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.
Delicious!!
Loved loved this soup. Quick and easy to make. Even my 9 year old daughter who’s a picky eater ate 2 servings of this soup. Definitely making this again.
My son started coming down with a cold, so I figured it was a perfect time to make this soup! Made a double batch – for dinner for two nights, and another batch to freeze when we are under the weather again and I don’t feel like cooking. So delicious and everyone loved it. The lemon was such a great addition. We made ours with rice because I was feeling too lazy to make pasta 🙂 thank you!
This is soo good!! It will definitely be made on repeat! Thank you!
Delicious! I used boneless skinless thighs. Didn’t measure the juice but used 1.5 lemons…that’s all I had…it was the perfect amount.
Shred the chicken easily with the paddle on the Kitchen Aid if you have one…effortless. This will definitely go into the favorites file.
May try a little coconut milk next time for creaminess…will put a little in leftovers first to be sure it works OK; generally, it adds a great flavor to soups.
I like to also add a sprinkle of turmeric for color !
This recipe is amazing! Super easy, low fat, and very tasty. I made it when I had the stomach flu, and it was literally the only thing I ate for two days that I was interested in, tasted good, and didn’t hurt my tender tummy. It’ll now be on my regular rotation—in cool or warm weather. Healthy and refreshing.
ingredient list says chicken breast but in the instructions it says chicken thighs….which do you mean? Thank you
You can use boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs. I just fixed that typo for clarity.
We love this for a warm and nourishing meal on a cold day or when we are feeling a bit under the weather. The lemon flavor was a bit bold for our liking, so I will probably reduce the juice by half for next time and see what we all think. So yummy though!
My wife and I have been making this soup regularly for the past few months and absolutely love it! But we need answers!
We’ve made this soup more every 1-2 weeks since finding this recipe a few months ago and absolutely love it. We are making it again tonight and are convinced the recipe changed from the last few times we’ve made it. Both of us swear that the cook time was longer and that it called for 4 not 2 bay leafs. Are we crazy or has the recipe been updated in the last couple weeks?
Yes I found the old recipe garlic was 5 cloves, bay leaves were 4!!!!!!
We updated the recipe because we felt like 4 bay leaves was alot. We find 2 is enough for us, but if you’d like to add more feel free!
We updated it to have less bay leaves. Feel free to add more if you like!
I made this soup over the weekend. It was amazing. First I cooked the whole chicken in the crockpot. Then I removed all the meat and used the bones and scraps to make the bone broth and I used that in the soup. It was the best chicken soup I have ever made. So healthy and delicious. I love all your recipes!
I made this after seeing you feature it last week on IG and Oh My Wow!! This was a banger!! My husband and I both loved it. I made homemade chicken stock in the Instant Pot to use with this recipe and it made such a difference. The leftovers for lunch have been a treat to look forward to. Loved it!!
This was really filling and delicious! Definitely a feel good soup! My 18 month daughter loved it as well. Very easy to make.
This was delicious! I have an upcoming surgery and was looking for freezer friendly soups and thought I would try this one. I was not disappointed, this was perfect. I’m planning on making another batch to freeze.
Yum!! Warm and comforting and so refreshing from the kick of lemon! My family loves this and we will make it again!