This Chicken Lemon Rice Soup with Eggs is one of my favorite soups from when I was a child. In Albania we call this soup Supe Pule me Limon. This soup is a favorite across Mediterranean (with slight variations). In Greece it is known as Avgolemono soup. Turkey, Italy and several Balkan countries have variations of this soup.
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Variations of Egg-Lemon Soup Chicken
There are so many versions of this soup online, some authentic to the country of origin and some inspired with lots of added bells and whistles. If you scroll down below, my instructions are exactly how my mom and my grandparents made this soup. So this is the Albanian version of this soup. I noticed that it is very similar to the Greek Avgolemono soup. My paternal grandparents grew up in the city of Gjirokastra, south of Albania and very close to Greece so some of our recipes are very similar to the Greek ones.
You can replace rice with orzo to make this soup. Also, you can use different types of rice. My grandparents used to say that it is best to use short grain rice when making this soup.
You can use chicken or turkey to make the soup. Usually I make this soup with chicken, but after Thanksgiving I enjoy this soup with turkey. Also, you can use the whole chicken, rotisserie chicken, just drums etc.
Chicken Lemon Rice Soup Recipe Notes
Back in my native country, there were times during the dictatorship where certain foods were limited, rationed or not available at all. I can write a book just about that. But I’m bringing that up because I remember that when we couldn’t find lemons, we used a substance called limontoz. This white powder gave the soup a similar taste to what the lemons do, but nowhere near as good. I’m sure any Albanians reading this will go Ohhhh right!!
- Meal Prepping – We had a winter meal prepping weekly routine and this soup was almost always in it. Monday we usually cooked fasule, then Tuesday rice, chicken and leftover over fasule. Wednesday we cooked this soup with the stock and chicken leftover from Tuesday. Then Thursday was byrek or shapkat with leftover soup. Friday was usually pasta, Saturday improvised and Sunday potato tray bake like this one: Chorizo, potato tray bake.
- Eggs – the eggs part of this soup is the hardest part of cooking this recipe. You are adding raw eggs to the soup and this a Mediterranean soup, not egg drop so you don’t want the eggs to curdle. That is why it is very important to let the stock you put aside cool a bit and not be too hot. Also, you should add that to the whisked egg and lemon juice slowly, very slowly while you still whisk. Once you pour this mixture into the soup it will make the soup creamy and thicken it up a bit.
- Servings – this recipe is usually for 6 servings but my kids don’t eat full portions so I tend to have enough for 2 days.
- Usually I would refrigerate leftovers of this soup for 1-2 days but no longer than that. I wouldn’t try to freeze this because of the eggs.
Chicken Lemon Rice Soup [Supe me Pule]
Ingredients
- 1 leftover rotisserie chicken
- 10 cups water
- 2 celery stocks
- 1 yellow onion
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup rice (pearl rice or short grain rice is best)
- 1 lemon
- 1 tsp salt
- 0.5 tbsp oregano
- 2 tbsps chopped fresh parsley optional for decoration
- butter (optional)
- black pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Add leftover rotisserie chicken in a big pot. Add 8 cups of water and set temp to high.
- In the meantime clean and chop celery in big pieces, I cut the celery sticks in half. Peel onion, rinse and cut in about 4 big pieces. Add that to pot too.
- Once water starts to boil, lower temperature to medium and cover the pot. Let boil for about 30 minutes.
- Turn heat off. Remove chicken and place in a deep plate or platter. Let it cool enough to handle by hand.
- Strain the chicken stock. You can throw away the remains from straining the stock. Keep about 1 – 1.5 cups of stock aside and pour the rest of the stock in the pot.
- Add 2 more cups of water to the pot.
- When chicken is cool to handle by hand, start removing all pieces of chicken from the carcass. Believe me there's enough chicken in there for a whole meal. When removed by hand they're usually bite size which is perfect for the soup.
- Turn heat on to medium. Add chicken bites back into the stock. When stock starts to boil, add rice, oregano, and salt. Let it boil so the rice cooks. Once finished cooking and you have tested for salt and adjusted to taste, turn heat to simmer.
- Whisk the eggs in a deep bowl. Juice the lemon and add to the eggs, keep whisking.
- Get the stock you put aside earlier, it might still be warm but it shouldn't be hot, otherwise the eggs will curdle.
- Pour 1-2 ozs of stock into the bowl at a time with your left hand while you're still whisking with your right hand. You want the warm stock to raise the temperature of the eggs slowly so they don't curdle. Once you are done with this process then you can grab a ladle of stock/rice and add to the bowl too, whisk vigorously.
- Pour the egg-lemon-stock mix into the soup and stir well. Let the soup get hot but don't take it back to boiling temperature because eggs might curdle. Serve warm. Add sliced lemon, parsley and black pepper on the soup bowl to taste.
Notes
- You can use frozen chicken, just make sure you thaw completely before hand. If using frozen or fresh chicken, just make sure to boil long enough that the chicken is cooked internally. The above instructions are for rotisserie chicken which comes already cooked.
- I use an electric kettle to warm up the water, so the 10 cups of water used throughout the recipe are hot. It speeds some of the process up.
- Original recipe from my grandparents calls for black pepper to be sprinkled in the pot same time as oregano but I’m afraid my kids won’t like it, so I add black pepper on individual soup bowls at home and that’s how I’m writing the recipe. But I wanted you to be aware that you can add black pepper into the pot to cook.
- Cooking time from beginning to end can take anywhere from 1hr to 1.5 hrs depending how long you let the chicken chill before you can strip it to throw back into the pot.
- My grandfather liked adding some burnt butter on his soup bowl so that’s why I added butter as optional in the recipe ingredients. However, I personally feel that the chicken stock has enough fat that I don’t need the butter. But it sure did smell good!!!
I don’t have the best lighting for pictures in my kitchen, but I tried to get some step by step pictures with my phone just so you can follow along in the recipe. Here’s a collage of the process pictures.
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin the below image to Pinterest. Thank you:)) Tag me in social media if you end up trying this soup recipe.
Other Albanian Soup/Stews Recipes:
Please see below links to some other Albanian recipes for soups or stews from my blog:
- Instant Pot Beans Soup (Fasule)
- Green Peas Stew (Gjelle me Bizele)
- Grean Beans Stew (Mashurka)
- Instant Pot Meat and Potatoes Stew (Gjelle me Mish dhe Patate)
Dominika
Dear Sonila, I’ve tasted this soup with no rice and my wish is to prepare the dish without the rice back home. Is there any difference in the amount of certain ingredients in this case, especially water?
Please help.
Dominika
admin
Hi Dominika, thank you so much for your comment. Hmm, I’ve never cooked this soup without rice, rice acts as a thickening agent too.
Can you eat flour? I would do a roux with flour/butter than add the rest so you’ll get a similar soup consistency but no rice added. The flour will thicken it up so I’d keep liquids the same.
Hope this helps!!
Sonila
Yaimar Perez Nuñez
Qué divina se ve esa sopita de pollo! Me provoca muchísimo!
Sonila
Gracias Yaimar!
Silvia Martinez
Chicken lemon soup, just the sound of that makes my mouth water. Perfect for the season.
Sonila
Thank you so much Silvia:)). Yes, definitely perfect for the season!
Enriqueta E Lemoine
I am not a chicken person but this Chicken Rice Soups looks delish. Thanks for sharing Sonila.
Taty
Chicken lemon soup sounds just right for dinner right now! Adding it to my list for when I need a little pick me up when I get sick too
Sonila
Thank you Taty:) Hope you like it!!
Rosanna Mancino
Demasiado exquisita esa Lemon Rice Chicken soup! se ve delicious. Este fin de semana hago esta receta . Mil gracias.
Sonila
Thank you Rosanna!! Gracias:)