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.
Other dinners to try:
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 soup was simple and delicious!
This soup was so easy to make and absolutely delicious! The lemon juice gave the soup an added flavor. I will be making this again!
This is my go to chicken soup. The lemon adds the perfect amount of brightness. I usually add kale or spinach for a little extra veggie.
I made this again last Friday for about the 10th time. Freezes really well. It is in my top 3 recipes from the clean eating couple. I also love the meatball soup and chicken pot pie soup.
Fantastic!!! We loved this so much. This was the 2nd recipe that I have made from your website and I have to say Wow!!! I can’t wait to try more.
So glad you liked it!
If I don’t have lemon juice can I either use lime juice or use lemon pepper seasoning ?
I wouldn’t do either of those. I don’t think lemon pepper seasoning will replace the flavor of real lemon, and I don’t think lime would taste good. I would wait until you have lemons, because they’re a main ingredient of the soup. It is lemon chicken soup 🙂
Easy and delicious! My first time ever making soup! Next time I would probably only add 1/4 cup of lemon juice – just a tad too lemony for me. Still amazing though!
Glad you liked it! It is meant to be really lemony, it’s Lemon Chicken Soup 😉
Trying to figure out how to make the lemon chicken soup with rotisserie chicken. I really want to try this.
I’d just cut the cooktime in half if you’re using pre-cooked chicken!
I just made this soup tonight with a rotisserie chicken worked out perfectly i just added when It said to add chicken breast left it in turning the rest of the process
Excited to try this! I see the note that this freezes well did you freeze with the orzo in the soup? I’ve seen other recipes recommended not to freeze pasta in soup, but wonder if the orzo is small enough that it’s fine.
I don’t recommend freezing pasta in soup because I find it gets a little mushy, but it will be fine if you do freeze it with pasta. Might just be a little soft!
I made a few small changes but just for personal taste. It was absolutely amazing! Thank you!!
So glad you liked it! Thank you!
Made this and its so good!!!!
So glad you liked it, Mack!! Thank you!
This recipe for Lemon Chicken Soup is so easy and delicious! I have made this a second time since my husband really liked it the first time. We had lemons, fresh thyme and fresh parsley in the fridge so I used it all up!
I had to add more chicken broth and juice because we had so much chicken in the original recipe. Thanks for a keeper!
Yes! This Greek Lemon Soup is so good!!!!!! I cubed my chicken breast instead of shredding and used angle hair spaghetti pasta. I thank you very much for it.
This Greek Lemon Soup is so good!!!!!! I cubed my chicken breast instead of shredding and used angle hair spaghetti pasta. I thank you very much for it.
Absolutely delicious! Made it as written except I used rice noodles as that is what I had on hand. Very flavorful! Thank you!
Absolutely delicious! Made it as written except I used rice noodles as that is what I had on hand. Very flavorful! Thank you!
I finally found a healthy and delicious chicken noodle soup recipe! I make it in bulk and freeze it, so I can eat it daily for lunch. The best part of the recipe is the twist of lemon which makes it stand apart from every other chicken noodle soup recipe!
This soup was amazing! The flavor was fantastic! I opted to make it noodles on the side since I didn’t have gluten free noodles. Putting this into rotation
I cannot seem to find your numeric chicken soup recipe
MY daughter in law made it and it was outstanding! Can you share that recipe? Jane P
Here’s the link to our Turmeric Chicken Soup
I’ve never commented on a recipe before, but I cook a lot and this recipe is perfect. I did however modify it slightly. I cooked the veg like the recipe says, but used 6cups of water and 6 chicken bouillon. I did NOT cook chicken in the pot, but instead added a rotisserie chicken and juices from the bag. Made it so easy. I cut back just barely on the lemon juice, but added the zest of a lemon for a little color. Finally, a shake of turmeric for health and color and it was perfect.
I’ve made this for the second time. This is quick and easy to make. The soup freezes well making it easy to grab and go for lunch at work. I increased the veggies, because I’m limiting carbs. The flavor is so good…delicious!
Just made this tonight for my girlfriend. She said “this is the best soup I’ve ever had”. She hasn’t been feeling well and it really hit the spot!
The best chicken noodle soup with lemon recipe! It has a nice tang to it!
I love a lot of their recipes. But this one….. THIS ONE!! is my favorite!! However, I like to take this recipe and make it my own. NOTE: it is perfect the way it is, these are just my personal preference changes as I have experimented with over time.
Highlights:
-Can be child friendly
-Picky eater friendly
-light enough for the summer months yet warm and cozy enough for fall and winter months
-basically can put together and leave it do its own thing
Changes I made (In case anyone is wondering):
-I make my own beef bone broth to use instead of chicken and I do add a tiny bit of beef bullion to taste.(I make sure to get all that bone marrow in there)
-I use couscous in stead of orzo
-Despite using beef bone broth, I still use the chicken. The Flavors mix perfectly IMO.
NOTE: Do not squeeze the lemon directly into the soup UNLESS you are positive all the seeds are out. (I just squeeze mine into a bowl and go from there). I made this mistake one time and it was the most god awful taste when I accidently got the lemon seed… my mistake!
Overall I am in love this recipe, so is my family, and it is worth making it everytime!!!
excellent. Our whole family loves. Only suggestion is maybe a slow release(?) as the chicken pieces turned out tough.