Easy Chinese Egg Drop Soup

Easy homemade Chinese egg drop soup literally takes under 15 minutes from start to finish. Better than take-out and it’s effortless to make the soup at home. This is by far the fastest soup you’ll ever make.

It’s light, with simple flavors and an ultimate comfort food.

Originally posted in March 2019, updated with new photos and included video in September 2021

Jump to:

• 15 minutes Chinese egg drop soup
• What is egg drop soup?
• Ingredients needed
• How to make Chinese egg drop soup?
• Expert tips
• FAQS
• How to make low-sodium chicken broth at home?
• Flavor variations options
• 📋Easy Homemade Chinese Egg Drop Soup

What is egg drop soup?

In Chinese, egg drop soup is called Dan Hua Tang (蛋花汤) which means “egg flower” soup.

Egg drop soup is a Chinese soup of wispy beaten eggs poured slowly into boiled chicken broth which is thickened with corn starch. The thickness in the soup helps it create a beautiful silky egg ribbons when poured in slow thin stream.

You don’t want to have eggs cooking and falling into the boiled broth as tiny bits. Thickness in the boiled broth (due to adding corn starch) help prevent the egg from dissipating into tiny bits. Creating signature egg ribbons in the broth is the key to a good egg drop soup.

Ingredients needed

Here’s what you need to make simple egg flower soup –

• 4 large eggs
• 4 cups chicken broth
• ⅓ cup white part of green onions
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• ¼ cup shiitake or enoki mushrooms (sliced)
• 2 teaspoon light soy sauce (low-sodium sauce)
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric (optional)
• Salt to taste
• White ground pepper to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoon cornstarch
• ⅓ cup corn kernels (creamed)
• ¼ cup green onions

Chicken broth – for best results use homemade chicken broth. Beef broth can be used too.

Eggs – Use large eggs.

Cornstarch – viscosity of the soup is from corn starch. It helps thicken the broth and hence gives body to the soup.

Green onions – green onions give extra flavor and texture to the soup. It is boiled with the broth to make broth more flavor some.

Ginger – adds warm comforting flavors to the soup.

White ground pepper – White pepper is recommended. It adds heat to the soup without changing it’s color too much.

Toasted sesame oil – optional, drizzle few drops of sesame oil in the broth before boiling and as garnish just before serving.

Creamed corn – optional, creamed corn adds nutrients and body to soup.

Ingredients additions and substitutions

Tofu – to make soup more nutritious, add tofu cut into small cubes.

Chicken – add rotisserie chicken or simply cook boneless chicken cubes with salt and pepper and add it to soup.

How to make Chinese egg drop soup?

1. Stir together cornstarch and ¼ cup broth. Keep aside.
2. Whisk eggs. Pro-Tip : Add teaspoon of water to beaten eggs to help pour slowly in slow and thin stream.
3. Add broth, white part of green onions, minced ginger, rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, toasted sesame oil, light soy sauce, salt, white pepper and turmeric powder. Whisk well and bring it to boil. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.
4. Reduce flame to low so the broth comes to gentle boil. Add cornstarch slurry to the soup with constant stirring. Cook with constant stirring to 1 to 2 minutes or until the broth is slightly thickened.
5. Now slowly pour beaten eggs in thin stream while stirring the soup in swirls. Eggs will spread into ribbons. Pro-Tip : The size and shape of egg flower will vary. It largely depends on how eggs are poured and how you swirl the soup.
6. Add creamed corn, stir it together. At this stage you can add any extra ingredients you like- cooked chicken, tofu. Let it boil for 2 minutes, while stirring constantly.
7. Turn off stove. Stir in green onions into the soup.
8. Just before serving, garnish with more chopped green onions, cracked pepper and drizzle toasted sesame oil on top. Serve immediately.

Expert tips

1. Add teaspoon of water to beaten eggs to help pour slowly in slow and thin stream.
2. Slowly pour beaten eggs in thin stream and swirl the soup continuously to help eggs spread to ribbons. Do not stop swirling the soup. Pouring eggs too fast and not swirling properly will make scrambled bits of eggs instead of silky egg ribbons.
3. Use low sodium broth and soy sauce to make it healthy-ish.
4. Add extra ingredients like tofu, chicken, egg noodles or cream corn to make it healthy.

FAQS

How to make low-sodium chicken broth at home?

Here’s how you make homemade broth: remove giblets and neck from whole chicken (use cut pieces of chicken if not using whole chicken). Place whole chicken in a large soup pot. Add in 5 quarts water, 3 bay leaves, 5 whole cloves, 1 tablespoon whole black pepper corns, ½ teaspoon red chili flakes, 1 inch ginger, 5 cloves garlic, 3 while onions (roughly chopped), 2 carrots (roughly chopped), 2 celery stalks (roughly chopped), salt to taste.

Bring it to boil, then cover and simmer for 2-3 hours or even longer. If you want pristine broth, strain and serve it in freezer bottles.

Flavor variations options

Keep it simple or add extra ingredients to make it the way you’d like it. Egg drop soup recipe is so simple and versatile, it’s too easy to adapt it to your taste.

To make variations of egg drop soup you could do one of the following –

1. Add cooked and shredded chicken to make it protein rich.
2. Are you vegetarian? Then add small cubes of tofu to the soup.
3. Load it up with vegetables. Sliced zucchini, sliced carrots, V shaped celery, shiitake mushrooms are great choice of vegetables that can be added to this egg drop soup.
4. Baby spinach and shiitake or button mushrooms.
5. Chicken or egg noodles are amazing to be added to the soup along with veggies.
6. Kale, shiitake mushrooms and ripe tomatoes – my favorite.

MORE SOUP RECIPES

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Instant Pot Chicken Noodles Soup

Roasted Cauliflower Soup With Almonds

Roasted Carrot Onion Soup

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Sriracha Spicy Ramen Noodles Soup

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

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