Easy Homemade Chinese Egg Drop Soup

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

Egg drop soup is also called egg flower soup.  This easy egg drop soup is great to warm yourself on cold winter nights. It’s one of the most preferred soup when you’re fighting cold or flu. It’s light, with simple flavors and an ultimate comfort food.

Chinese egg drop soup is broth based soup with main ingredients being chicken broth, corn starch and eggs with green onions, soy sauce. A simple but great tasting soup when you’re feeling under the weather. This soup is sure to give you warmth, nourishment and comfort.

You could serve it as start of the meal any day or make it light dinner on any week night.

Made at home always means it TASTY and HEALTHY. Notice the soup , it’s not yellow like the ones you get at restaurants. That’s because restaurants mostly add yellow color to egg drop soup. Though there are some restaurants who add creamed corn to give that vibrant yellow color, but not too many restaurants do that.

Homemade egg drop soup has no added colors and you opt for low-sodium chicken stock and soy sauce to make the soup thus keeping health factor in mind.

To make the best egg drop soup you want to get silky egg ribbons. A little trick will ensure your egg ribbons are silky. Read on the post to find out more.

Texture and taste of this Chinese egg drop soup recipe make it so addictive and most favorite in many Chinese restaurants.

Today I’m presenting the simplest and straight forward egg drop soup recipe without corn in it. This soup is so easy to make and so easy to adapt to your taste.  You can include creamed corn to the soup and make it richer, heavy and filling. Cooked and shredded chicken in the soup is another variation.

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.

Egg Drop Soup Ingredients

Main egg drop soup ingredients are chicken broth, eggs and corn starch. Green onions, soy sauce and freshly ground white or black pepper is added for flavors.

This simple homemade egg drop soup ingredients are –

Chicken broth – for best results use low-sodium homemade chicken broth. Beef broth can be used too if like.

Eggs –2 eggs and 2 egg whites is recommended. Whisk eggs well with a teaspoon of water. Reduce stove to low so the broth comes to gentle boil, slowly pour beaten eggs in thin stream and swirl the soup constantly towards the same direction.

Corn Starch – viscosity of the soup is from corn starch. To boiled broth add corn-starch water slurry to thicken the broth.

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

Ground Ginger – Ginger adds warm comforting flavors to the soup.

White or Black Pepper – White pepper is recommended.

Tofu – Optional , but can be added to make it more nutritious.

Creamed Corn – Optional, if you’re looking for yellow colored egg drop soup, cream cooked corn and add it to soup. Creamed corn also adds body to soup.

Toasted Sesame Oil –Optional, Drizzle few drops of sesame oil in the broth before boiling and as garnish just before serving.

Is Egg Drop Soup Gluten Free

No, It’s not gluten free as soy sauce is usually brewed with wheat. Some of the other ingredients that gets added to the soup in most restaurants like oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, mock meat and egg noodles all contain gluten.

If you can get your hands on gluten-free soy sauce and make egg drop soup at home, you could make this delicious soup gluten free.

Is Egg Drop Soup Healthy

Looking at the nutritional table, where 1 cup of soup is lesser than 100 calories, this egg drop soup is somewhere healthy.

It has 3 total fat, 81 cholesterol. What needs to be noted is the sodium levels in egg drop soup. Since its basically a broth based soup, sodium levels are bound to go high. A little effort to make low sodium homemade broth, and use low sodium soy sauce to keep the sodium levels under control. You have total control of salt to add to the broth when you make it at home.

1 cup of egg drop soup around 1172 milligrams of sodium which is still lesser than the daily intake limit which ranges from 1500 to 2300 milligrams.

Egg drop soup is also rich in antioxidants and Vitamin C.

Homemade Low-Sodium Chicken Broth

Using whole chicken to make broth is the best practiced method for any homemade broth. But you could also simply use just the bones of chicken. If using whole chicken remove giblets and neck. 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.

How To Make Egg Drop Soup

To make egg drop soup, start with homemade broth. I recommend chicken broth, or beef broth. To broth add soy sauce, ground ginger, chopped green onions to chicken broth at room temperature. Whisk well and bring it to boil. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

Add the corn starch water slurry to thicken the broth and constantly stir to help prevent any lump formations.

Whisk 2 eggs and 2 egg white well.

Pro-Tip : Add teaspoon of water to beaten eggs to help pour slowly in slow and thin stream.

Then reduce flame to low so the broth comes to gentle boil, slowly pour beaten eggs in thin stream and swirl the soup constantly towards the same direction. You’ll see beautiful silky egg ribbons being formed.

Pro-Tip : The size and shape of egg flower varies from one soup to another. It largely depends on how slowly beaten eggs is added to the soup, how you swirl the soup and also the viscosity of the soup.

Turn off stove.

Just before serving, garnish with chopped green onions and cracked black pepper. Serve immediately.

Can You Freeze Egg Drop Soup

No, egg drop soup don’t reheat well. Usually soups which has diary products like cream, or the ones with seafood,  soups thickened with corn starch, or the ones that has eggs when frozen develop a strange flavors that will turn you off. When thawed and reheated, turns thin and separate when reheated.

We recommend to make this egg drop soup just before serving and serve immediately. We don’t recommend storing in fridge also.

Variations of Egg Drop Soup

Keep it simple like what we did or add ingredients to make it the way you’d like it. This egg drop soup recipe is so simple it’s too easy to adapt it to your taste and completely flexible as well.

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

Add cooked and shredded chicken to make it protein rich.

Are you vegetarian? Then add small cubes of tofu to the soup.

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.

Baby spinach and shiitake or button mushrooms.

Chicken or egg noodles are amazing to be added to the soup along with veggies.

Kale, shiitake mushrooms and ripe tomatoes – my favourite.

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR OTHER FAVORITE SOUP RECIPES. THEY ARE TOO GOOD TO BE MISSED –

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Easy Homemade Chinese Egg Drop Soup

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

5 from 9 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: soups, Starters

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4 cups

Calories: 92kcal

Author: Jyothi Rajesh

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 ½ cups chicken broth room temperature low-sodium homemade broth best
• ▢ 2 egg + 2 egg whites
• ▢ 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• ▢ 2 tablespoon corn starch heaped
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon soy sauce low sodium
• ▢ 2 teaspoon white pepper
• ▢ 4 scallions chopped
• ▢ 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil optional
• ▢ ¼ cup creamed corn optional

For garnish

• ▢ Scallions
• ▢ Ground pepper

Instructions

• Remove ¼ cup room temperature chicken broth into a separate bowl. To it add corn starch and whisk until lump free smooth mix. Keep aside.
• In a deep bottom soup pan pour chicken broth, add ginger powder, low sodium soy sauce, scallions and pepper powder. Mix well. Keep it on stove and bring it to gentle slow boil. Add corn starch water slurry to thicken the broth and constantly stir to help prevent any lump formations.
• Allow it to boil for 3 minutes. Keep stirring occasional to avoid lumps in the broth.
• Meanwhile in a measuring cup beat 2 eggs and 2 egg whites.
• Pro Tip : We recommend you to whisk eggs in measuring cups, as it’s easier to pour eggs into boiling broth slowly in thin streams. If you use cups to whisk eggs, you might not be able to control the flow of eggs into broth and you’ll end up with thick gluggy egg bites instead of silky soft egg ribbons.
• Reduce heat to low and stir hot boiling broth to create gently swirl. While the broth is swirling, slowly pour beaten eggs in thin stream and swirl the soup constantly towards the same direction. This will create egg ribbons.
• Note  - The shape and size of your egg ribbons depends on your swirl, viscosity of the soup and how slowly and steadily you pour in beaten eggs.
• Turn off stove.
• Just before serving, garnish with chopped green onions and cracked black pepper. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 92kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 1172mg | Potassium: 312mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 0g | Vitamin A: 240IU | Vitamin C: 21.7mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 1.6mg

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