Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup {Avgolemono}

Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup {Avgolemono}, is a classic Greek chicken soup with a rich, citrusy egg-lemon broth.  This is lighter than the classic, and so much easier because it’s made in a slow cooker! 

And my slow cooker spree continues on with this Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup {Avgolemono}.  This was inspired by the classic Greek soup that I’ve loved from the moment I first tasted it, and I’ve made it even easier in slow cooker fix-it-and-forget-it-fashion.  This is not the traditional Greek way to make this soup, but I came up with this one day because I wasn’t feeling well and I wanted avgolemono without the fuss.  Why did I have to have this particular chicken soup?  It takes traditional chicken soup to a whole new level with a rich and creamy egg-lemon broth.  You may never want regular chicken noodle soup again after you try this. 🙂

As many of you know, I’m part Greek.  My grandfather on my dad’s side of the family was from Greece, so I grew up with a last name that everybody butchered.  And no, I’ve never broken plates or yelled “opa!”, but I grew up eating my grandfather’s Greek leg of lamb (recipe coming at some point soon!), my aunt’s spanakopita and baklava, and gone to countless Greek festivals and Greek danced with my family.  My grandfather and my aunt died many years ago, and I never eat Greek food without thinking of them.

Now I need to give you a little background on what makes this soup so special.  For starters, “avgolemono” (pronounced av-go-lemon-o just in case you were wondering!), means egg-lemon in Greek.  In Greek cooking, avgolemono is often a sauce served with chicken and rice, or used as a rich broth in this soup.  It’s the egg-lemon mixture that sets this soup apart from basic chicken soup, and once you try it, there’s no going back!

Maybe the sound of egg in chicken soup might sound strange to you?  If you didn’t know there was egg in it, you wouldn’t be able to tell — you would probably think it was cream based.  Many avgolemono soups contain more eggs than I’ve used here, but as I’ve told you before, I like foods with some richness without being over the top.  That means I’ve lightened this up for you, going with 2 eggs instead of the 3-5 you might find in traditional recipes.  And naturally, I went big on the lemon juice because I love my citrus. 🙂

This recipe is beyond easy, as you’ll see from the video below.  You just drop the onion, celery, garlic, chicken, orzo or rice, stock, and water with some salt, and get cooking.  I cooked mine on high for 3 hours because I was in a hurry as usual, but you can cook yours on low for 5-6 hours.

You’re probably wondering where the egg-lemon comes into the picture?  After the soup is done cooking.  Obviously, adding egg to hot soup could result in the unthinkable…scrambled eggs.  To keep this from happening, we have to temper our egg-lemon mixture by slowly adding 1 cup of the hot broth to it.  Whisking constantly, add a few droplets of the hot broth a time, then gradually build up to a slow, steady stream until all of the liquid has been added.  I included a video with this recipe just so could see how easy the process really is!

A couple of notes about this soup:

• If you want it richer, add at least one more egg.
• To make it gluten-free, use rice.  If you do use rice, you may find that the rice is quite mushy leaving it in the slow cooker that long.  If you’re home, you can add it during the last hour or so of cooking, or toss in some leftover cooked rice and just let it simmer in the soup until warm.
• The orzo definitely held its shape better than the rice did, so that’s my preference unless I’m using leftover rice.
• Start with 1/4 cup lemon juice to start with, and add more if you like it really lemony like me.
• Again, this is not the traditional method of making avgolemono — I’m pretty sure that no Greek grandmother on the planet makes it like this, and that’s ok.  Sometimes we just need easy…I know I do. 🙂

Want more avgolemono?

30-Minute Chicken with Greek Avgolemono Sauce

Checkout the video below, and you can find me on YouTube here!

Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup {Avgolemono}

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

3 hours

Total time

3 hours 15 mins

 

Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup, otherwise known as avgolemono, is a rich chicken soup with rice, plenty of lemon, and egg added to make it rich and creamy. It's lighter than the classic, and so much easier because it's made in a slow cooker!

Author: Flavor the Moments

Serves: Serves about 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast*
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large stalk celery, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup dry white rice or orzo*
• 4 cups low sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 eggs*
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the chicken, onion, celery, garlic, rice or orzo, stock, water, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in your slow cooker. Cook about 3 hours on high, or 4-5 hours on low.
2. When the chicken is done, remove it from the slow cooker and allow to cool slightly. Chop into chunks and place back in the slow cooker.
3. Place the eggs in a medium bowl and beat lightly. Whisk in the lemon juice until combined. Place about 1 cup of hot soup broth in a measuring cup, and add a few droplets at a time to the egg-lemon mixture whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Continue adding the hot broth in a slow, steady stream while whisking constantly. After all the stock has been added, add the egg-lemon mixture to the soup in the crock pot and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste, serve, and enjoy!

Notes

*Use bone-in skinless chicken breasts to add flavor to the soup. Once the chicken is cooked, simply shred the chicken and discard the bones.
*To make this gluten-free, use rice instead of orzo. One note if using rice is that the rice can get mushy if left in the slow cooker the whole time during cooking. If you're home, you can it during the last hour or so of cooking, or use leftover cooked rice and add it to the slow cooker right at the end and cook just until warm. The orzo held it's shape very well after 3 hours of cooking on high.
*If you like your soup even richer, you can always add an additional egg.
Recipe by Flavor the Moments.

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