Egg Drop Soup
A classic Chinese restaurant favorite, this egg drop soup recipe is quick, easy to make, only requires a few ingredients, and is absolutely delicious. It can be prepped and cooked in just 10 minutes, making this dish a life saver when you are low on both food and time.
Egg Drop Soup is one of the easiest dishes you can make. With some eggs, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken broth, cornstarch, and seasonings, you are ready to make a dish that can be used for lunch, an appetizer, or dinner. Serve with shrimp and veggie egg rolls, fried rice, or beef and broccoli for a complete meal.
What Is Egg Drop Soup?
Egg Drop Soup is a quick and easy restaurant style soup that requires simple ingredients that you most likely already have on hand.
I like to call it your “new best friend” because it is flavorful and fun with minimal ingredients. So you can get dinner started without a lot of fuss.
Egg Drop Soup: Simply put, it’s egg dropped in a soup.
More specifically, it is a simple Chinese soup that contains a chicken broth base with beaten eggs whipped into noodle form.
Depending on the chef, different ingredients may be added to the soup to make it heartier or used just based on personal preference.
However, in a nutshell egg drop soup is whipped egg in soup.
What is so great about this soup is that it’s pure genius with it’s simplicity and flavor. Plus, it makes a great canvas for additional ingredients and spices so that you the chef can add whatever your heart desires. Mushrooms, shredded carrot, protein? All great additions.
What Can You Add To Egg Drop Soup?
For this recipe I kept it simple. However, if you want to add more spices or ingredients to further increase the flavor or make it a heartier dish, you certainly can.
Add your favorite protein:
- Tofu
- Shrimp
- Chicken
- Ground Pork
When you add a protein, this light egg soup can become a full on meal. So easy, yet so good, this egg drop or egg flower soup will become a go to dish.
This Egg Drop soup is fabulous on its own but makes a great canvas for so many other things as well.
What To Add To Egg Drop Soup:
- Ground Ginger
- Garlic Powder
- Sriracha for an added kick
- Scallions
- Ground pork
- Chicken
- Shrimp
- Tofu
- Vegetables : Mushrooms, zucchini, water chestnuts, shredded carrot, bok choy
Use this recipe for an enjoyable but easy to make dish, or use it as a canvas to add ingredients of your choice.
How To Make Egg Drop Soup:
First you need to gather your ingredients. This is my favorite part because this is a type of soup that is perfect for those times when you don’t have a lot in the cupboards.
Egg Drop Soup Ingredients:
- Chicken Broth
- Soy Sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Eggs
- Fresh Chives or Green Onions
- Ground White Pepper
Most of these ingredients you probably already have on hand, especially if you cook at home.
Steps for making the soup:
- Start your broth: combine chicken stock, soy sauce, and oil and bring to a boil.
- Thicken the broth: In a bowl combine cold water and cornstarch and pour into boiling broth.
- Add your egg ribbons: In a bowl beat eggs and add to broth, stirring continuously
- Garnish and eat: Remove from heat, season, and garnish
And that’s it! So simple that you could use it for a quick dinner or lunch.
Note: See recipe at the end for more detailed instructions.
Egg Drop Soup Recipe Notes and Tips:
Tip 1: Eat Right Away!
Although you could store soup in the fridge and reheat this dish, it is best to eat this soup right away. The quality just isn’t as good after stored and reheated. And reheating can sometimes do funky things to the eggs.
It is so easy to make. And takes only 10 minutes, so this is one of those recipes that is just better made fresh. Make it on the spot when you are in the mood for it.
Tip 2: Add Protein For A Complete Meal
Want Egg Drop Soup to be filling enough for a dinner dish? Add your favorite protein like tofu, ground pork, chicken, or seafood.
The best way to do this pre-cook whatever protein you intend to add. And add it in right after making the egg ribbons.
Tip 3: Make It Vegetarian
Sub out chicken broth for vegetable broth and this recipe is vegetarian. Add tofu for more protein.
Tip 4: Create A Gluten Free Dish.
Many soy sauces are not gluten free, but that’s no big deal. Sub out soy sauce for Coconut Aminos, which is gluten free or Tamari.
Tip 5: Add More Liquid When Adding More Ingredients.
You don’t want the soup to feel super chunky with hardly any broth. Therefore, be conscious of added ingredients in proportion to the amount of broth.
If you add more ingredients up the amount of broth from the original recipe.
Additional Notes: How To Make Egg Drop Soup Thick?
For this recipe I already have got you covered. Cornstarch is a thickening agent that is in the list of ingredients. Mix cornstarch with cold water and then add to the soup.
However, just as a general rule of thumb if you want to thicken a soup you need to use a thickening agent like cornstarch or flour. Fortunately you don’t need to worry because this recipe already uses one.
If it isn’t as thick as you want, you can add additional corn starch slurry.
What Do You Eat With Egg Drop Soup?
This soup is so versatile, it is one of my favorite starters for a Chinese dinner at home. There are so many great options for what to serve it with.
Use it as an appetizer along with a great Asian dinner like:
- Honey Asian Chicken
- Beef and Broccoli
- Orange Chicken
- Asian Lemon Chicken
- Sweet and Sour Chicken or Shrimp
Or make it a soup and salad meal and serve with Avocado Sesame Ginger Chicken Salad, Chinese Chicken Salad , or Asian Chopped Salad.
Any of these options will make for a great complete, filling and delicious meal.
An Easy Soup When You Don’t Have Anything To Make!
Everyone needs a dish that you can make when you only have a few minutes to spare and your cupboards are bare. Egg Drop Soup is not only a time saver with simple ingredients, it is so flavorful.
Once you add this recipe to your rotation you will want to make it again and again. It’s a clutch dish!
Other Great Soups To Try:
- Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
- Thai Butternut Squash Soup
- Thai Chicken Curry Coconut Soup
- Baked Potato Soup
- Broccoli Cheese Soup
Video Tutorial for Making Egg Drop Soup
Want to see just how easy it really is? Check out this video:
Egg Drop Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons water
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1 Tablespoon green onions or chopped fresh chives
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine the chicken broth, soy sauce and sesame oil.
- Bring to a boil.
- In a small bowl combine cornstarch and water together stirring to make a slurry
- Pour cornstarch slurry into the boiling broth.
- In a small bowl, beat 3 eggs, then gradually add the beaten eggs to your boiling broth, stirring continuously to get the egg ribbons.
- Remove from heat, taste, season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Garnish with fresh chives.
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Suzy says
One of my favorites to order when we go out for Asian food! Love how simple it is to make at home!
Kimberly says
Such a delicious classic, it’s always a must whenever I serve Chinese!
Matt Taylor says
I friend and I were at a Chinese restaurant the other day and were talking about egg drop soup. This looks so amazing! 🙂
xem trực tiếp bóng đá hôm nay says
Have you ever had these as leftovers? I’d like to prep a batch for a week of breakfasts I can eat on the go.
Rachael says
I haven’t, it is so quick to make we usually just make it right when we want it. Let me know how it works.