This Avgolemono Sauce Recipe is a traditional Greek Egg-Lemon Sauce that is made with simple ingredients and used in a variety of dishes.
If you are familiar with Greek cuisine, then you likely have tasted Avgolemono sauce. This versatile sauce is made primarily from eggs and flavored with a good amount of lemon. It is used in a variety of Greek dishes including (the ultra popular) Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup (Avgolemono Soup), Youvarlakia Avgolemono (Greek Meatball Soup), and Dolmades (Greek Stuffed Grape Leaves).
Whether you are adding this sauce to a soup, stew, or any other dish, it adds wonderful flavor. Depending on how much you love lemon, you can easily adjust the sauce as well to suit your own tastes as well.
Ingredients in this Avgolemono Sauce Recipe
- Eggs: I use 2 eggs for this recipe. It is enough for a pot of my chicken soup, Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Lahanodolmades), and pretty much anything I am making that requires the sauce. This can easily be adjusted if you want to make a larger amount for the dish you are making.
- Lemon: The juice of one lemon is used in the sauce. I always keep an extra lemon on hand so that my family can squeeze a bit more into their dish if they want to. Fresh lemon juice is key here. The lemon flavor is what really shines in this sauce and so you want to make sure you are using freshly squeezed juice for max flavor.
- Broth: Hot broth is slowly added to the sauce to temper the eggs. If you are adding this sauce to a soup dish, ladle some of the broth from that soup to make the sauce. If you are making the sauce separately, than heat some broth in a saucepan so that it is ready to use for the sauce.
- Seasoning: salt and pepper.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make Avgolemono Sauce
- Prepare the broth. Heat 2 cups of broth in a saucepan over medium high heat. [Note: If you are adding this sauce to soup, you can skip this step as you will use the hot broth from your soup to make the sauce.] You want the broth to be heated but not boiling hot when you use it in the sauce so be sure to turn it off to allow it to cool for several minutes while you prepare the eggs in the next steps.
- Beat the egg whites. In 2 bowls, crack the eggs, separating the whites from the yolks. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until they are fluffy and hold their shape.
- Beat the yolks. Beat the egg yolks for a couple of minutes and then mix the egg whites and yolks together.
- Add lemon and temper the sauce with broth. Add the juice of 1 lemon and continue to beat. Continue to beat as you slowly add the hot broth to the egg mixture to prevent cooking the eggs. It’s important to add the broth slowly and to beat continuously to prevent curdling the eggs.
- Complete the sauce and add it to your dish! Add the egg-lemon mixture to the saucepan you heated the broth in (or directly to the soup pot if you are adding this to soup) and stir continuously to prevent curdling. Heat the dish but do not bring it to a boil and then turn off the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve with additional lemon juice if desired.
Tips for making avgolemono sauce
While the steps for the sauce are not complicated, there are some things that are important to make a delicious, frothy sauce that doesn’t curdle.
Tip #1: Avoid using cold eggs straight out of the fridge. Provided the meal I am adding the sauce to doesn’t take a very long time to prepare, I like to leave the eggs out on the counter for a short while to help bring down the temperature. Cold eggs mixed with the hot broth when making the sauce can cause them to curdle so this is one way to prevent that.
Tip #2: Beat the egg whites separately. This tip I learned from my mom to ensure the frothiest, creamiest sauce.
Tip #3: Allow the broth to cool a little so it isn’t boiling hot. Cold eggs and piping hot broth may cause the sauce to curdle. To avoid this, I allow the broth to cool a bit while I am beating the eggs and lemon mixture. While the broth will still be very warm, it won’t be boiling hot and it is less likely to shock and cook the eggs. Between the slightly cooled broth and the not-so-cold eggs (Tip #1), you should reduce the chances of curdling the sauce.
Tip #4: Whisk continuously and add broth slowly. Don’t be tempted to add all of your broth all at once. The goal is to slowly add it in and bring the eggs up in temperature. While you slowly add the broth, its important to keep on whisking as well.
What to serve this sauce with
As mentioned above, this avgolemono sauce is a staple in Greek cuisine and used in a variety of different dishes. While you can expand the list below and use it in far more dishes, we often serve it with fricasse, Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup (Avgolemono Soup), Youvarlakia Avgolemono (Greek Meatball Soup), and Dolmades (Greek Stuffed Grape Leaves), and Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Lahanodolmades).
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
-Cathy
Are you a fan of Greek cuisine? Be sure to check out these popular dishes:
Fasolada (Greek White Bean Soup) Recipe
Traditional Pork Souvlaki Recipe
Greek Lemon Potatoes (Patates Lemonates Recipe)
Soutzoukakia Me Patates
Classic Moussaka Recipe
Fasolakia (Greek Green Beans)
Gemista (Greek Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes)
Avgolemono Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs*
- 1 lemon juiced [+ 1 more lemon in case you wish to add more juice]
- 2 cups broth hot (if adding this to soup, you can use the broth from the soup you are adding it to)
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat 2 cups of broth in a saucepan over medium high heat. [Note: If you are adding this sauce to soup, you can skip this step as you will use the hot broth from your soup to make the sauce.] You want the broth to be heated but not boiling hot when you use it in the sauce so be sure to turn it off to allow it to cool for several minutes while you prepare the eggs in the next steps.
- In 2 bowls, crack the eggs, separating the whites from the yolks. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until they are fluffy and hold their shape.
- Beat the egg yolks for a couple of minutes and then mix the egg whites and yolks together.
- Add the juice of 1 lemon and continue to beat. Continue to beat as you slowly add the hot broth to the egg mixture to prevent cooking the eggs. It's important to add the broth slowly and to beat continuously to prevent curdling the eggs.
- Add the egg-lemon mixture to the saucepan you heated the broth in (or directly to the soup pot if you are adding this to soup) and stir continuously to prevent curdling. Heat the dish but do not bring it to a boil and then turn off the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve with additional lemon juice if desired.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
