Instead of relying on cream, this lemon chicken soup is thickened with egg in a quick and painless process. Comforting, healthy, quick, and a great use of leftover chicken! And great for sick little ones.
Reasons to Soup
It’s absolutely freezing over here, making it officially the time of year for soup.
Separately, I also really like how soups are filling without making me feel tired. Makes it a bit less painful to put down the kids after dinner when my body isn’t fighting off a post-large-meal coma.
Our kids also really like soup. I’m not sure if it’s the joy of having a bunch of little chopped foods mixed together in one bowl, or that it’s topped with broth – but they’ve always been major fans. My daughter loves the noodles/rice. My sons love the chicken. Everyone loves the broth. Does it remind them of juice? Is it just fun to eat liquid using a spoon? Honestly, I have no clue. I sometimes wonder if they’re getting enough calories when they’re filling up their stomachs with so much broth.
Enter this lemon chicken soup, which is thickened with egg. It’s basically Avgolemono, but not exactly, because I leave the rice out of soup and have tried to keep the recipe as easy / simple as possible. If you add the rice to the soup, I find it gets a bit mushy. Some people might like that, but the Italian in me likes things al dente. So, instead, I cook the rice on the side and pour the soup over the top of the rice. This way you get perfectly cooked rice. Or no rice, if you’re trying to avoid eating a lot of white starchy foods. (That’s why this qualifies as one of my low-calorie recipes.)
Awesome Soup for Babies & Sick Kids
I mentioned how my kids love broth. When he’s sick, my pickiest eater sometimes refuses to eat anything but broth. I can optimistically give him a bowl of soup, but he’s literally only going to eat the broth. Sometimes I can sneak some small chicken pieces in there, but he’s very ornery when he’s sick. I don’t want to push him too hard if he’s at least consenting to broth.
So I started thinking about ways I could work with the broth to get it to be as nutritious as possible. The solution was based on Avgolemono – Greek lemon chicken soup, which is thickened with egg. I tried making a simplified version for them to try, and it was a big hit (with my husband as well!).
Because the lemon chicken soup broth has both egg and lemon, it has more protein and vitamins than traditional chicken stock. It puts my mind at ease to know that when my kids are slurping down loads of broth, they’re also getting some protein, choline, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, omega-3s, etc.
The nutritious broth also makes this soup a great option for babies starting out in the world of solids. My youngest is just beginning to transition into the world of chewable foods. I give him little bits of chicken and vegetables and rice mixed into the lemon chicken broth, but if he mostly just eats the broth, he’s still getting lots of nutrients from the lemon and egg.
Leftovers Hack: Bad Mom Edition
One last reason to make this soup: sometimes we go to the grocery store, bring back a rotisserie chicken, feed part of it to the kids for lunch that day . . . and then I forget all about it for about five days until I’m digging through the refrigerator and find the remnants at the back of a shelf. What to do with a leftover rotisserie chicken that is technically edible, but definitely past its prime?
SOUP! Soup is always the answer. We love soup in this family.
About the Eggs: Food Safety
I have loved Avgolemono since the first time I tried it, sometime in my early 20s. I still remember where I was sitting in the Greek diner near campus where I had it for the first time.
It’s so rich, creamy, and tangy, and I always ordered it if it came up on a restaurant’s menu. Part of the reason was that I was scared to make it at home. I worried the egg would end up undercooked. Or curdled. Like, you know how sometimes you just don’t want to know how the sausage gets made? I didn’t want to ruin the soup for myself if I messed it up.
But I was surprised by how simple it was to make – and especially by how much room for error there is. The method I’ve explained below is super, super simple. I’ve yet to end up with curdled egg. And because I’m a little crazy about raw egg, I have temped it nearly every time I’ve made it to date just to triple check the egg is getting hot enough. Good news, it’s always significantly above the threshold for food safety.
Safe Temperatures for Egg
The risk with undercooked eggs is ingesting harmful bacteria. Salmonella is the primary risk. At 160F, harmful bacteria is killed nearly instantly. This is the temperature you’re usually aiming for when you want to get safe eggs.
To make sure you’re completely in the clear, the general recommendation is that eggs come up to 160F and hover there for at least a couple of seconds. You can come in at a lower temperature if you keep the eggs at this lower temperature for a while. For example, you can bring them up to just 155F, but you’d want to keep the eggs at 155F for at least 15 seconds to kill off the harmful bacterial.
That said, if you follow the instructions below, you’re going to end up well above 160F. And you’re going to be there for at least a couple of minutes. So I needn’t have been so worried about this issue back in the day, and you can relax if you’re concerned about the food safety aspect.
Overview: The Method for Cooking the Egg – you don’t need a thermometer!
The way that this lemon chicken soup recipe works is that you cook the chicken soup base at a boil (about 212F) with the chicken pieces and vegetables, just like any other soup. You only add eggs and lemon at the very end, when you’re just about ready to serve.
Right before you’re about to put food on the table, you turn off the heat and let the soup sit for about a minute (after it stops visibly boiling). Then you drizzle a little broth into your lemon egg mixture while whisking to warm up the eggs a bit. You do this a couple more times, adding more broth to the eggs, continuing to whisk until the eggs feel warm to the touch. Then you dump your warmed-up eggs back into the soup – and you’ll end up somewhere around 180F – way above the 160F threshold we’re concerned about for egg food safety.
A Use for Leftover Egg Yolks!
Using extra egg yolks for this soup also supports my love of eating egg whites. (Yes, I know it’s now considered healthy these days to eat the whole egg, but during one of my mom’s dieting trends in the 90s I picked up a smoldering love of egg whites that sometimes bursts into full-fledged cravings.)
I hate to throw away egg yolks, so I’m always looking for recipes to use up the yolks. This soup is one of the healthier ways I use up leftover egg yolks!
How do I reheat this soup without curdling the eggs?
Since this soup is egg-based, there is a risk of curdling the eggs when you reheat it. Fortunately, this hasn’t yet been an issue for me. I heat this soup just like any other, but I stop heating just when I start to see the first signs of boiling. I’ve done it in the microwave or on the stove without any issues. I just watch it a bit more closely than I would another soup.
Doesn’t Avgolemono Typically Have Rice?
This is my healthier, low calorie version of the Greek lemon chicken soup (avgolemono), so it doesn’t include rice by default. Traditional avgolemono recipes typically call for orzo or rice to be cooked in the soup alongside the vegetables and chicken. There are a few reasons for this. First, the starches contribute to thickening the broth, making for a heartier soup. Second, it’s much easier to cook it this way — everything’s in one pot!
There are some downsides to the traditional approach, however. The longer the soup cooks or sits waiting to be eaten, the mushier the rice or orzo gets. You miss out on that delicious chewiness that makes pasta or rice irresistible. If I’m going to be eating rice or pasta, I want to enjoy it in its best form.
For that reason, I like making my rice separately from the soup. Yes, it does mean you’re cooking with (and cleaning!) a second pan, but it doesn’t change your overall cooking time. And once everything is ready, I pour my soup over perfectly cooked, slightly chewy rice that is not at all mushy. And, I get a repeat of that experience when I reheat leftovers. It is the perfect comfort food: perfectly cooked rice with deliciously tangy lemon chicken soup poured over the top of it. It feels like a delightful carby splurge. Not sad mushy rice thrown into a soup almost as an afterthought.
Alternatives to White Rice
Alternatively, if you want to keep cleanup simpler but still want to avoid mushy rice, you could cook wild rice directly in the broth — but the cook time is going to be about doubled (you need a good 45 minutes to cook wild rice). But that would also taste good, and be a bit healthier than your standard white rice.
Alternatively, if you’re counting calories or just trying to avoid white starchy foods, you can just enjoy the soup without any rice. It’s absolutely delicious that way!
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Greek-Style Lemon Chicken Soup
Comforting, healthy, quick, and a great use of leftover chicken! And so comforting and nourishing for sick little ones.
You do not need a thermometer! I just include one in the pictures so you can see what is happening from a temperature standpoint.
Ingredients
Chicken Broth Base
6 cups chicken stock (recipe to easily make your own!)
approximately 2 cups roughly chopped cooked chicken meat
1/2 tsp salt (+ more to taste)
Soup
1 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup finely sliced green onions (optional)
1 cup lemon juice (4–6 lemons’ worth)
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
Toppings (optional)
1 cup sushi rice (my preference is sushi, but any other white rice will work. Just follow package instructions to adjust cooking time and liquid to rice ratios; for wild rice, increase broth to 2 cups & cook time to 45 min)
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp chopped dill
Instructions
1. Prep the rice (if you want rice)
Place your 1 cup of rice into a saucepan with a lid. Swish the rice around the the bottom of the saucepan, then pour off the water as much as possible (this gets some of the excess starch off the surface of the rice so it doesn’t get super sticky when you cook it). Repeat 1-2 more times. Its okay if you don’t get all the water off out of the rice. I usually leave a little in there.
Alternatively, my husband puts rice in a mesh strainer and pours the water through it that way. I find this approach annoying, because it’s another thing to clean, but throwing it out there in case you’re similarly deranged.
Add the 1 1/4 cup chicken broth to the rice and heat over high heat until it comes to a boil. Stir, cover, and reduce to very low heat. Cook for 20 minutes.
Note: If you’re using a different type of rice, just follow the package instructions for the rice/liquid ratios and cook times.
2. Prepare the soup base.
Bring the 6 cups of chicken stock to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp of salt.
Finely chop the carrots and celery (you’ll need these first). Then finely chop the green onions (if using).
Squeeze the lemons until you have 1 cup of lemon juice (4-6 lemons). I usually squeeze into a bowl topped with a mesh strainer to catch the seeds.
Note: I chop finely because my pickiest eater will otherwise pick out pieces of vegetables. When I chop more finely, for whatever reason, he’s more willing to eat them.
3. Add the carrots and celery.
Once the stock is boiling, add the carrots and celery (not the green onion or chicken yet). Let them boil for about 10 minutes.
While the carrots and celery cook, whisk together your eggs (2 eggs + 2 egg yolks) with the 1 cup of lemon juice in a heat safe mixing bowl. Wash and chop your 2 tbsp of dill.
4. Add the chicken (and green onion, if using).
After 10 minutes of cooking the carrots and celery, add the green onions (if using) and the chopped chicken. Bring back up to a boil for about 2 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
5. Add the egg and lemon mixture.
Wait 1 minute after the soup stops visibly boiling. The temp will be around 210F (212F is boiling). You do not need to temp anything during this process, I’m just letting you know because information is power.
Bring your egg/lemon mixture and whisk next to the soup. You’re going to need two hands so safely stow away any children for the next two minutes.
Using a ladle or 1/2 cup measure, scoop up some of the hot broth (try to avoid the vegetables / chicken as much as possible, but this is not critical), and, while whisking the egg/lemon mixture, slowly pour the hot broth into the egg/lemon mixture. Do this 3-4 more times, until the eggs start to feel quite warm. Mine were a little warmer than body temperature when I finished this part, as you can see below.
Then dump all the egg/lemon mixture straight into the hot soup, and stir immediately. After mixing soup and egg together, we get to a final soup temp of about 180F. (This is well above the food safety threshold for eggs of 165F!)
Don’t turn the heat back on. Add more salt to taste and serve immediately!
6. Serve & enjoy!
To serve, scoop out some rice (if using) into a bowl and pour the soup over it. I also like to top my soup with dill.
Our kids like the dill too, but I try to let them garnish their soups themselves. It gives them a sense of control over their lives.
