This is truly one of the best soups I have ever had. Avgolemono is a traditional Greek soup that means ‘Egg Lemon”. Avgo-Egg Lemono-Lemon. So you see. The traditional soup is very simple, made of only chicken broth, egg, lemon juice and a bit of orzo or rice. My version is bulked up a bit with shreds of carrot, tender chicken, and fresh dill.
The soup is thickened with the addition of the eggs. This is the tricky part. Do it right, and you end up with a gorgeously smooth, velvety textured soup. Do it wrong and you’ll be eating scrambled eggs with your chicken and carrots.
The trick to perfect Avgolemono? After adding the eggs, do not boil or over-heat. That’s it. Just follow the instructions and it will turn out fine.
This is just a perfect soup for spring. The lemon and carrot are so fresh and vibrant and the dill mixes in so seamlessly. If you are stuck in a soup rut, this is just the soup to try for something delicious and new!
- 2½ lb. Bone in Chicken Thighs
- 7 C. Chicken Broth(or Water)
- ½ T. Olive Oil
- 1 small Onion, chopped
- 1 t. Coarse Salt
- 1½ C. Carrot, shredded
- ½ C. Orzo
- 4 large eggs
- ⅓ cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 T. Fresh Dill, chopped
- Dash White Pepper
- Place the chicken thighs in a crock-pot and cover with the 7 cups chicken broth or water. Cook on high for 4 hours, or until chicken is fall off the bone tender.
- Remove the chicken from the crock pot and allow it to cool down in a bowl. Do not discard the broth. Strain the broth through a mesh sieve and keep warm in the crock pot.
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the chicken from the bones. Shred the chicken just slightly. Set aside, keeping warm.
- Heat the olive oil in a stock pot over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion and salt and saute for 3-4 minutes, or until softened. Do not brown. Add the carrot and saute for another 2 minutes.
- Pour 1 cup of the broth from the crock pot into a blender and set aside to cool slightly. Add another 5 cups of the broth from the crockpot to the stock pot containing the onion and carrot and bring to a simmer(Add more chicken stock if there is not 5 cups left of liquid to make up the difference). Once the stock is simmering, add the orzo. Cover the pot and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the orzo is tender.
- Add the eggs and lemon juice to the cooled stock in the blender and blend until the mixture is frothy.
- Slowly pour the egg mixture into the hot soup, stirring constantly until it is completely mixed in. Do not bring to a boil or eggs will curdle.
- Add the chicken, dill, and a dash of white pepper to the soup and stir until distributed.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed.
- Serve immediately.
I’m not sure how you made a bowl of soup look ethereal in that first shot, but you did. This looks so good! Creamy eggy lemony! Yum.
Thanks Karen! I was really unhappy with the shots I got of the soup, so I’m glad they’re not a total failure, haha.
Kayley,
The soup was fabulous!! I made it because your photo looked so good. Pretty too 🙂 It wasn’t exactly the version we were looking for but it was more wonderful than expected!! I can’t describe it. It is creamy without being creamy and the only other word I could put to is is delicate 🙂 Thank you for posting. We will make it again!!
I’m so glad you liked it, Pat! Thank you for letting me know how it was! It is definitely one of my favorite soups of all time =) I think ‘delicate’ is just the right term =)
Kayley,
I made this soup for my sick boyfriend and it was AMAZING!! It reminded me of the restaurant I used to get it at when I was little. We ate 10 cups of it in about 2 days. Would you mind if I share your recipe through my blog?
Thanks for a great recipe!!
Thank you Kate! I’m so glad you liked it =) If you would, please just link back to the recipe here on my blog. You are welcome to use a picture, though =)
We were thinking about making this for a pot luck lunch at work, but it would have to be prepared the night before. In regard to the eggs curding upon reheating, how do you think it would hold up to a reheat in a crock pot? Move from the below 40* temp to 140* at the high setting (which still isn’t going to be that quick in a crock pot), but then back it off to the keep warm setting and slowly bring it up from there. Any thoughts, or suggestions?
Hi Russ! I think that as long as you reheat it slowly it should hold up ok. Just make sure not to hold it at too high of a temperature or the eggs will curdle. I would suggest quickly cooling it down the night before using ice baths, if you are making a large amount, just to make sure it doesn’t sit warm in the fridge too long an run the risk of developing bacteria =)
This soup is for me the taste of home. Thickening chicken soup with egg + lemon or egg + yogurt mixture is a common practice in the Balkans. My mother in law taught me to put a desert spoon of flour in the eggs before adding the yogurt / lemon and adding it to the soup. It makes no difference to the taste and prevents curdling. If using yogurt instead of lemon you can also reduce the number of eggs.
Any Greek would tell you that it’s not 4 eggs but egg whites that’s how we make it. You separate the eggs and then you take some of the stock from the chicken and add it to the eggs. You beat them with a hand blender until creamy. Then you take the pot off of the heat and slowly incorporate the eggs in the soup toss the chicken in and serve immediately. That’s how it’s done in a Greek home and restaurants.