Chicken lemon rice soup or Avgolemono soup is a classic Greek lemony soup made with fresh ingredients and simple foods.
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Lemon Rice Soup
This soup is better known as Avgolemono, to soup lovers in Metro Detroit. It is a simple, lemony, creamy Greek-inspired soup. Now I’m not Greek, but I grew up going to a unique type of Greek restaurant found all over the Detroit area: the Coney Island. No matter which Coney I ate at, I religiously ordered this soup.
Since Coney’s do NOT deliver, I had to put on my resourceful Momma-hat and make this soup at home! This is SO easy to do because I usually always have the ingredients on hand.
Not from Michigan? Learn more about the Coney Island experience here.
What’s in My Chicken Lemon Rice Soup with Extra Cooking Tips
- Chicken Broth – I like to use low sodium so I can add salt to taste
- Rice – I use white
- Chicken Breast – cooked however you like and shred it
- Eggs – Add very very slowly to the warm broth so it doesn’t turn into scrambled eggs in your soup
- Lemons – Put the leftover lemons in some water to add some flavor!
I almost forgot to mention that January is National Soup Month! How fitting!
More Delicious Soups to Try
Here are some flavorful soup recipes for this month and beyond, enjoy!
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Pesto Turkey Noodle Soup
- Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup
- Roasted Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup
- Mexican Beef and Potato Soup
- Southwestern Turkey Soup
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- ½ cup of rice, uncooked
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of chicken breast, cooked and shredded
- Add broth to a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add the rice. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Mix the eggs and lemon juice in a separate bowl. Slowly add the mixture to the warm broth, one tablespoon at a time, whisking constantly so the egg does not cook.
- Add the cooked chicken and stir to warm through. Enjoy!
This soup sounds so delicious!! I have to order this from our favorite Greek restaurant next time!
It’s almost too easy to make!! I forgot we add pepper too!
Great soup. I only put in 1 lemon.
We are lemon crazy here!
Oh my gosh…this was so acidic with two lemons that we had to throw the whole batch out. Even tried to tone it down with extra stock. Yuck.
We love a lot of lemon flavor in our house! Guess next time you should use one lemon.. if you decide to try again 🙂 thanks for giving it a shot!
This sounds delicious – perfect for this cold weather!!
Agreed! I’m all about soups for that very reason 🙂
Oh this looks really good!! I never thought to add eggs to soup to make it creamy like this! WOW! I’ll have to give this a try. Pinned!
Thanks girl! And yes, the egg makes it creamy but not too heavy!
Love that this only has 5 ingredients!!! couldn’t be easier to make! Yum!
I also added some pepper… But that ingredient doesn’t count 😉
I have never seen a soup made so creamy with eggs – what a beautiful broth!
Yes! Creamy and light!
LOVE the super short ingredient list and interesting flavors in this soup. Pinned and can’t wait to try it!
Thanks Anne! I hope you enjoy!
I love the flavor of lemon. I am going to see if I can make a vegetarian version of this by subbing veg broth for the chicken broth and adding veggies. Thank you!
Any veggie mix would be delicious in this! Even tofu…
This looks delicious and simple enough for moms to make 🙂 And by the way, I LOVE the chicken gyros at coney island!
Me too!!! And the chili fries… 😉
This sounds so deliciously simple, I think I’ll have to try it!! It reminds me a bit of a Mexican soup I love where you squeeze lime into it, so I bet it would be great with cubed avocado thrown in, too!
Ohhh yes! The avocado would make it even more creamy!
On the weekend and menu!
Enjoy Andrea!! I forgot I add a little black pepper too 🙂
Sooo happy I found this! As a Detroit girl that now lives in the country in southwest Michigan, I crave this! Thanks!!! ❤️?
Mandi, we have our very own Leo’s in Grand Rapids now!! ?
Did you use white rice for this? We prefer brown, but I’m not sure how that would affect cooking time.
Have you tried this in a crock pot? It looks amazing! !
I totally get it. I grew up in Detroit too. But I live in Texas now. Currently prego with my 4th and have been craving chicken lemon rice soup. I love Coney but my family would always go to another restaurant called Sophia’s. They had the best chicken lemon rice soup! I tried finding a Greek restaurant here in the Dallas area and was successful, but their soup wasn’t as good. Thanks for th recipe. I think I will make a huge pot this week!
How many calories in a cup of this soup?
I miss Conwy Island restaurants so much! This is the best recipe for Chicken Lemon Rice Soup I’ve ever made–thanks!
Made this tonight first time, so simple and amazing taste. Will now be a family staple on our menu ?
Yay!! So glad to hear that Leanne! Thanks for visiting!
Moved from MI to Florida 4 years age and have been craving this…made it today!
Awesome! So glad you liked!
Good soup! I added lemon zest into mine. Thanks for sharing!
Very good soup…I made it last week to use up some left over chicken breasts that had been sprinkled with lemon and herb seasoning. I doubled the recipe and it was gone in a day and was requested that another pot be put on right away. We have lots of leftover white meat from our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this past weekend so I’m making it with that…double batch of course. We also own a lemonade stand so we have lots of lemons on hand regularly. I added white pepper to mine so it stayed light in colour.
Kay – i’m gunna need some extra help here. I attempted the soup and it’s delicious, however, i have no idea how to do add the egg without it scrambling. I’ll eat the soup anyway, but i would be forever grateful for some tips. Thanks!!
Slowly! One tablespoon at a time and keep stirring, never stop 🙂 lol
My fiancé and I made the soup and it smells like wet dog. This is not a joke. What did we do wrong?
Not sure. Considering I haven’t seen another wet dog comment lol! I’m sorry it turned out that way.
Is there a way to thicken this recipe up a bit? The flavor is soooo good but I want to try and thicken it without changing the flavor
This soup is delicious! I made it today and will definitely make it again!
Thanks Betty!! It’s one of our absolute favs!
Hi, I am born, raised and live in Detroit. I kn I w all about the Coney Islands but just recently fell in love with this soup after date night with my guy to Greek restaurant, bursting with flavor. I was visiting a place called Soup and Sandwiches in Sterling Heights Mi. Goodness best soup I ghought till I nerved up and made my iwn.. Great recipe.. Will look foward yo others
Excellent! I used a quinoa/wild rice/brown rice blend and cooked a little longer. Also like a very lemony flavor, so added the zest of the lemons. To incorporate the eggs, I tempered them with 1-2 cups of broth then added it to the soup. Thought that was easier. Thank you for an easy, delicious recipe!
Thank for the tip on using quinoa!!! Your version sounds even better 🙂
This recipe was great! I, too, was inspired to make this soup after having it at multiple restaurants in Metro Detroit. A lot of Shawarma places have this in addition to Lentil Soup, and the Coney’s do too and it’s so delicious.
Who knew the recipe would be so simple and easy?!
I tried it this afternoon, but did have to make a few tweaks. I used Basmati Rice as that’s all I had in my pantry. Since it takes a bit longer to cook, a lot of the water from the soup had condensed by the time I was ready to mix in the egg + lemon juice. As such, after mixing in the egg + lemon juice mixture, I added an additional cup of chicken broth, and it fixed it up perfectly.
Also, instead of adding the chicken in later, I added pre-cooked chicken breast pieces I had made earlier in the week in the broth + rice mix. I felt like it made the chicken softer, and also added more of a chicken flavour to the rice!
I was worried about the egg cooking as I mixed it in, but doing it one tablespoon at a time, literally did the trick!
Great recipe! Thank you. I’ll be sure to save it and make it again.
Awesome adjustments!!! Thanks for sharing what worked for you!!
My whole family liked the soup – rare to get all three kids on board. They do love lemon rice soup but I kid of doubted this recipe because it was so simple. Even my husband liked it who does not usually like lemon rice. Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe. I would take my Mother in Law this soup from Leo’s after a major stroke. It was all she wanted. She is again very ill and I hope what I made will bring her as much comfort. Thank you again!
I hope she enjoyed. Your grandmother is in my prayers!
Turned out delicious! My daughter loves “rice lemon soup” from coney! Super easy to make, and my daughter asked which coney I got it from 😀
Woohoo!! Your daughter is just like me. Love my coney soup!
Just found you on Pinterest! Metro Detroiter here so I am excited to make this! Any tips for maybe making in an instant pot? As far as Coney’s go don’t forget Hani’s! Sooo Good!
This soup is DELICIOUS! Thank you for the simple, perfect recipe! We are lemon crazy here in our home as well, so the amount was just right–i even added little more!
I’m from Michigan and couldn’t wait to make one of my favorite soups at home. I am so happy with this recipe. It’s so delicious! Thank you
Corn starch added slowly thickens it and here’s a delicious tip… add a little fresh mint from your garden. It’s the secret ingredient!!
Tried this soup tonight and it was amazing. We did add some carrots to the receipe and was good. Did follow the advice with adding the chicken in with the rice and broth mixture and the chicken was very tender. Will be using this receipe again.
Hi! I just found your recipe after returning home to Minnesota after a Thanksgiving trip to my hometown of metro Detroit. We had to make our annual stop to National Coney Island where I introduced my 6 year old to this beautiful soup. He’s hooked and requested I make it right away. I’m wondering if you have ever tried freezing this recipe? I participate in a monthly soup swap and I’d love to make this but I’m not sure how well it would freeze. Any thoughts? Thank you so much!
Wow! That worked like a charm. Thank you ??
I lost my original chicken lemon rice soup recipe and found yours with a Google search! Currently cooking it up! Absolutely my favorite soup at any Coney! Non-Michiganders just don’t get it until they try it, lol!
Yay! So glad you like. Just had some from the coney for lunch today ?
You probably didn’t let it boil after the eggs. Our first batch was wet dog too…
So easy to make especially if you have a rotisserie chicken to cut up. Delicious! I did add a little chopped parsley because I love it and it is fresh and goes well with lemon. Thanks for the recipe!
Looks and sounds like a winner, Katie. Thanks so much for posting this!
Been a coney restaurant fan since going to American and National with my dad in the late 50s. Didn’t discover the soup until several decades later, but now every trip includes a cup of this treasure. (I like it ‘lemony’…)
I’ve tried several more complex recipes, but they neither looked nor tasted like what we love from the coney places.
Will be trying your recipe tomorrow, along with some stuffed grape leaves w/avgolemono, to go along with my wife’s outstanding spinach pie and lamb & rice. (In previous years, I’d also make saganaki, a big Greek salad with artichokes, and get a loaf of bread from the Monroe Bakery. But we’ve cut way back on consumption for health reasons, and will forego some of the treats…)
Mmmmm. May go to bed early so tomorrow will come sooner!
I know you posted this a couple of years ago but I just have to respond bc I had the same experience! The soup looks and tastes exactly right but smells like wet dog. Haha. I found your comment bc I literally searched “avgolemono smells like wet dog.” Maybe it’s us??
Absolutely love this recipe!! The hubby and I have been craving it since moving away from north west Indiana. But he said this recipe is definitely a keeper!!
This happened to me too! But only once I reheated!
Take a ladle-ful of rice, with a little broth (no chicken) out and put it in a blender. Let it cool to slightly warm, add eggs and blend until liquid. Pour into simmering (not boiling) soup, stirring while pouring. Keep stirring until it simmers again. No scrambled eggs!
Take a ladle-ful of rice, with a little broth (no chicken) out of the pot and put it in a blender. Allow to cool until just warm. Add eggs and puree. Pour back into broth, stirring all the time, and continue stirring until back up to a simmer. The rice acts as a thickener, and you don’t need to worry scrambling the eggs.
Hi Katie! Love the soup!
I was thinking… If you were to turn this into a lemon chicken rice bake, what would you do different in terms of ingredients? We love the flavor so much, but think it would also be great as a bake!
Thanks!
I need to leave a comment finally because I have been using this recipe for years now. It’s my go to for lemon chicken rice soup and I have never found better. I use rotisserie chicken meat. I love this recipe so much and so does my family !
Thank you for sharing this. I’m from the metro Detroit area and miss this soup SO MUCH. I made it yesterday and it was delicious. Today it tasted like I remember it at a coney island. <3
I only had one lemon, so I added lemon zest (rather than only juice). I also added some oregano, onion powder, salt, and pepper, but now that I've had it on day two, I'm not sure they were even necessary.
Thank you thank you thank you! Now if I could just master homemade coney sauce I'll be all set! 😉
One of the things I miss about Michigan is going to Coney Island restaurant and having some Chicken Lemon Rice soup.
Thank you for this delicious recipe! I tried another recipe, which was supposed to be from a nearby restaurant whose soup we loved. IT WAS NOT their recipe. I had a sense that it was missing eggs, so was happy when I found yours. My family was not familiar with lemon chicken rice soup and they loved it! I also love how quick and easy it is.
Thank you so much for a little taste of home. I miss Michigan and Coney Islands so much (Shout out to American) Tennessee has its perks, Detroit is home.
An you do this in a crockpot?
Excellent recipe. I doctored with salt n pepper to taste but overall very good!
Made this today and I felt like I was sitting inside a Coney Island eating their lemon rice soup! I even made some homemade pita bread to go with it! I am Greek as well and grew up eating this soup on many rainy days. This was so easy and authentic to the way I know it. Even while using lemon juice instead of fresh lemons. Im very used to the sourness and I even added more lemon than called for. Thanks again for the recipe!!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I was born and raised in MI, but live in NC now and can’t find lemon rice soup even HALF as delicious as Coney Island’s. This tastes just like it!
LOVE this soup. I’m a MI native but live on the east coast now and miss this soup and Saganaki OPA! Sooooo much! Thank you for this awesome recipe! It’s perfect!
I’m from a Highland! Absolutely craving it!
Excellent easy recipe just forwarded to my daughter