One of my favorite types of seasonal recipes to make is soup! And with winter upon us, what better time than now to make my Easy Avgolemono Soup with Orzo – a hearty Greek Lemon Chicken Soup you’ll want to eat all year long!
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It’s no surprise that I love soup! I enjoy creating different soup recipes, as well as eating soup! I think soups – more than any other cuisine – can really fit the season.
What Are Seasonal Soups
As a food blogger with a blog that focuses on seasonal recipes, I have created several different soup recipes for different seasons.
Some of my favorites are my Fall Acorn Squash Stew – a perfect soup for those cool Fall days and my Cool As A Cucumber Chilled Soup – a cool and delicious treat for those hot Summer afternoons.
If you haven’t checked them out yet, what the heck are you waiting for? Just kidding! Sort of…LOL!
However, if you are a soup nut like me, please check out those soup recipe links above.
The Perfect Soup for Winter
Up until now, I hadn’t tried making a soup that would be perfectly fitting for winter. I knew I wanted some type of chicken soup, but something a little more exotic than just plain old boring chicken soup.
Then it hit me! I used to get this awesome Greek Lemon Chicken Soup at a nearby diner that I absolutely loved. When I asked the owner about it, he told me it was a traditional Greek soup recipe, called Avgolemono.
What Does Avgolemono Mean?
It’s a Greek noun that simply means any soup or sauce made using chicken broth, eggs and lemon juice.
What Exactly Is Avgolemono Soup
Avgolemono is a traditional Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. This soup is made from eggs, lemon juice from a freshly squeezed lemons, chicken broth or stock, and some optional ingredients, such as shredded chicken pieces and various vegetables.
I have decided to also add Orzo (a type of rice shaped Greek pasta) for texture, as well as to make this soup a little heartier.
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To complete this recipe, I’m going to stir in some spinach. Some recipes add other vegetables, such as celery and carrots, as well.
But we are going to keep this recipe SIMPLE!
What Does Avgolemono Soup Taste Like?
As a fan of chicken soup and a person who loves anything lemon, this soup tastes like the most incredible chicken soup you’ve ever had, combined with a hearty and creamy lemon base that I cannot get enough of.
So, I guess that means I like it!
Easy Avgolemono Soup With Orzo – The Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 2 – 3 lemons
- 6 – 8 cups of Swanson chicken broth as a base (you can also use chicken stock) – I used 4 cans of the broth shown above
- 1/2 cup uncooked Orzo – I like this non-GMO Orzo from RiceSelect
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken
- Fresh spinach (optional ingredient, but highly recommended)
Avgolemono Soup with Orzo – Recipe Equipment Needed
Here are the kitchen tools that I used in this recipe
1 Large Pasta Pot with Lid
1 Pyrex Measuring Cup
1 Medium Bowl (I tried to find one with a Greek design to fit this recipe – totally NOT necessary!)
1 Egg beater
1 Large Ladle
I like the stainless steel and black combination of most of my cooking equipment, but there is something really cheerful about these Greenlife pots and pans!
Preparing the Ingredients
In this section, I am going to explain how I prepared the ingredients so that when we get into the recipe steps down below, you will have everything handy. I would say the preparation took about 10 minutes.
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You can begin preparing the ingredients for this recipe in many different ways (in fact, I have Step-by-Step instructions down below in the recipe card section of this article), but I chose to start by simply adding four cans of low sodium chicken broth to my pot.
Next, I pulled (shredded) some of the chicken pieces directly from my pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and placed on a plate. These will be used later in the recipe.
I then cracked 3 eggs and added them to a medium-sized bowl
Beat the eggs until they are sufficiently creamy and there is no more yolk showing.
Next, squeeze some fresh lemons into your measuring cup. I used 3 whole lemons and got about 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
A handy measuring cup like the one shown below will come in handy at various times during this recipe. If you don’t have one yet, I highly recommend this exact same one available on Amazon.
I LOVE citrus and this amount of lemon juice will make your Avgolemono Soup very lemony so it is perfectly acceptable if you want to use fewer lemons than I did!
Pour the freshly squeezed lemon juice INTO the medium bowl with the beaten eggs in it and whisk it well!
Since I used a lot of lemon juice, it seriously lightened the color of my egg mixture!
At this point, you are pretty much done preparing the ingredients and have everything you need to start making this delicious Avgolemono Soup with Orzo recipe!
Check out how good this soup looks after stirring in some Orzo and fresh spinach – even with my bad photography!
So What Makes Your Recipe for Avgolemono Soup EASY?
In general, I am using a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and pulling or shredding the meat to add to my soup.
This is easier than cooking a whole chicken (or even chicken breasts) from scratch, which cuts down on the prep time for this recipe quite considerably.
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Also, I am using as few ingredients as possible while still capturing the essence of this delicious Greek Lemon Chicken Soup (I hope!)
Is There Anything Difficult About This Recipe?
If I had to say that any of the recipe steps for making Avgolemono soup were tricky, it would have to be the step where we temper the eggs (Step 7 down below in the recipe steps).
But don’t worry! It’s not that difficult. Plus, I go into a lot of detail in that step, but just to give you some background beforehand…
What Does Tempering Eggs Even Mean
According to this article about tempering eggs from CookingClarified.com, tempering is a method of combining two ingredients (one of which is usually egg) at two different temperatures, so that the egg cooks slowly and doesn’t congeal.
How I Tempered My Eggs
I slowly added the hot ingredient (hot broth) into the cooler (room temperature) ingredient (egg and lemon mixture) while whisking continuously and vigorously. I go into more details in the Step-by-Step Avgolemono Soup recipe instructions below.
The goal is to prevent the eggs from cooking too quickly by slowly raising their temperature.
By keeping the eggs moving vigorously and constantly, we are able to raise their temperature SLOWLY and prevent the eggs from cooking!
How Do I Know If I Tempered My Eggs Correctly in this Recipe?
The best way to tell that you successfully tempered your eggs is by looking in the soup AFTER adding your egg and lemon mixture back into the pot.
If you did NOT temper the eggs completely, the eggs will start to cook after you add this mixture back into your hot soup (you will know that the eggs started to cook if you see segments of egg whites that are starting to cook/congeal).
This means you should probably have either whisked your egg/lemon mixture after adding in the hot broth for a little bit longer or added the hot broth to the egg/lemon mixture more slowly.
What Can I Do If My Eggs Start To Cook When Added Back Into The Hot Broth?
First off, don’t panic!
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The first time I made this recipe, the same thing happened to me. My eggs started to cook once I added them back into the hot soup.
I have to give a shout out to this awesome Avgolemono Soup with Orzo and Spinach recipe from Umamigirl.com – it was the first recipe I found that described how to temper the eggs properly.
Here’s What I Did
So, if you didn’t get this step exactly right, you can just ignore the fact that there are some cooked egg pieces in your soup – although, I personally didn’t like having pieces of cooked egg in my soup because the liquid should be totally creamy and smooth (and lemony!).
Plus, if I wanted scrambled eggs, I would just as soon have made my Keto Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus and Tomatoes Recipe!
What I did was I simply scooped out the various pieces of cooked egg and continuously stirred the soup vigorously to break up any small egg pieces that remained!
Happy Cooking!
Easy Avgolemono Soup With Orzo
4
servings10
minutes15
minutes190
kcal25
minutesAvgolemono soup is a traditional Greek Lemon Chicken Soup with a base made from chicken broth and a lemon and egg mixture. In this recipe, I am also adding Orzo (a Greek pasta that looks like large rice) and spinach – for texture just as much as for flavor and nutrients.
Also, topping this soup with some fresh spinach leaves makes a nice decorative garnish for the recipe photo. (Ahhh, the things we food bloggers need to think about!) To keep this recipe EASY, I am starting with a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and simply pulling (shredding) pieces of white meat from the breast, which will will be added to the soup later.
Ingredients
3 eggs
2 lemons
8 cups chicken broth (4 cans)
1/2 cup Orzo (uncooked)
8 oz shredded chicken
4 pinches fresh spinach leaves
Directions
- Start by adding pouring 4 cans of chicken broth to a large stockpot. I used a large stockpot like this one because I liked the small air vents on the sides of the lid.
- Heat the chicken broth over high heat until boiling (this will go faster if you have a lid for your pot, but covering your broth is not necessary. Covering your broth just allows the liquid to boil faster)
- Once broth is boiling, slowly add 1/2 cup of uncooked Orzo while gently stirring the broth and Orzo together. Let this chicken broth/Orzo mixture remain on high heat for 4 minutes so that the Orzo has time to start cooking.
- While your hot chicken broth is cooking the Orzo, add 3 eggs to a medium-sized bowl and beat the eggs briskly (I used an egg beater), but you can use a fork, as well. (NOTE: This is one of the steps you can do earlier if you like to prepare your ingredients beforehand)
- Squeeze the juice from 2 fresh lemons into a measuring cup (NOTE: I was able to get almost 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice. Depending on your lemons, you may get more or less juice. This is okay. Just remember with almost 1/2 cup of lemon juice, my Avgolemono soup was VERY lemony tasting. If you are not a huge fan of citrus or just want a hint of lemon, I would keep the lemon juice UNDER 1/4 cup).
- Slowly pour your freshly squeezed lemon juice into the bowl with the eggs and whisk some more using an egg beater or fork.
- Once your Orzo is almost cooked in the broth (it will still be slightly al dente), use your soup ladle to ladle out about 1 cup of the hot chicken broth/Orzo soup and SLOWLY add it to the lemon and egg mixture in your medium sized bowl. (IMPORTANT: As you add the hot broth to your egg mixture, whisk vigorously and continuously with a fork as the hot ingredient is added. This process tempers the eggs and if you don’t do this step correctly, your eggs will start to cook. By whisking constantly (i.e. keeping the eggs moving), this allows the temperature of the eggs to increase gradually, thus keeping them from cooking! Let this mixture stand for a few more minutes as you complete the final steps of your Avgolemono soup recipe.
- Add the shredded chicken pieces into the hot soup – I couldn’t help eating a few pieces of this chicken it tasted so good!
- Add some fresh spinach and stir the entire mixture together. Let the soup continue to cook the spinach (and heat the pre-cooked chicken) until the spinach is slightly wilted in the pot (took about 2 minutes) all the while keeping the heat high (my soup was still bubbling slightly at this point in the recipe)
- Reduce the heat slightly until the broth has stopped bubbling
- Stir in the lemon/egg mixture from your medium bowl that you tempered earlier using some of the hot broth and continue to cook over LOW heat until the soup looks thickened – it will now have a lighter, creamier consistency.
- Add a few pinches of black pepper (I don’t use salt as I find the chicken broth salty enough, but you may also want to add salt for flavor) and garnish with fresh spinach leaves – YUM!
Notes
- I used a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken to save time. You can certainly cook your chicken from scratch, but it will take longer than the recipe I made here.
- You may use more (really??) or less lemon juice than I did! I used quite a bit because I am a huge fan of citrus and love anything lemon.
- Don’t worry about the process of tempering the eggs – it is not that hard. Just remember that when adding the hot broth into the lemon and egg mixture, add it S-L-O-W-L-Y and whisk continuously and vigorously with an egg beater or fork.
- And make sure to reduce the heat of your soup BEFORE adding the tempered lemon/egg mixture back in. Reducing the temperature also prevents the eggs from cooking as they might if you added the tempered lemon/egg mixture back into boiling hot liquid.
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What Are Some Other Orzo Based Recipes?
I certainly had some Orzo left over after making this and if you do too, my delicious and creamy One Pot Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo recipe is a great way to use up some of that extra Orzo!
Please Let Me Know If You Made This Easy Avgolemono Soup Recipe
Please drop a comment in the comments section below and let me know if you enjoyed this recipe or even tried to make it yourself!
I would love to hear whether you thought my steps were clear enough. And also let me know if you made any changes or have any suggestions.
How did YOUR Avgolemono Greek Lemon Chicken Soup turn out? Let’s keep the conversation going!
A Greek friend introduced me to this soup years ago. But her recipe is long gone.
I happened to find chicken breast strips on sale, so cut up a few of them and simply cooked them in the broth with the orzo. A whisk worked perfectly for stirring the lemon juice and the eggs and incorporating the egg mixture into the soup. Delicious, and it brought back happy memories of my friend!
Hi Sally!
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your happy memories of your friend! Yes, cutting up the chicken breast strips and cooking in the broth with the Orzo will certainly work well. I agree that a whisk is the perfect tool for stirring the lemon juice and egg mixture.
I was introduced to this soup at a Greek restaurant I used to go to years ago. I no longer live in that area and am not even sure that place is still in business – I certainly hope so!
Please stop by again,
Bill
thank you so much. made soup this morning love it! thank you sooo much.
Thank you for the kind words, Irene!
I am so glad you liked my soup recipe…
Please stop by again,
Bill