This creamy chicken lemon rice soup tastes like it came straight from your favorite Greek restaurant. It's a staple recipe for my family when soup season rolls around; deliciously thick and creamy soup with lots of lemon flavor, tender chicken, and lots of love. If you have leftover cooked rice or leftover chicken, consider this your fast and easy 30 minute dinner tonight!
Love a good chicken recipe? Try my recipe for the best buttermilk-brined southern fried chicken, or an upscale whole roasted chicken inspired by The Standard Grill's Million Dollar Chicken, or this creamy Panera Bread-inspired Chicken Tortellini Alfredo.
This is the Best Chicken Soup for any Time of the Week!
With soup season in full effect, there was no better time than now to update one of my absolute favorite soups: Greek avgolemono soup. This hearty and cozy lemon chicken and rice soup is amazing for all this cold weather around Northern Virginia. We're even expecting snow, y'all! We've been praying for a snowy Christmas every winter, so I'm hoping this'll be the year.
Greek lemon chicken soup is bright, savory, and so comforting on a cold day. Make this soup anytime you feel a sniffle coming on or when the wind is especially biting, it's exactly what you'll need.
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Jump to:
- This is the Best Chicken Soup for any Time of the Week!
- Why You’ll Love This Creamy Chicken Lemon Rice Soup
- What is avgolemono - the Greek Lemon Egg Sauce
- Equipment
- Ingredients
- What is a Liaison?
- How to Make Cozy Creamy Lemon Chicken & Rice Soup
- Variations and Substitutions
- Pro Tips
- Storage, Freezing, and Reheating Instructions
- FAQs
- More Cozy Chicken Soup Recipes
- Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup
Why You’ll Love This Creamy Chicken Lemon Rice Soup
- Great Recipe to Use Up Leftovers - You'll use leftover cooked chicken for this recipe, and if you have some regular white rice even better because it's...
- Perfect for Weeknight Dinners! - a hearty soup that is made in half an hour if you don't have to cook the rice. Otherwise it's just as hands-off with a rice cooker.
- Learn how to Temper Eggs and Create a Liaison - this recipe uses eggs and lemon juice to thicken the soup, a technique called a 'liaison', and to add it into we temper the eggs. More on all this later.
- Tried and True - this recipe has been created and tested by a classically trained recipe developer (that's me!) multiple times over the years, it's easy to make and so yummy!
What is avgolemono - the Greek Lemon Egg Sauce
Avgolemono (greek for 'egg-lemon') is a creamy lemon-egg sauce family made with homemade chicken stock, lemon juice, and thickened with egg yolks. It's used in so many things like a drizzle over roasted chicken or veggies, in yummy chicken rice soup, or with grape leaves!
So avgolemono soup is the Greek version of creamy chicken soup, a delicious soup made with rice, chicken, and a lemony broth thickened with eggs.
I know that sounds absolutely off the wall, but using eggs to make soups and sauces thick and creamy is something that has been a part of cooking for centuries!
Different versions of avgolemono sauces and soups are made all throughout the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Iberian areas, so we can say it's a pretty popular dish.
What's interesting is that this is actually not originally a classic Greek soup...it's Sephardic Jewish cuisine. They used bitter orange juice, pomegranate juice, or unripened grape juice called verjuice before lemons became the acid of choice.
You may ask, "Does it taste like eggs?" and the answer is nope! The eggs lend no flavor, but they make the sauce or soup thicker and creamy in texture without a drop of dairy.
Equipment
- I use my 5 qt dutch oven every time I need a soup whipped up. It's a large soup pot holds heat well and is large enough to make a double batch if I want!
- Rice cooker - a good rice cooker will change your life! No more worrying about ruined rice ever again and no eyeballing a pot on the stove.
- Chef Knife and Cutting Board
Ingredients
Full ingredients, measurements, and printable instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Bite-sized pieces of cooked chicken - this is the perfect time to use leftover shredded chicken. Unlike when making a chicken soup where the chicken has to braise or cook for a long period of time, we are just rewarming the chicken here. Chicken breasts, chicken thighs, or whole chicken that's been diced up or shredded is welcome here.
- Kosher salt and black pepper.
- Onions and celery
- Olive oil - yes y'all, I'm saying no butter here! Crazy! But does that mean this soup is also healthy? Hmm...
- Cooked white rice - you'll need the rice cooked before starting this recipe. Leftover rice works great but like I said earlier, a rice cooker is your best friend here if you don't have any. I used long grain rice for this recipe, it's easy to find and doesn't change the flavor of your lemon rice soup.
- Bay leaves - people just don't understand: bay leaves cut through rich, salty flavors in a subtle (but much needed way).
- Fresh herbs - serve your lemon rice soup with some fresh, bright herbs. They bring good flavor! Fresh parsley, fresh dill, or scallions like I used, are perfect to give a little *fancy* and some extra flavor.
- Egg yolks - you can use whole eggs but you run the risk of shreds of egg white running through the soup and easily scrambling while tempering. Egg yolks are the easiest way to go.
- Fresh lemons - it's not avgolemono without them! We use the lemon zest and fresh lemon juice in this recipe, so don't even think about the bottled stuff. Fresh is a million time better, anyway!
- Chicken stock - Homemade chicken stock is always in my freezer, but if you don't have any don't grab a box from the grocery stores, get some Better than Bouillon base instead!
What is a Liaison?
In culinary terms, a liaison is a thickener, typically heavy cream and egg yolks but can also be animal fats, starches, etc. used in sauces and soups.
I know lemon juice and egg yolk isn't the typical liaison, but think about a Hollandaise sauce: egg yolks with acid like a reduced vinegar or lemon juice thicken a hollandaise. Same thing.
How to Make Cozy Creamy Lemon Chicken & Rice Soup
Step 1 | Sauté the onion and celery with the lemon zest over medium-high heat until the onion turns golden brown. Add the garlic and stir it in, letting cooking for about 1 minute.
Step 2 | Add chicken broth, bay leaf, and cooked chicken. Stir in the rice and bring the soup to a lively simmer over medium heat.
Step 3 | Mix the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a small bowl with enough room to add hot broth to.
This step is where we temper the eggs, or carefully combining eggs with a hot liquid to create a thick, silky base (in this case the avgolemono sauce). Carefully ladle in smalls amount of the hot soup and whisk vigorously. Congrats, you've made a liaison!
Step 4 | Turn off the heat (very, very important!) and add the tempered eggs liaison to the soup. Become mesmerized at how the soup becomes a rich and creamy texture.
Step 5 | Serve your bowl of soup with a little added lemon zest on top, some chives, dill, or sliced scallions, and a good pinch of freshly cracked black pepper.
Variations and Substitutions
- A popular variation for avgolemono soup is to swap the rice for orzo pasta. Orzo is rice shaped so I can see why.
- Serve with warm pita bread, focaccia, or a slice of crusty bread.
- Want a more brothy Greek lemon soup? Use only one egg yolk instead and use less rice.
- Make turn this into a totally non-traditional chicken and wild rice avgolemono soup and stir in a wild rice blend, cooking it into the soup for about 45 minutes until tender and chewy.
Pro Tips
- Using a rotisserie chicken from the store makes this recipe an easy 'dinner tonight' kind of dish.
- Vegetable broth can be used in lieu of chicken broth.
- Do not boil this soup after adding the eggs. It will not be pleasant, trust me.
Storage, Freezing, and Reheating Instructions
Storage: Cool the soup to room temperature. Store the leftover soup in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Freeze: Pour the cooled soup into freezer-safe containers with enough room for the soup to expand. Freeze for up to 6 months!
Thaw: safely thaw in the fridge overnight before, do not defrost on your counter, y'all!
Reheat: on the stove in a saucepan over medium heat with a hearty splash of broth. Stir well so the bottom doesn't burn and remember: don't let it boil!
FAQs
Really, any kind of rice is great in this soup. Jasmine rice, basmati rice, wild rice, brown rice, even arborio rice works!
Yes you can freeze this soup since it's dairy free. Freeze portions in freezer-safe containers for up to 6 months.
More Cozy Chicken Soup Recipes
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Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced finely
- 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 cups cooked chicken thighs, shredded or cut into bite-sized cubes
- 2 cups cooked long grain rice
- 3 large egg yolks
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Slices of lemon, for garnish
- Chopped fresh parsley, dill, or scallions, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven with olive oil over medium high heat, diced onions, and celery, seasoned with about ½ teaspoon salt and pepper. Saute for 3-5 minutes until translucent, then turn the heat to medium and add the garlic and lemon zest. Let cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Add chicken stock, shredded chicken, bay leaf, and cooked rice to the pot. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks and lemon juice. Gradually ladle in about ½ cup of the hot broth from the pot, whisking constantly to temper the eggs so they don't scramble when added to the soup.
- Turn heat off the heat on the stove then add the tempered egg mixture to the pot, stirring in well. Taste, then season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve hot with lemon slices and chopped fresh herbs.
- Serve while hot.
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