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My Chicken Lemon Rice Soup is So Good!
When the weather turns chilly in Michigan, it’s time to bring out all the cozy soup recipes. One of my favorites is chicken lemon rice soup—a twist on the classic chicken noodle soup, but made with short-grain rice instead of pasta and plenty of fresh lemon juice. It’s similar to Greek Avgolemono but skips the eggs, keeping it simple yet full of bright, comforting flavor.
My mom used to make this chicken lemon rice soup all the time when I was growing up, especially during Ramadan or when we weren’t feeling our best. It’s hearty, soothing, and that hit of lemon adds just the right amount of zing to warm you up and clear out any stuffy noses.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Olive oil: Avocado is fine if you don’t have olive oil.
- Onion, carrot, and celery: You’ll want to dice these so they’re all about the same size and cook at the same time!
- Spices: I always include salt, pepper, bay leaves, and dried thyme in this chicken rice soup. You can use 2 teaspoons of chopped, fresh thyme instead of the dried.
- Garlic: Sometimes I use 4 or 5 cloves of minced garlic (I love garlic!). You can substitute ½ teaspoon of garlic powder for every clove if that’s all you have.
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs: Chicken thighs are really hard to overcook, which is why I like using them! You can also use chicken breasts if you prefer.
- Rice: I like to use white short grain rice, like arborio in this soup. A long grain white rice like jasmine or basmati will also work well. If you like, you can make this with brown rice too, you’ll just need to increase the cooking time for an extra 25 minutes to make sure that it is cooked through.
- Lemons: You’ll need ⅓ cup of juice for this recipe! This is usually 2 lemons, but some lemons are less juicy than others.
Popular Additions
- Sweet peppers: About ½ cup diced – any color works, added with the onion, carrots, and celery.
- Zucchini: 1 small, about ¾ cup finely chopped – added at the same time as the onion, carrot, and celery.
- Frozen peas: ¾ cup – stir in during the last 5 minutes of cooking to let them defrost and warm through.
- Cheese:
- Parmesan: ¼ cup grated, or more to taste, for serving.
- Feta: ⅓ cup crumbled, sprinkled on top before serving.
How to Make Chicken Lemon Rice Soup
My Best Lemon Chicken Soup Tips
- Stir the garlic constantly while it’s cooking. Garlic can burn fast—and the flavor of burnt garlic can ruin this lemon soup recipe! That’s why I recommend stirring the garlic constantly while it cooks and moving onto the next step of the recipe when the garlic’s just fragrant.
- Don’t add the lemon juice until you’re done cooking. When I’m making soup, I’m tempted sometimes to throw everything together to cook at once in the pot. And that’s fine sometimes. But when it comes to this soup, adding the lemon too early will create a bitter taste. Instead, adding it after it’s finished cooking will bring out a fresh and bright flavor.
- Use chopped leftover roast or rotisserie chicken as a shortcut. I’ll sometimes do this if I’m trying to make the most out of leftovers! If you do do this, though, I’d suggest using chicken broth instead of water to amp up the flavor of the soup.
- Simmer the soup with the lid off. You want the soup to reduce a bit, which will make it taste more concentrated and better!
Recipe Help & Common Questions
Let it cool completely before transferring in an airtight container. It will keep well in the fridge for 4 days. Reheat the soup gently on the stovetop or in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring halfway through. The rice will absorb moisture as it sits, so you may want to stir in a little water or stock when reheating to loosen it back up.
Yes! You can freeze this lemon soup. Transfer it to an airtight container, then freeze for up to 6 months. I recommend thawing it in the fridge overnight before reheating.
You can! I would just thaw them in the fridge before using them, but frozen chicken thighs are totally great.
More Soup Recipes:
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Vegetarian Lemon Rice Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Lemon Orzo Soup
- Easy White Chicken Chili
- Red Lentil Chicken Soup
- Zucchini Orzo Soup
- Tomato Lentil Soup
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Vegetable Beef Soup
- Spinach Tortellini Soup
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This chicken lemon rice soup recipe was originally published on January 26, 2019. The recipe has been updated with new images and a simplified process with step-by-step images to help make the recipe. If you loved the original recipe, you can still find it in the recipe card notes below!
Chicken Lemon Rice Soup Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 large carrots diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt divided
- 1 teaspoon black pepper divided
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 8 cups water
- ½ cup short grain rice
- 2 lemons juiced about ⅓ cup
- Parsley for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic and thyme. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken, the bay leaves and the remaining salt and pepper.
- Add the water and rice, and bring everything to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board and chop into ½-inch pieces. Return the chopped chicken to the soup and remove the soup from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
Notes
- Instead of short grain rice, you can use long-grain rice or brown rice. If you’re using brown rice, be sure to add an extra 25 minutes to the cooking time though. You can also use potatoes, riced cauliflower, celery root or chopped zucchini for some grain free and/or low carb options.
- If you don’t have thyme, feel free to use oregano, parsley, cilantro or other herbs.
1 onion diced
3 carrots diced
3 celery stalks diced
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup short grain or Arborio rice
2 lemons juiced
Parsley for serving
Instructions
Place chicken and scraps from the outer layers and end of the onions, carrots and celery in a large stock pot. Season with salt and pepper, add bay leaves and water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is fork-tender, about 30 minutes.
Remove chicken and shred; then strain the chicken broth using a fine-mesh sieve and discard the vegetable scraps.
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme and cook until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken and rice, then return the broth to the stockpot and bring a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer until the rice is cooked, about 20 minutes.
Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with fresh parsley, if desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
This looks lovely and I am making it tomorrow. Would low sodium chicken broth instead of water be too salty? Or could I at least do half and half? I never usually cook with just water in a soup or stew so wanted to check! Thanks!
You can definitely use low-sodium chicken broth instead of water! If you’re concerned about it being too salty, you can reduce the amount of salt you use to season the chicken and vegetables.