Our homemade Roasted Greek Lemon Chicken Soup recipe is a flavorful and delicious bowl of winter comfort food!
Ingredients
5-6poundwhole roasting chickenfresh or thawed
2-3tablespoonsgheesoftened (sub butter or olive oil)
kosher salt and ground black pepper
1small yellow onionquartered
1-2celery stalkscut into 2-3 inch chunks
2medium whole carrotspeeled & cut into 2-3 chunks
1garlic headcut off the top
1lemonhalved
1-2sprigsfresh rosemary
1-2sprigsfresh dill
8-10cupschicken brothhomemade or store-bought
1sweet yellow onionchopped
4-6medium carrotspeeled and sliced
4celery stalkssliced
¼cupfresh dillchopped
3eggs
½cupfresh lemon juice
handfuls of fresh spinachoptional (sub chopped kale)
Instructions
Prep: Preheat oven to 375℉. Place a 5-6 pound whole roasting chicken in a dutch oven and rub all over with softened ghee (butter or olive oil). Sprinkle with generous amounts of kosher salt and ground black pepper to coat.
Roast Chicken + Veggies: Place 1 small yellow onion, celery, carrots, 1 garlic head, 1 lemon, 1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, and 1-2 sprigs fresh dill around the chicken. Roast on middle rack of the preheated oven, uncovered, for 1 ½ hours.
Simmer: Remove from oven and place on burner. Add 8-10 cups chicken broth and turn heat up to high. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover for 45-60 minutes.
Prep Broth for Soup: Remove chicken from the broth and set aside to cool slightly. Strain broth and discard the cooked vegetables, reserving the garlic and lemon.
Make Soup: Place strained broth back in your soup pot along with fresh diced onion, carrots, celery and ¼ cup fresh dill. Take the roasted lemons and squeeze into the broth. Take the garlic head and remove 2-4 cloves and roughly chop; add these to the broth as well (you can add more if you want).
Shred Chicken: Remove chicken skin and bones from the meat and use two forks to shred. Add meat to the pot. Stir to combine and let simmer 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat to let broth cool a bit.
Egg Mixture: Whisk together 3 eggs and ½ cup fresh lemon juice in a separate mixing bowl. Then take approximately 1 cup of broth (which should be around 170℉) and slowly whisk into the egg mixture. Once that is combined, slowly add it back into the dutch oven, whisking to combine. Feel free to place back on low heat, but be sure not to boil as the eggs will cook!
Taste & Serve: Taste and add any salt or pepper, as necessary, as well as any additional dill. Before serving feel free to add handfuls of fresh spinach or even kale, if you want! Enjoy!
Notes
Size of dutch oven: I used a 5 1/2 qt. dutch oven.
Whole30/Paleo: be sure to check the broth ingredients and ensure you use ghee or olive oil instead of butter.
Add-ins: if you aren't concerned with Whole30/Paleo, feel free to add in some cooked orzo or pasta at the end, if you want! I wouldn't recommend cooking it in the soup as it will soak up quite a bit of broth during the cooking process.
Consistency: If you want the soup thicker, then I would suggest sticking with 8 cups broth and if you want it thinner I would lean towards 10 cups broth.