Lemon Chicken Soup
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Lemon Chicken Soup is a delicious dinner that’s easy to make in under an hour. Lemony and secretly healthy, you’ll love this recipe!
This post was originally shared in 2018 but has since been updated.
This Lemon Chicken Soup recipe is one of my favorite meals. Packed with veggies and hearty portions of chicken, it’s super filling and loaded with light lemony flavor.
This Greek Chicken Soup is delicious with rice, orzo, pasta, or quinoa! It’s not a traditional avgolemono soup (this is made without eggs), but it’s just as delicious!
Easy to make in your crockpot, instant pot or on the stove!
Liz’s Tips for the Best Lemon Chicken Soup
- Plan to undercook your pasta. I like to cook the pasta for half the recommended cook time on the package. The pasta will continue to cook in the soup and absorb liquid as it cools!
- Add more veggies. I like to stir in fresh chopped spinach or even cauliflower rice to this for more vegetables!
- Use precooked chicken to save time! You can use precooked chicken or chopped rotisserie chicken in this recipe to save time and use up leftovers. Cut the cook time in half.
Ingredients
A citrus juicer will also be helpful to have!
What cut of chicken is best for soup? Boneless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs are the best cut of chicken for soup. Chicken breasts are lower in fat and higher in protein while chicken thighs are higher in fat.
Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute olive oil with avocado oil or melted butter.
Chicken: You can use chicken tenders or boneless chicken thighs if you prefer. I love this recipe with chicken thighs because the fat from the thighs makes the soup a little richer! You can also use pre cooked/shredded chicken or rotisserie chicken! We have also cooked our Crockpot Whole Chicken, pulled all the meat off of the bones and used that for soup too (save the scraps and make Crockpot Bone Broth!)
Cooked Leftover Chicken: You can use this instant pot shredded chicken, slow cooker shredded chicken, or chicken from a rotisserie chicken or roasted chicken. Cut the cook time in half if you’re not using raw chicken. You could also try this Rotisserie Chicken Soup!
Herbs: You can use most herbs interchangeably here. If you don’t have thyme or parsley, use dried rosemary or dried basil. Any of them will be delicious! You can also use dried or fresh herbs. The recipe calls for dried herbs, but if you’d like to use fresh herbs double the amount. Fresh dill is an amazing addition to this recipe!
Orzo Pasta: If you don’t have orzo, any shorter grain pasta will work. We have made this with pastina, alphabets and ditalini. Gluten free pasta will work just fine. Quinoa, rice, or cous cous will also be delicious! We also have a Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken Tortellini Soup recipe if you’re looking for other chicken pasta soups.
Zoodles: If you’re looking for a low carb noodle option I like adding zucchini noodles to this soup.
Cauliflower Rice: Cauliflower rice is a great low carb addition to this soup instead of pasta or in addition to pasta!
Spinach: You can add a couple of cups of chopped baby spinach when the soup is finished cooking. It’s a delicious addition!
Broth: Any broth will work in this. You can use bone broth, chicken stock, vegetable stock, etc.
Vegetarian: You could substitute beans for chicken in this recipe and it would be delicious. You’d also need to sub for vegetarian broth.
Creamy Chicken Soup: I have not tried making this chicken soup creamy. I worry that adding milk with lemon will make it curdle. Try at your own risk.
Parmesan Cheese: Add a parmesan cheese rind with the soup while it’s cooking – it adds so much flavor! Remove it at the end when it’s done cooking. You can also top with parmesan or feta.
Extra Veggies: I like to add cauliflower rice, fresh or frozen spinach, frozen green beans or extra carrots to this recipe. You can also try this Chicken Vegetable Soup!
How To Make Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
- Sauté onions, celery, and garlic until translucent.
- Add in carrots, spices, chicken, and chicken broth. Cover the pot and bring to a boil.
- Discard bay leaves. Remove the chicken, and shred the chicken.
- Add shredded chicken back to the soup with cooked pasta. Add lemon juice and stir together.
Can I make this easy chicken soup in the crockpot instead? Yes! You can easily make this soup in the crockpot. Sauté your veggies and add to the crockpot base.
Place whole chicken breasts on top of vegetables in crockpot. Cover with chicken broth and add spices. Place the lid on the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. See below for full instructions.
How To Serve This Recipe
This recipe is great with a freshly baked bread, or a side salad. We love this Peach Salad with Goat Cheese, Kale Salad, or our Strawberry Arugula Salad.
Storage
Storing: This soup keeps for up to 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Freezing this soup: This soup freezes very well and will last for months in the freezer! We like these containers for freezing.
Reheating: You can reheat this soup in the microwave or on the stovetop. If the soup is frozen, you can defrost the night before in the refrigerator. You can also heat in the microwave or on the stove directly from frozen.
More Healthy Soup Recipes:
If you love healthy soup recipes, make sure to grab our free Healthy Soup Ebook here. Here are some of our other favorite soup recipes:
Lemon Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- ½ cup finely chopped celery
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic about 3 cloves
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup dry orzo pasta
- ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the carrots, onion, celery, and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Once the vegetables have cooked, add the black pepper, parsley, thyme, salt, bay leaves, chicken breasts, and chicken broth to the pot. Stir together.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil. It should take about 10 minutes to come to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once the soup has cooked for 15 minutes, turn the heat back to medium-high.
- Remove the chicken breasts and set aside.
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Add the orzo to the pot and stir together. Cook for half the recommended cook time on the package.
- While the orzo cooks, use 2 forks to shred the chicken breasts.
- Once the orzo has cooked for half the recommended cook time, remove the soup from the heat. The pasta will continue to cook as the soup cools.
- Add the chicken and lemon juice to the pot. Stir to combine.
- Tip: If you prefer a firmer pasta, you can cook your pasta in a separate pot and add directly to your bowl when you’re ready to eat.
Crockpot Instructions:
- In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the carrots, onion, celery, and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Add the sautéd veggies to the crockpot. Add the black pepper, parsley, thyme, salt, bay leaves, chicken breasts, and chicken broth to the pot. Stir together.
- Place the lid on the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
- While the soup cooks, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta per the directions.
- Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken breasts.
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Add shredded chicken, lemon juice and cooked pasta to the pot. Stir to combine and enjoy!
- Tip: If you prefer a firmer pasta, you can cook your pasta in a separate pot and add directly to your bowl when you’re ready to eat.
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Set instant pot to Sauté mode for 5 minutes.
- Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the carrots, onion, celery, and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Once the vegetables have cooked, add the black pepper, parsley, thyme, salt, bay leaves, chicken breasts, and chicken broth to the pot. Stir together.
- Cover instant pot and set to sealing, ‘Soup’ OR Pressure Cook for 12 minutes.
- Allow the soup to come to pressure and cook. It should take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, but can take longer if your broth is cold.
- While the soup cooks, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta per the directions.
- Once the soup has cooked, quick release the pressure.
- Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken breasts.
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Add shredded chicken, lemon juice and cooked pasta to the pot. Stir to combine and enjoy!
- Tip: If you prefer a firmer pasta, you can cook your pasta in a separate pot and add directly to your bowl when you’re ready to eat.
This is my new favorite soup! So unbelievably easy and so delicious, the lemon really gives it a great flavor. I put raw zoodles in that I mixed with a little salt and lemon zest. Thanks for this recipe!
Yum! I added kale and jalapeño just because I had some in my fridge that needed to be cooked. This recipe is awesome.
This soup is amazing!! I think I’m going to try my hand at canning it, minus the pasta and lemon juice, which I will just add when the soup is eaten. Been wanting to find a good soup recipe to put on my shelves during flu season and this one is yummy!!
So glad you liked it! Please make sure to do your research on whether this is canning safe – I’m not sure if it is!
Hi and Thank You So Much for this Wonderful Recipe !
I am now making this for a 3rd time !!!
SOOOO Good ! My Soup Buddy (my 86 yr old neighbor), and I Love It !!!
I used my pressure canned chicken broth and fresh veggies.
I want to try it with my dehydrated veggies but not today !
I do have a question…
If I double the recipe, do I need to adjust the pressure cooking time ?
Oh, I, also, browned my chicken legs and it really enriched the flavor !
Thank You Again and I await your reply…I’m making it today !!! :}
Hi! I’m sorry but I don’t know how doubling the recipe will affect the cook time in the pressure cooker. I haven’t tried this so I can’t be sure.
This is exactly what I needed today! Thank you for the super easy and delicious soup. I’ve been sick for over a week and was craving homemade chicken soup. I didn’t have celery or fresh onion on hand, so I added extra carrot and dried minced onion and it still turned out wonderfully. Will definitely be saving the recipe to use again!
My wife is very sick I made this for her tonight for dinner it was absolutely delicious thank you so much for sharing this recipe I will definitely make this again
Who would think that a comfort food like chicken soup could also be so refreshing?! This is an easy, wonderful recipe and is now my go-to chicken soup! The lemony deliciousness comes through even when reheated!
Didn’t even make it to putting the lemon juice in, added cooked rice instead of pasta and it was the best chicken soup I’ve ever made. Thank you so much
Very yummy and so easy in the instapot.
I even used frozen chicken breast and cooked it a touch longer.
Instructions for frozen breasts
Next time ‘please’ would be nice 🙂 We don’t have instructions for cooking with frozen chicken breasts because we don’t recommend it. Cooking frozen meat is a food safety issue because you don’t know if it is cooked in the center. It’s something I never do and never recommend.
I made this soup last night – SUPER EASY and DELICIOUS! (I decided to add mushrooms because I had them in the fridge.)
What I liked most is that it’s a one pot recipe and can be prepared ahead of time. Thank you for the recipe – will definitely make it again!
I made this for a late night family dinner, as I needed something light due to the time of evening we were eating. It was delicious and everyone loved it! Definitely keeping in my recipe file to make again!
Lemon not listed in ingredients or method! It’s supposed to be chicken LEMON soup!!!
Lemon is clearly listed in the ingredients and in the method. please read again 🙂 have a wonderful day you seem like a real peach!
Love this soup so much! I usually swap out black pepper for Lemon Pepper and up it a bit (3/4 tsp instead of 1/2 if I had to guess) and serve it with Jovial’s cassava orzo – so so good!
Made this today and my husband LOVED it! He loved the lemon in it especially. Will definitely add this to my rotation. It was a nasty day weather wise here and the soup just fit the bill!
What makes it Greek? Only the title says Greek.
traditionally greek chicken soup has lemon added to it
I am so happy!! I made this and it was the best soup EVER!! I couldn’t remember where I got it! Thank you for sending it out again! Making it tonight!!
100% YUMMY!!! Made this soup last week – it’s OUTSTANDING!!! As it was just for me, I downloaded the recipe for “3” – but I ate it all by EOD, LOL, so I’m making double this amount today!
This soup is soooo healthy and yummy – not too salty like most soup recipes – and the lemon makes it extra delish!! I use rotini noodles, which work great!
People who don’t like soup love this recipe!! I added ginger, and spinach to mine. Insanely good!!
I used rotisserie chicken and swapped out the pasta for cauliflower rice to keep the soup low carb. It is delicious!
HOW DO I SAVE THIS RECIPE ON MY COMPUTER IN PINTREST – JUST NEED ABILITY TO DO THIS
click the P pin it button on the top of the page or you can click here to pin it for later
I made the chicken in the instant pot as it was frozen, but 40 minutes later it is easy to shred and add to this soup. This is a great recipe. Very light and good for a cool winter’s night. I took the box of orzo suggestion and only cooked it for 6 minutes as adding it to the soup further cooks the pasta. But all in all, this is a great and healthy soup that only added 3 points to WW
This was delicious. Thank you for the simple recipe. I just added potatoes, stirred in some egg, and had leftover rotisserie chicken. The egg gives it a creamy texture which is nice. Besides that I followed the recipe as written. Whipped up a good ole pot of soup within 20 minutes because of the already cooked chicken.
Will definitely make again.
This soup is absolutely delicious! So easy to make – with ingredients we usually have on hand. This was a last-minute dinner decision, used the instant pot instructions, and it was so perfect! My 8-year-old daughter, after her first bite said, “it’s so good, can you make this again sometime!” And then she gobbled her bowl within 5 minutes, lol. *I used white rice instead of pasta or zoodles. I didn’t have bay leaves, so added oregano/basil/rosemary.
Made this for first time and it’s delicious ! Good
For the heart and soul!