Avgolemono Soup is the best lemon dill chicken soup. This authentic Greek Avgolemono Soup recipe is delicious with a hint of lemony brightness to warm you up on chilly winter days!
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Tis the season for soup! With temperatures already dropping to near zero degrees throughout the country before winter even began, I used some of my bonus snow days to work on my soup recipe collection.
This soup is inspired by the familiar Greek lemon soup, Avgolemono.
What is avgolemono?
Avgolemono is a Greek lemon-egg sauce. It is made with egg yolks, lemon and warm broth. This lemon chicken soup gets its name from that traditional Greek sauce. Avgolemono soup is traditionally made with either rice or orzo, seasoned with plenty of fresh lemon juice, and then thickened up using eggs – It’s rich and creamy, but simple, letting the flavor of the lemon and chicken really shine through.
How do you pronounce avgolemono?
The “g” is silent when pronouncing Avgolemono. The name Avgolemono comes from “ah-vo” which means “egg” and “lemon-o” which means lemon.
I upped the flavor on my version of Avgolemono Soup by throwing in a good amount of dill, because I really love its flavor. If you’re not a dill fan, you can leave it out, it will still be amazingly delicious and full of flavor. Or, try adding in a tablespoon of dried oregano, for a different taste. I like it both ways equally!
Ingredients needed
- Bone broth – I like to make mine in the instant pot or slow cooker, or you can use low-sodium chicken broth.
- Cooked rice – I’ll often make mine in the rice cooker or instant pot.
- Egg yolks
- Lemon juice – Fresh is best here. Not the bottled stuff.
- Cooked chicken – You can use the meat from a rotisserie chicken or try using this instant pot shredded chicken.
- Fresh dill
- Salt and pepper
How to make it
- Bring broth to a simmer.
- Add ½ cup rice, egg yolks and lemon juice to a blender, slowly stream in 1 cup hot broth.
- Stir puree into simmering stock.
- Season with fresh dill.
To start things off, I used some of my bone broth – something I always have on hand in the freezer. It’s super easy to make using just kitchen scraps and your crockpot or instant pot! However, if you don’t have any bone broth on hand, feel free to substitute in some low-sodium chicken stock instead. Heat the stock on the stove over medium heat and season it with salt and pepper to your liking.
Does avgolemono have cream?
You might think, because of its color and rich, creamy texture, that this creamy chicken lemon rice soup recipe has cream in it.
Nope! There’s no dairy in here at all.
Instead, we’re using this handy trick… In a blender, combine about a half cup of cooked rice, a couple egg yolks and lemon juice. Start the blender and then slowly stream in some of the warm stock. This tempers the egg and makes it so that it won’t scramble up in your soup like an egg drop type soup kind of thing. That is not what we’re going for here. Ummm, no. We want a silky smooth soup and this is just the way to get it.
Add that tempered egg mixture back into the hot stock along with some chopped up chicken (you can even skip this if you don’t have any on hand) and the remaining rice and let it just heat through and thicken up further for about ten more minutes. You won’t believe how simple this easy Greek lemon chicken soup is to prepare!
This Lemon Chicken Soup is perfect for when you feel a cold coming on because of all the Vitamin C. Because of that, I like to keep some in the freezer throughout the winter to keep any sickness at bay.
Have you tried Avgolemono soup before? What do you think of this version with dill added to it?
What to serve with it
- Arugula Salad
- Fennel & Celery Salad
- Crostini
- Radicchio Salad with Olives & Parmesan
- More → 25+ BEST Sides for Chicken Soup
Wine pairings
- Pinot Gris has a bright acidity with citrus notes that will pair amazingly well with the creamy, lemon flavors in this soup.
- With its slight effervescence, Vinho Verde balances out the richness of this soup and plays well with the citrus notes.
- Sauvignon Blanc has a nice herbal, grassy backbone that is a nice compliment to the dill in this soup.
Tip: This soup is also great made with leftover turkey!
More soup recipes
- Hungarian Mushroom Soup with Fresh Dill
- Instant Pot Cabbage Roll Soup
- Leftover Chicken Soup
- Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup
- One Pot Lasagna Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
- MORE → 35+ EASY soup recipes
Did you try this dill lemon chicken soup
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Have leftover dill? Use it up with one of these 29+ fresh dill recipes!
Looking for more ways to use lemons? Here’s 35+ recipes that use a lot of lemons.
Lemon Dill Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 cups bone broth (or low-sodium chicken broth)
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add ½ cup rice, egg yolks and lemon juice to a blender, slowly stream in 1 cup of hot broth and puree until smooth.
- Stir the puree into the simmering stock along with the chopped chicken and remaining rice. Simmer until slightly thickened, approximately 10 minutes. Stir in the fresh dill and serve.
Equipment
Nutrition
This looks like perfect winter comfort food, definitely pinning for a cold day pick me up of food love
Thanks Pech!
I have never heard of that but it sounds delicious and I might need to try it this week!! I just ran out of our homemade bone broth but am going to make some more in our Instant Pot!
Enjoy Suzannah – I’m thawing out some of this soup right now to fight off a cold!
Awesome and very tasty thing, I never cooked anything like this, but I saw your recipe and photo and wanted to cook it. Thank you very much for the recipe.
You’re welcome Mary – Enjoy!
Wonderful and delicious! Super easy. I added lemon zest. Thank you
I made this recipe but also included carrots, celery and onions. The soup is delicious! I did not have fresh dill so I used dried dill. Never made this before and was quite pleased the instructions and tips made it uncomplicated. Thank you!
You’re welcome Denice!
I made this exactly according to the recipe and could barley taste the lemon. Also, the soup came out extremely thick and heavy. I eventually got the taste where I wanted it by tripling the amount of lemon juice in the recipe and by adding more broth to water it down.