Easy Lemony Chicken Soup for Cold Winter Days

I'm just a soup girlie trying to survive the winter. There's all kinds of colds, random coughing, and general winter blues going around. And because I need my main character moment (walking through the quiet streets of Downtown Oakland save for the sound of the car tires splashing through puddles and the pitter patter of rain against my hoodie), I also need to eat lots of soup. Avgolemono soup is my favorite way to combat these attempts to ruin my enjoyment of the beautiful rainy season in Oakland.

I like making this for sick friends and family because it's high in protein, especially if you use bone broth and egg yolks, and has that vitamin C from the lemon juice. In some ways, avgolemono is like chicken noodle soup.

Avgolemono is also a great recipe for those looking for a creamy soup without using any dairy. The secret ingredient is egg! This recipe definitely requires a bit of technique but nothing too advanced. I'm only a moderately experienced home cook and I got this down on my first try! You basically temper the eggs with the hot broth and also try not to add the lemon juice to the egg mixture directly or else it'll curdle. Other than that, it is a fairly straight forward recipe that will brighten dark winter days with bursts of lemon juice and fresh dill.  

I also specially adapted this recipe to accommodate my household. We tend to buy a lot of pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from Safeway or Costco. After two days usually the legs and some thigh meat has been eaten so I'll make use of the rest of the meat (usually the chicken breast) by putting it into a soup. Little trick like this help to reduce food waste in the household too.

While this YouTube video was my first encounter with Avgolemono, I also reference The Greek Slow Cooker from time to time. What's special about my recipe, however, is that you don't need to make the stock from scratch, you can use leftover rotisserie chicken, and I have my own special ingredient that gives the soup a little more depth of flavor. You'll be able to find my recipe in the Community Cookbook, which will be released by the Oakland Public Library in February.

The Greek Slow Cooker

If you can't wait until then, check out the book and YouTube video linked above. If you'd like to submit a recipe of your own to the Community Cookbook, click here. 

Submit your recipe!