This Greek Lemon Chicken Soup is a soup made with lemon, Greek spices, and potatoes. It is so comforting and flavorful. It’s like the perfect combination of chicken noodle soup and lemon-herb roasted potatoes.
Quick
Instant Pot fast
You’ll Learn: How to simplify homemade soup by using Instant Pot or stovetop methods
Worth It: It builds a freezer stash for stress-free meals later
Bonus: Easy to tailor to common diets
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Comfort food – This comforting lemony soup is up there with chicken noodle soup for me. It’s bursting with flavor and is still a filling comfort food thanks to the golden potatoes.
- Freezer favorite – I keep a container of this Greek lemon chicken soup in the freezer during cold and flu season. It is the perfect thing to warm me up when I am feeling under the weather.
- Great for meal prep – Make a pot of this soup at the beginning of the week and enjoy the leftovers all week long!
Serving Suggestions
If you would like some bread with your soup, you could serve it with my overnight bread or this focaccia.
To serve this soup alongside some other Greek inspired dishes, you could make this Greek salad recipe or a green salad with this Greek yogurt salad dressing.
For more Greek inspired meals, check out this Greek dinner party menu.
Ingredients
- Butter – use butter to cook your mirepoix
- Celery stalk, carrots, and onion – this trio of veggies is the classic base of any soup
- Dried oregano, dried dill, garlic powder – this spice blend incorporates some classic Greek flavors into your soup. You could also add bay leaves if you would like.
- Kosher salt and black pepper – use salt and pepper to supplement the spice blend and deepen the flavors. You can add more to taste at the end as well
- Fresh lemon juice – squeeze fresh lemons to add the citrus to your soup
- Chicken broth – you can use homemade or store-bought chicken broth
- Golden potatoes – I like Yukon gold potatoes for this, but any waxy potato can work
- Boneless skinless chicken breast – make sure to use boneless and skinless chicken to keep this recipe easy
- Lemon zest – before squeezing your lemons, grate some lemon zest to add to your soup
Ingredient Substituions
This soup is gluten-free, but you can use orzo pasta in place of potatoes. If I use orzo, I prefer to cook it separately and then stir it into the premade soup. It will give the soup a more creamy texture.
Feel free to use boneless skinless chicken thighs in place of chicken breasts. I tend to think chicken thighs are more flavorful than chicken breasts anyway.
It is best to use ghee or butter to saute the veggies for this soup recipe, but if you do not want to use either of those you can use olive oil.
A traditional Greek lemon chicken soup is sometimes called avgolemono soup. If you would like to make this with a more traditional avgolemono sauce, whisk egg yolks and lemon in a bowl, then add a couple of ladles of hot broth to the egg mixture for it to temper. Then add the egg-lemon mixture into your soup.
Simplify this recipe with rotisserie chicken
To make this Greek lemon chicken soup recipe even easier and save on prep time, use the shredded breast meat from a rotisserie chicken. Stir this in towards the end of simmering the soup.
How to Make
Step 1: Sauté the vegetables
First, dice the carrots, stalk celery, and onion. Then peel and cube the potatoes. Next, zest the lemons and squeeze the juice out.
Then, heat the butter in the Instant Pot on simmer or in the dutch oven on medium-low heat. Next, add the onions, celery, carrots to the pot and saute for 4 minutes (Image 1). Then, stir in the herbs, spices, salt and pepper and saute for an additional minute (Image 2).
Step 2: Add Potatoes and chicken
For stovetop, next, add the potatoes and chicken breast (Image 3). Pour in four tablespoons lemon juice, water, and chicken broth (Image 4) to the pot and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the soup is boiling reduce to a simmer, cover the pot and simmer for a total time of 20 minutes. Cooking times might vary depending on your potatoes. You want them to be fork tender.
For Instant Pot, dd the potatoes, chicken breast, lemon juice, water, and chicken broth to the Instant Pot. Allow the Instant Pot to come to pressure and cook on manual high pressure for 15 minutes.
Step 3: Shred the chicken and Stir into soup
For both methods, remove the chicken from the pot and shred with 2 forks (Image 5). Then, add the shredded chicken back to the soup and stir to combine (Image 6). Finally, serve the soup in a bowl with fresh lemon slices and fresh herbs.
Add even more flavor to this lemon chicken soup by serving it with flavorful fresh garnish options. I like to serve this with fresh lemon zest, fresh dill, cracked black pepper and parmesan cheese.
Can I make this lemon chicken soup in the Instant Pot?
Yes! I have included both Instant Pot and stovetop instructions for this Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. Keep reading to learn how to make this greek lemon soup quickly in the instant pot.
Storage and Freezing
You can freeze this Greek Lemon Chicken soup recipe! This recipe makes quite a bit of soup. So much that we couldn’t finish it all in the 4 days that it will last in the fridge, so we love to put extra in the freezer.
Allow your soup to cool completely and then place it in airtight containers. Place the soup in the freezer where it should be good for at least a few months. When you are ready to eat, allow it to thaw in the fridge and then reheat in the microwave or on the stove.
Check out these other healthy and comforting soup recipes!
Keep reading to grab the full recipe! If you make this soup please rate and review in the comments below, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried dill
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 6 medium golden potatoes
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Zest from 2 lemons
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Dice the carrots, celery and onion
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1″ cubes
- Zest two lemons before squeezing them for 1/4 cup lemon juice
- Turn the Instant Pot on saute and add the ghee to the pot
- Once the butter has fully melted add the onions, celery, and carrots to the pot
- Saute the veggies in the for 4 minutes, tossing frequently
- Add oregano, dill, garlic, salt, and pepper to the pot and sauté for another minute
- Turn the instant pot off sauté
- Add the chicken broth, water, chicken breast, lemon juice, and potatoes to the pot
- Give the soup a gentle stir and close the lid of the Instant Pot
- Set the vent to sealing and set the Instant Pot to manual high pressure for 15 minutes
- Let the Instant Pot come to pressure and then cook for 15 minutes
- Once the Instant Pot beeps, manually release the pressure and remove the lid
- Remove the chicken breasts and shred with two forks
- Add the shredded chicken back to pot with the lemon zest and stir to combine
- Serve the soup with fresh lemon and dill
Stovetop Instructions
- Dice the carrots, celery and onion
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1″ cubes
- Zest two lemons before squeezing them for 1/4 cup lemon juice
- Heat ghee in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat
- Once the ghee has fully melted add the onions, celery, and carrots to the pot
- Sauté the veggies in the for 4 minutes, tossing frequently
- Add oregano, dill, garlic, salt, and pepper to the pot and sauté for another minute
- Add the chicken broth, water, chicken breast, lemon juice, and potatoes to the pot
- Give the soup a gentle stir and increase the heat to high
- Allow the soup to come to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer
- Allow the soup to simmer covered for 20 minutes and turn off the heat
- Remove the chicken breasts and shred with two forks
- Add the shredded chicken back to pot with the lemon zest and stir to combine
- Serve the soup with fresh lemon and dill
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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