Lemon Chicken Soup
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This Lemon Chicken Soup has lots of veggies, protein, and whole grains. It tastes savory and herby all with a little zing from the lemon.
Lemon Chicken Soup
I have a delicious soup recipe to share with you all today…and it’s deceivingly healthy too 🙂 Friends, meet my latest creation: Lemon Chicken Soup. It’s really just divine…which is saying a lot because {1} its soup I’m talking about and {2} it’s healthy.
Main Ingredients
Here is everything you are going to need to make this incredible Lemon Chicken Soup:
- Olive Oil and Yellow Onion – this soup starts out with sauteing onions, a basic yet powerful base.
- Carrots and Celery – carrots and celery are also sauteed with the onions. Perfect chicken soup accompaniments.
- Chicken Stock – this makes our recipe, soupy! My one tip here is to use high-quality chicken stock.
- Tarragon, Bay Leaf, Salt, and Pepper – these four seasonings are essential to this recipe. Super flavorful combination.
- Lemon Juice and Zest – if you think you aren’t going to like this soup because of the lemon, let me tell you that you can adjust the level of zinginess. Start out with no lemon juice and the zest of half a lemon and work your way up to the level of lemony goodness you want.
- Chicken – you can either use pre-cooked chicken or raw chicken in this recipe. For more information on how to cook raw chicken in this soup see the recipe card down below.
- Quinoa – if you have been looking for ways to use up your stash of quinoa in your pantry, this is it! So much yummy texture comes from quinoa.
- Chives – this is used as a garnish and is optional.
Variations
If you have other ideas for this Lemon Chicken Soup, make them a reality! I am all for the customization of my recipes for your needs. Here are a few ideas:
- Grain: if you don’t have quinoa on hand, feel free to use long grain brown rice or whole-wheat pasta. Even orzo would work well!
- Veggies: feel free to switch out the veggies for what you have on hand. Zucchini, peas, broccoli, and cauliflower all sound delicious.
- Vegetarian: if you are looking for a meatless option, leave out the chicken and switch out the chicken stock for veggie broth.
How to Make Lemon Chicken Soup
To make Lemon Chicken Soup, you add in the veggies, saute, then add in the stock and seasonings. Next is cooking the quinoa then adding in lemon flavor and chicken! For full details see the recipe card down below.
- In a large pot, heat olive oil. Saute onion, carrot, and celery until softened.
- Pour in chicken stock, tarragon, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to boil, pour in quinoa, brown rice, or spaghetti. Reduce heat and cook until tender.
- Stir in lemon juice, zest, chicken, and chives. Serve hot.
Note: If you don’t have already cooked chicken, stick 2 uncooked chicken breasts into the hot broth while the quinoa is cooking. After 20 minutes, remove, shred, and return to the pot.
Leftovers
Since Lemon Chicken Soup is a broth-based soup it stays good for longer than cream-based soups. Simply store in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop!
More Soup Recipes to Try!
More Savory Lemon Recipes!
If you have 30-45 minutes, be sure to whip up a batch of this lemon chicken soup. It will fill your families’ tummies and is something you can feel totally comfortable feeding your loved ones.
The printable is below, enjoy 🙂

Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 cups carrots peeled and chopped
- 4 stalks celery
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon tarragon
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup tri-color quinoa brown rice or spaghetti broken into pieces
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 cups chicken* cooked and shredded
- 1 teaspoon chives
Instructions
- In large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onion, carrot and celery for 5 minutes to soften.
- Pour in chicken stock, tarragon, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to boil, pour in quinoa, brown rice or spaghetti and reduce heat to simmer and cook 20 minutes or until tender.
- Stir in lemon juice, zest, chicken and chives. Serve hot.
Great soup need a lower sodium diet so this fits with my new lifestyle changes. Added Zucchini and marjoram and was delicious 😋 je
Does this recipe use fresh or dried tarragon?
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This is one of the best soup recipes I’ve made. Battling an awful ear infection and sinus infection in freezing cold Chicago, this soup is so warm and delicious and comforting. I did not have tarragon so I swapped in rosemary and made my own croutons with toasted sourdough bread. My grocery store also did not have chives so I used green onions instead. So good! Thank you for sharing!
This is such a delicious soup! Thank you so much for the recipe
This looks amazing. I totally look forward to making this for my friends at our Church Lifegroup! We are learning to eat healthier. =}
I can’t wait to try this soup!
[…] covered how much I love lemony things, especially lemon desserts…with the occasional lemon inspired dinner thrown into the […]
I want to try this recipe. Looks great!
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[…] covered how much I love lemony things, especially lemon desserts…with the occasional lemon inspired dinner thrown into the […]
I found the recipe on fb through 12 tomatoes. They have 1 c milk with 1/2 cup cornstarch. They state they adapted the recipe from you. Now i see yours doesnt have that! So sorry about that, still loved the soup. Next time i will follow your recipes! Keep up the good work.
Im thinking the 1/2 cup cornstarch is a typo. 1tbsp is more accurate. As soon as i stirred it in i realized. No worries, more broth thinned it down. Great tasting satisfying soup
There is no corn starch listed on this recipe? Were you thinking of a different recipe?
This tastes great but i had a few issues. My quinoa didnt cook and the thickener was too thick. Next time i will add quinoa before the thickener and reduce cornstarch to 2 tbsp. Love the lemony flavor!
Sounds delicious!
How does this soup reheat?
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Wow! I made this soup tonight & it was so delicious! Thanks for posting this.
love the Lemon chicken Soup
[…] Recipe adapted from Lauren’s Latest […]
Me and my boyfriend love your recipes. We have tried many of them! We add our own little twist to each one. This one I just add a little Garlic with the vegetables and some red pepper flakes for the seasoning. We love spice!! This soup is amazing!!
Loved this super easy and delicious soup!!
[…] Lemon Chicken Quinoa Soup from Lauren’s Latest […]
My little victory today is having breakfast, lunch and a meal for church ready before getting my kids ready for school
Thanks so much for all of the lovely recipes. I follow you on facebook. Im planning to make this cake for my mother’s birthday on Thursday. Wish me luck! ( on the cake and the Kroger contest 🙂 )
I want to go look for that quinoa right now! Looks delish!
Made it to the gym on a Monday Morning!
This sounds wonderful, will be trying this. I remember my sister going through deployments 25 years ago, it was tough, so hang in there!
looks so good
my little victory is being a bigger person , not letting others who don’t appreciate me define me !!
I have never tried quinoa but I want to! This recipe looks delicious.
My little victory was just getting up for work this morning! This looks awesome–I love lemon!
My little victory is eating a healthy breakfast!
This is great!
I love this soup recipe! It’s the perfect thing to make as a cure for all the snow we’ve been having in the northeast.
I wonder if this would work in a crock pot…?
I would LOVE to win the Kroger package! 🙂
Great recipes!
My little victory today was finally getting caught up on laundry!
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My little victory was waking up the first time my alarm went off.
[…] Check out the recipe for this delicious, cozy and easy Lemon Chicken Quinoa Soup […]
Going to try this one this week! I’m always looking for ways to use the huge stash of quinoa in my pantry.