Leaves - these are used during the cooking process but removed at the end before enjoying.
Orzo - this looks like long-grain rice but is actually a type of pasta! Very commonly used in Italian dishes and more common in soups. It's delicious!
Spinach - fresh spinach adds some color and fresh vegetables.
White Wine - any kind of dry cooking wine of your choice.
Half and Half - you can use any brand or fat content that you like.
Cornstarch or Xanthan Gum - used as a thickening agent with the half and half in the soup to give it a rich, decadent end result.
For exact ingredient quantities, please see the recipe card below!
🔪 How To Make It
Here are the step-by-step instructions for making Greek Lemon Chicken Soup:
Saute Vegetables
Add oil to a large pot and preheat over medium heat. Add onion and saute until golden and soft, about 5 minutes.
Remaining Ingredients
Add broth, chicken breast, lemon juice, wine, thyme, oregano, and bay leaves.
Simmer
Cover and reduce heat to simmer, 10 minutes.
Add pasta and spinach and continue to cook 10 minutes or until pasta is tender.
Thicken
In a small bowl mix the half and half and cornstarch together. Slowly whisk into the soup.
Continue to cook, stirring frequently until the soup thickens slightly.
If using xanthan gum, dissolve it in oil (olive is fine) then whisk into half and half then slowly stir into the soup. Start with only ½ teaspoon and use more, if needed, in ¼ teaspoon increments. A little goes a long way.
Finish
Remove the bay leaves before serving, and add any garnishes you like. Enjoy!
🥗 How To Serve It
Here's how to serve Greek Lemon Chicken Soup:
Garnish with fresh herbs such as thyme, chives, or parsley. It adds color and a bright flavor!
Top your bowl with some crumbled feta cheese, freshly grated parmesan cheese, or fresh mozzarella cheese.
Meal idea! Serve this delicious Greek Lemon Soup with this super popular Greek Salad! Breadsticks or some great fresh bread go perfectly with this soup as well!
📖 Variations
Here are a few ways you can vary or make substitutions to this recipe:
- Feel free to substitute the chicken thighs with either chicken breasts, boneless thighs, or even rotisserie chicken. Add any cooked chicken after the pasta is cooked. Let the soup simmer until the chicken is warmed through.
- Use more vegetables such as carrots and zucchini.
- Substitute kale for the spinach.
- Make it keto by substituting the orzo with cauliflower rice.
- Adjust any of the seasonings to your liking.
- Use fat-free half and half and low-sodium chicken broth options to make it even healthier. Feel free to use chicken stock in place of the broth if preferred.
💭 Top Tips
- Continue to whisk or stir your soup and watch the heat when adding the half and half. This will help reduce the chance of scorching.
- Once your vegetables are caramelized and ready for step 2, make sure to add the chicken stock to the pan first. This process is called the deglazing process, which picks up all of the flavors from the bottom of the pan.
❓FAQs
How To Store
To store your soup, allow it to cool, then cover it in an air-tight container and set it in the refrigerator to store for up to 4 days.
How To Reheat
Reheat on low in a medium sauce pot until the soup has reached your desired level of warmth.
How To Freeze
Cool first, then transfer to an air-tight container and freeze for up to 2 months. Remember that reheating frozen cream-based soups can be difficult because they tend to break and may need to be re-thickened.
Avgolemono means egg-lemon, but in Greece is known as a group of family sauces thickened with chicken broth, lemon juice, and egg yolks. Very tasty to most but time-consuming when tempering egg yolks into a hot sauce.
Chicken soup has salty and savory notes, which welcome the sweet, bright tang of the lemon juice. This ingredient helps round out and cut through the dish's saltiness from start to finish.
The top three ingredients that bring much-needed flavor to chicken soup are Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and fish sauce. What these ingredients bring is either acidity or umami to this dish. These sensories both bring much-added depth and roundedness to not only chicken soup but many other dishes as well.
✔️ More Chicken Soup Recipes
There are so many ways to make chicken soup! Be sure to give these a try:
- Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken Soup (Keto and Low Carb)
- Green Enchiladas Chicken Soup (Slow Cooker + Instant Pot)
- Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Chicken Fajita Soup (Crockpot + Instant Pot)
- 7 Can Taco Soup Recipe
📋 Recipe
Creamy Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 stalks celery (chopped)
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into ½" pieces)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or, 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or, 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup uncooked orzo pasta (Keto: substitute 1 cup riced cauliflower)
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 cup half and half (Keto: use full fat or heavy cream)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (Keto: start with ½ tsp Xanthan gum dissolved in 1 tsp olive oil.)
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large pot and preheat over medium heat. Add onion and celery and saute until golden and soft, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add broth, chicken breast, lemon juice, wine, thyme, oregano, and bay leaves. Cover and reduce heat to simmer, 10 minutes.
- Add pasta and spinach and continue to cook 10 minutes or until pasta is tender.
- In a small bowl mix the half and half and cornstarch together. Slowly whisk into the soup. Continue to cook, stirring frequently until the soup thickens slightly.If using xanthan gum, dissolve it in olive oil then whisk into half and half then add to the soup. Start with only ½ teaspoon and add more, if needed, in ¼ teaspoon increments. A little goes a long way.
- Remove the bay leaves, adjust salt and pepper as needed. Serve.
Video
Notes
- Don't miss all of our helpful hints, substitution ideas, cooking tips, and other delicious recipes that can be found in our post. Check it out!
- VARIATIONS: Fat free half and half can be used to reduce fat. Chicken thighs can be substituted for breast. Feel free to add other vegetables to your soup such as carrots or zucchini.
- MAKE IT KETO: use full fat half and half or heavy cream; use xanthan gum as the thickener; substitute riced cauliflower for the orzo.
- TOP TIPS: Slowly whisk in the cornstarch and half and half to prevent curdling.
- SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve garnished with sour cream, feta, or fresh herbs. Serve with a side of Greek Salad and breadsticks.
Nutrition
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