This classic Egg Drop Soup recipe is quick and easy to make in just 15 minutes and always tastes so cozy and comforting.
Growing up, my family had a tradition of eating lunch at our local little Chinese restaurant every single Saturday. And every single Saturday — like, we’re talking nearly two decades of Saturdays here — I would order “the usual.”
Egg drop soup. ♡
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I absolutely adore a good bowl of egg drop soup. It was my favorite food in the whole entire world as a kid. And today, it’s still one of the most comforting, nostalgic, delicious soups I know.
It’s also one of the easiest soups I know. All you need to make this egg drop soup recipe is about 15 minutes (tops) in the kitchen, a handful of easy ingredients, and a quick tip for how to drizzle those beautiful egg ribbons. Then a delicious batch of egg drop soup can simmering on the stove and ready to be served in no time.
Let’s make some soup!
Egg Drop Soup Recipe | 1-Minute Video
So What Is Egg Drop Soup?
In case this recipe is new to you, egg drop soup is a staple at Chinese restaurants across the United States. It’s typically made with lightly-seasoned chicken or veggie broth, and filled with delicious egg “ribbons”, which are created by whisking raw eggs into the simmering broth.
Egg Drop Soup Ingredients:
To make this homemade egg drop soup recipe, you will need:
- Good-quality chicken or vegetable stock: Either will do.
- Cornstarch: To thicken the broth a bit.
- Seasonings: Just a pinch of ground ginger, garlic powder, salt and black pepper.
- Eggs: Which we will whisk and then drizzle into the soup.
- Sesame oil: Absolutely essential in this recipe, and also one of my favorite ingredients!
- Green onions: Thinly sliced, to mix into the soup and also use as a garnish.
How To Make Egg Drop Soup:
To make egg drop soup, simply:
- Prepare your stock: Whisk the stock, cornstarch, ginger and garlic powder together until combined before turning on the heat. It’s essential that the broth is room temperature or cooler, otherwise the cornstarch will clump up and not dissolve.
- Bring the stock to a simmer: Stirring occasionally. While this is heating, go ahead and whisk together your eggs in a separate measuring cup or bowl.
- Slowly stir in the eggs: Once your stock has come to a simmer, use a whisk or a fork to begin stirring the stock round and round to create a slow “whirlpool”. Then gradually drizzle in the eggs as you continue to stir the stock, and they will turn into those magical little ribbons. Remove pan from heat.
- Add remaining ingredients. Stir in the sesame oil and green onions until combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve warm. Garnished with extra green onions, if you’d like.
What To Serve With Egg Drop Soup:
This soup would be delicious when served with:
- My favorite Fried Rice (or Quinoa Fried Rice)
- 12-Minute Chicken & Broccoli
- 20-Minute Moo Shu Pork (or Chicken)
- Beef & Broccoli
- Thai Basil Chicken
- Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Almonds
- Black Pepper Chicken
More Favorite Soup Recipes:
If you love egg drop soup, feel free to check out these other faves:
- Cabbage Egg Drop Soup (my other favorite version of this soup!)
- Hot and Sour Soup
- Miso Soup
- Tom Kha Gai
- Egg Roll Soup
- Everyday Green Curry
- Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup
Egg Drop Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups good-quality chicken or vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste
- thinly-sliced green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the broth. Whisk together stock (chilled or room-temperature), cornstarch, ginger, garlic powder and white pepper in a medium sauce pan until smooth. Heat over high heat until the stock comes to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
- Whisk the eggs. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and egg whites in a small measuring cup or bowl. (I find the measuring cup easier for pouring.)
- Stir in the egg ribbons. Once the broth reaches a simmer, use a whisk or two chopsticks to stir the broth in a circular motion, creating a whirlpool. Then slowly pour the whisked eggs in a very thin stream into the soup as you continue stirring, in order to create egg ribbons.
- Season. Remove pan from heat. Stir in the sesame oil until combined. Season with salt and additional white pepper to taste, also adding a dash or two of extra sesame oil if needed. (Saltiness will depend on your brand of chicken stock, but I generally find this soup needs an extra ½ to 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt.)
- Serve. Serve immediately, garnished with lots of green onions and a twist of black pepper.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Are there any nutritional facts (calories sodium etc.) Just curious if you guys posted and I missed it somewhere
Hi Cheyenne! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Tried this a second time because I was bound and determined to get ribbons! I did not remove it from heat once it started to boil. I also brought it back to a boil after the eggs were added. That seemed to work for me as I got beautiful ribbons this time around. Delicious soup!
That’s great to hear Angela, we’re glad it turned out so well! :)
Tonight is my second time making it because it was such a hit with my family the first time! That’s saying a lot, with two extremely picky toddlers, but I give them straws and they literally drank it up and asked for seconds and thirds! I love the ginger and sesame oil and corn. This time I’m adding some frozen wontans I had in my freezer. Thanks for the great recipe!
Yay, that’s so great to hear Candice! Thank you for sharing, we’re happy your kiddos loved it, and are smiling picturing them slurping it up with straws – so cute! :)
anyone make it without cornstarch?? watching carbs..but no really chinese food here…im struggling.
Another nope in a string of attempts to replicate restaurant style egg drop soup. This recipe is closer than some, but just not close enough to forgoe driving to your local restaurant.
We’re sorry you didn’t care for it Jesse!
I made this for lunch today, as written. I need to work on my egg ribbon-making technique. My soup didn’t look nearly as pretty as yours. Nonetheless, the soup was delicious. I will continue to make this soup on a regular basis. It’s that good. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for sharing Laurel, we’re glad you enjoyed it!
This soup reminds me of some chinese restaurant in manhattan, NY
will try it soon. Yours just look gorgeous in pictures and I believe it taste superb too
Thanks Elle, we hope you enjoy! :)
I put ground up organic chicken or small meatballs in it for more protein. I also have put in small pot stickers. I always change soup recipes so there more protein.
Thanks for the pictures.
Charice
Thanks for sharing Charice, we think that sounds so yummy — great ideas! We’ll totally have to give those a try sometime. :)
I just made this tonight. It’s so delicious! I’ve never had corn on my egg drop before, but it really was a great addition. I’ll never buy it at a restaurant again. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks Krystal, we’re so happy you enjoyed it! :)
I regularly make crab and sweetcorn soup, which needs one egg white near the end of cooking. In previous attempts the egg white tended to clump together, rather than produce thin strands, so I thought I wonder if I can use the whole egg — yolk and white? Well, today I did! The result was perfect! I got my strands of egg in the soup. no clumps, and it tasted absolutely great. So I won’t be using just the egg white any more. It’s going to be whole egg from now on for egg drop soup.
Crab and sweet corn soup sounds lovely! We’re glad the whole egg worked out for you, we hope you enjoy the egg drop soup! :D