Greek comfort, weeknight quick: Lemony, luscious Avgolemono Soup

Egg yolks, lemon juice and broth form the silky, bright avgolemono sauce that beautifully elevates chicken rice soup. Recipe below.

WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING FOR BASIC COMFORT FOOD, chicken and rice soup is right there. Soothing and filling and easy enough to make. In Greek kitchens, they take that simple idea, layer on a silky brightness and call it avgolemono.

Avgolemono—Greek for egg-lemon—is both the name of the soup and the name of the sauce that drives it, made with egg yolks, lemon juice and broth. We hadn’t thought of it in forever, and then our friend Juliet shared a recipe with us. Suddenly, we needed to make some.

The soup is a popular springtime meal. Here in the northern hemisphere, nominal spring is just days away, close enough. And with mounds of melting snow still very much with us in Chicago, we’re happy to enjoy this promise of the season to come.

This is what I like to call a crowded soup, chock full of vegetables, chicken bites and rice, almost stewlike. You can make it from scratch, making your own chicken stock and shredding the cooked chicken meat, but leftover chicken or store-bought rotisserie chicken and reduced-sodium broth make this weeknight quick. We used leftover roast chicken thighs for the soup you see here.

Depending on whose recipe you look at (yes, there are many out there), the mix of aromatics and herbs varies quite a bit. We went the mirepoix route with the former—onion, celery, carrots and garlic. And it not being spring yet, we went with dried herbs—oregano and thyme.

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Avgolemono Soup

Egg yolks, lemon juice and broth form the silky, bright avgolemono sauce that beautifully elevates chicken rice soup.

Course Soup

Cuisine Greek-inspired

Servings 4 as a meal

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery, about 2 ribs
• 1 cup chopped carrots, 2 to 3
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 8 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium broth
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
• 3 cups or so shredded/chopped chicken (see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Instructions

• Heat oil over medium flame in a Dutch oven or heavy soup pot until shimmering. Add onion, celery and carrots, and stir to coat with oil. Cook vegetables until starting to soften, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid browning or burning.
• Clear a space in the middle, add garlic, oregano and thyme, and cook, stirring constantly, about 45 seconds. Add chicken stock, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stir in rice and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add chicken and cook until chicken is warmed through, about 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the avgolemono sauce. Whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a deep bowl or measuring cup. Continuing to whisk, slowly ladle in 2 ladlesful of broth. This tempers the egg lemon mixture and keeps it from cooking into solids.
• Turn the heat off under the Dutch oven and whisk the avgolemono sauce into the soup. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt.
• Ladle into shallow soup bowls and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Let’s talk chicken parts. Many recipes specify chicken breast—rotisserie chicken serves well here. We had recently roasted some chicken thighs and used three of those, which produced about 3 cups of shredded/chopped chicken. You can also gently sauté chicken tenderloins.

Reheating leftovers. Do so gently, without bringing the soup to a boil. You don't want to break the sauce.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. This blue transferware soup plate is in the Wild Rose pattern. This pattern was very popular across many decades in the 1800s, but we suspect this dish was made before 1842 (when registration marks first were added to English pottery) and most likely around 1825 to 1830. That image in the center is taken from a print first issued in 1811—a view of the village of Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire. That body of water, with the people fishing from flat boats, is the Thames. And that stately home on the left is still standing. Today it’s a spiritual center: Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University.