Greek Avgolemono Soup Recipe (Lemon Chicken Soup)

A bowl of Greek avgolemono chicken soup with fresh dill in a white bowl.

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Greek Avgolemono Soup Recipe (Lemon Chicken Soup)

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Greek

Servings: Yield 2 quarts

Calories: 454kcal

Author: Sally Cameron

Equipment

Large Dutch oven or soup pot 5 ½ - 6 quarts

Ingredients

¾ cup gluten free orzo pasta (6 oz dry) wheat orzo note below
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves finely chopped and smeared to a paste or microplaned
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup finely chopped carrot
5 cups good quality chicken broth, low sodium preferably homemade
1 large bay leaf fresh or dried
2 cups shredded cooked chicken 11 ounces
3 large eggs use 2 whole eggs + 1 extra yolk
3-4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ tablespoons fresh chopped dill
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper optional

Instructions

Cook the pasta

Start by cooking the orzo according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cool water to stop the cooking process and remove excess starch. Save for adding to the soup, adding a tiny bit of olive oil to the pasta so it does not stick together in a clump.

Start the soup: cook the vegetables

Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 3–4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the celery and carrot; cook until softened, 3–4 minutes.

Add the broth

Add broth to the pot and the bay leaf. Simmer for 5-10 minutes to blend the flavors and heat the broth. Add the salt (taste first as broth salt levels vary widely unless homemade). Turn the heat down to low before tempering the eggs (so they do not scramble).

Temper the eggs

Whisk 2 whole eggs plus the extra yolk until light and frothy, then whisk in the lemon juice. While whisking constantly, slowly ladle 1 cup of hot broth from the pot into the egg-lemon mixture until it’s very warm. A few vegetable bits are fine—just aim for mostly broth.

Add the avgolemono (eggs and lemon)

With the pot on LOW, slowly pour the warm egg-lemon mixture into the soup while stirring constantly. Do not boil.

Add the chicken and pasta to serve

Add the shredded chicken and cooked orzo; heat gently until warmed through. Do not boil or get the soup too hot (because of the eggs).

Make any adjustments

Taste and adjust with more lemon juice, salt and pepper. Remove bay leaf before serving. Add the dill off the heat for the freshest flavor.

Notes

Cooking the orzo separately keeps the soup light and silky and makes leftovers much better the next day.

Rinse pasta after cooking: You can rinse the cooked orzo under cold water to stop the cooking process and remove excess starch, which helps prevent it from clumping in the soup.

Add pasta at the End: Stir the pre-cooked orzo into the soup just before serving, only heating it through for a few minutes, to ensure the best texture. Do not boil the soup after adding the delicate egg-lemon (avgolemono) mixture, as this could cause the eggs to curdle.

Orzo doubles or triples in quantity from the raw volume. Wheat generally triples and the gluten-free generally doubles. So ½ cup of wheat orzo = about 1 ½ cups of cooked orzo, and ¾ cup of GF orzo = about 1 ½ cup cooked.

Nutrition note: Nutrition is calculated using gluten-free orzo (measured by weight). If you swap wheat orzo or change the amount of pasta/broth, the numbers will vary slightly.

Nutrition