Egg Drop Soup Recipe (Chinese Takeout Style in 10 Minutes)
This egg drop soup recipe makes the Chinese takeout version at home in about 10 minutes. The broth starts with chicken bouillon powder, the way most takeout places make it, and gets a cornstarch slurry for body. It serves 4, and there are two upgrades below if you want to take it further.
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Why Homemade Egg Drop Soup Doesn't Taste Like Takeout
If you've ever made egg drop soup at home and been disappointed with it, the broth is usually the reason. I've spoken to a lot of takeout restaurants about this soup, and most of them don't make a stock for it. They use chicken bouillon powder mixed with water, and the one I've seen most often is Lee Kum Kee.
The other reason is almost certainly MSG. The seasonings I've seen in almost every kitchen I've visited are salt, white pepper, MSG, toasted sesame oil and sugar. If your soup tastes unseasoned and you can't figure out why, the MSG is probably what's missing.
Egg drop soup usually gets treated as an afterthought, the free soup that comes with a lunch special, and I don't feel like it gets the respect it deserves. Made properly, it's a really good soup, and you can feed a whole family with it for a couple of bucks.
When I worked out the order of the steps, I compared J. Kenji López-Alt's egg drop soup at Serious Eats with The Woks of Life's.
What I Tested
Updated October 2026: new step photos, a rewritten method and answers to readers' questions. The recipe is unchanged.
The seasoning took the most work. Every bouillon powder is a little different, so I tasted the plain broth first, then dialed in the salt, white pepper, MSG, sugar and sesame oil until it tasted like a well-seasoned chicken soup on its own. Those are the amounts in the card, but you'll need to taste yours and find the ratio that works for you.
For the order, Kenji seasons the broth with salt before he thickens it, and he beats a little cornstarch into the eggs too. The Woks of Life seasons first and adds the cornstarch before the egg. I season it first and thicken it, then taste it again once the eggs are in.
For the enhanced version, I steeped ginger and green onion in the water for 30 to 45 minutes before adding the bouillon. It doesn't need to boil; just under a simmer is plenty.
For the from-scratch version, I poured the yolks and whites in separately. You get two different textures in the egg, and the yolks color the soup naturally without turmeric or anything artificial.
Why This Egg Drop Soup Recipe Works
- Chicken bouillon powder as the base. It's what most takeout places use, so the broth tastes like the one that comes with your lunch special.
- A quarter teaspoon of sugar with the salt and MSG. It evens out the saltiness of the other seasonings without making the soup taste sweet.
- A cornstarch slurry for body. Two tablespoons of cornstarch thicken a liter of broth just enough to coat your tongue, the way a well-made takeout version does.
- A splash of water in the eggs. It thins them out so they pour in a very fine stream, and a fine stream is what gives you thin, wispy ribbons.
What Is Egg Drop Soup?
Egg drop soup is a seasoned broth with a thin stream of beaten egg poured into it while it's at a light simmer. Done right, the egg sets into delicate, wispy ribbons that look a bit like the petals of a flower, which is why it's also called egg flower soup.
The Chinese takeout version is thickened with cornstarch and finished with green onions. A lot of the takeout places near me also include one or two rogue corn kernels with every serving.
Egg Drop Soup Ingredients
The full list with amounts is in the recipe card below. These are the ones worth knowing about before you shop.
Chicken bouillon powder is the base of the whole soup. Lee Kum Kee is the one I recommend, because it has the cleanest chicken flavor. The green can is the premium one without MSG and the red can has MSG. It doesn't really matter which one you get, but I think the red one is more common in takeout kitchens.
I've also seen Knorr's granulated chicken bouillon used quite often. Check the label and skip any that list dried parsley, because the little green flecks are something you never see in egg drop soup. If you can't find either one, any chicken bouillon works, and a mushroom bouillon works for a vegetarian version.
MSG is the biggest difference between homemade and takeout egg drop soup.
White pepper is the pepper in almost every takeout egg drop soup. Go light with it, because it can overpower a delicate soup like this one pretty quickly.
Toasted sesame oil goes in by the drop. Two or three drops is all you want, since it has a tendency to overpower every other flavor if you add too much.
Cornstarch is the only thickener I've ever seen used for this soup, mixed into a slurry with cold water.
How to Make Egg Drop Soup
1. Dissolve the bouillon
Bring 1 liter of water to a light simmer in a small to medium pot, then stir in the bouillon powder until it dissolves. Give it a taste. It'll be pretty bland at this point, which is why the seasonings come next.
2. Season the broth
Stir in the salt, white pepper, MSG, sugar and sesame oil, then taste it again. It should taste like a well-seasoned chicken soup before anything else goes in, so adjust it now.
3. Make the slurry
In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch into the cold water. It'll be hard to stir for the first few seconds, because cornstarch and water make a non-Newtonian fluid, but keep at it and it turns into a liquid.
4. Thicken the broth
Bring the broth back up to a simmer and give the slurry one more stir, since it settles quickly. Drizzle it in slowly while you stir the broth, because cornstarch can clump up if the liquid isn't moving.
Let it simmer for a couple of minutes, since cornstarch needs a little time to thicken. You're looking for a broth with some body that lightly coats a spoon, but nowhere near as thick as gravy.
5. Beat the eggs
Beat the eggs with a teaspoon or two of water until you can't see any streaks of white. Go gently, because air beaten into the whites makes them foam up in the soup. Chopsticks or a fork work better than a whisk here.
6. Pour in the eggs
Lower the heat until the broth is barely simmering. You don't want it boiling, because that curdles the eggs too quickly and makes them tough. Give the broth a gentle stir in one direction.
Pour the eggs in a very thin stream while you keep stirring gently the same way. Moving in one direction makes longer, more delicate strands. If you stir too hard, the eggs break up into tiny pieces and cloud the soup.
If you like bigger, chewier pieces of egg, pour a little thicker and faster.
7. Let the eggs set, then serve
Let the soup simmer gently for a minute or two so the eggs cook through. Give it one last taste and stir in the sliced green onions. Serve it right away.
Two Ways to Take It Further
The enhanced version: an aromatic broth
Steeping ginger and green onion in the water gives the soup a clean, crisp freshness that the basic takeout version usually doesn't have. The difference is subtle but noticeable, and I promise it's worth trying.
Start with 1 liter plus 1 tablespoon of water; the extra tablespoon covers what evaporates. Smash a small handful of sliced ginger with the back of your knife and add it to the water with a few green onion bottoms. Keep it just under a simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.
Fish the aromatics out, then add the bouillon and carry on exactly like the basic version. Any aromatic you'd put in a stock works here too, like onion or garlic. I'd skip ginger powder, though. It makes the soup spicy in a way that's unpleasant, in my opinion.
The from-scratch version
If you want to make it from scratch, start with a simple Chinese chicken stock and use it in place of the water and bouillon. This isn't the way most takeout places do it. I use 2 or 3 chicken carcasses, but any chicken parts work, including leftover rotisserie chicken bodies.
If the chicken is raw, blanch it in simmering water for about 2 minutes, drain it, rinse it under cold water and wash out the pot. That gets rid of the scum and impurities that would otherwise cloud the stock and give it a minerally taste.
Then cover the chicken with cold water and add a small handful of ginger and green onion bottoms. Keep it at the barest simmer, with bubbles lazily popping up here and there, for at least 2 hours. I once fell asleep, or passed out if I'm being honest with you, while making this stock and it went for 12 hours. It was the best one I ever made.
Strain it and it's ready to use. It keeps for 2 to 3 days in the fridge or about 6 months in the freezer.
For the soup, steep the ginger and green onion in 1 liter plus 1 tablespoon of the stock the same way, then keep the seasoning simple. I usually use only salt and white pepper, with a little MSG if it needs it, and thicken it with the same slurry.
The eggs are where this version changes. My buddy Jatin, who claims to have eaten egg drop soup in 22 different countries, separates the yolks and the whites, and I saw CiCi Li do the same thing while I was researching this. Beat each with a splash of water, going easy on the whites so they don't foam. Then pour in the yolks and the whites while you stir.
Last, I like a small splash of Chinese black vinegar. It's usually labeled Chinkiang vinegar, the old spelling of Zhenjiang, the city it comes from. Every brand tastes a little different, so you'll have to find one you like. It's mildly sour and a little sweet, and a tiny splash is plenty. It isn't mandatory, but I'd highly suggest trying it.
Crispy Wonton Strips
We used to have these on egg drop soup when I was a kid, and they're a perfect topping for it. Cut wonton or egg roll wrappers into roughly half-inch strips and fry them in 360°F oil. I used egg roll wrappers left over from my Chinese egg rolls.
Take them out when they're slightly lighter than the shade you want, because they keep darkening for a minute or two after they come out of the oil. Drain them on paper towels and sprinkle them with a little salt.
If you'd rather not fry anything, the premade wonton strips in the salad section of most grocery stores work well too.
Variations
- More yellow, like the takeout kind. Stir in ½ to 1 teaspoon of turmeric with the other seasonings for a golden color. For that "coffee is for closers" neon yellow, add a few drops of yellow food dye right before the eggs. Turmeric is the more common way, and I've never seen a restaurant use the dye myself, but I've heard some places do.
- Corn and other vegetables. Corn is the most common addition I've seen. Simmer it in the water until it's done before you add the seasonings and the cornstarch, then carry on as usual. Peas or mushrooms work the same way.
Storing and Reheating
Egg drop soup is best right after you make it, but leftovers keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, which is the USDA's guideline for leftovers. Reheat it to 165°F, or bring it to a boil, which the same USDA page advises for soups.
To freeze it, freeze the broth without the eggs. I haven't had good results reheating the soup with the egg already in it, because the egg turns rubbery. The broth keeps for up to 6 months in the freezer. When you're ready, bring it back to a simmer and pour in freshly beaten eggs.
Egg Drop Soup Questions
Do I have to use MSG?
No. If you'd rather leave it out, add a little more salt instead and taste as you go. Either way, check your bouillon's label, because a lot of chicken bouillon powders already have MSG in them, including the red Lee Kum Kee can.
How do I keep egg drop soup thick but clear?
The cornstarch itself makes the broth a little cloudier than plain broth. A commenter under CiCi Li's video said the waiter at a small restaurant confirmed their chef thickened with tapioca starch, and the broth was clear and see-through. I haven't tried it, but it's an easy swap to test.
Do you add the cornstarch or the eggs first?
The cornstarch. Thicken the broth first and add the eggs last. The Woks of Life gives the same advice in their guide to cooking with cornstarch, since thickening before the last ingredients go in keeps them from overcooking.
Can I use store-bought chicken broth?
Yes. Canned or boxed chicken broth works in place of the water and bouillon, and so does homemade stock. Taste it before you add the salt, because some broths are a lot saltier than others. The real takeout flavor comes from the bouillon powder, so it won't taste exactly like takeout.
If you make this, leave a star rating in the recipe card below. It helps other people find the recipe.
More Chinese Takeout Recipes
- Chinese Takeout Wonton Soup
- Chinese Takeout Hot and Sour Soup
- Chinese Egg Rolls
- Chinese Takeout Egg Foo Young
- Chinese Takeout Fried Rice
- Chinese Takeout Lo Mein
Recipe
Chinese Takeout Egg Drop Soup
Equipment
- 1 All-Clad Saucepan or any medium pot
- 1 Whisk or fork/chopsticks
- 1 Mixing Bowls for slurry and eggs
- 1 Deli Containers for storage
Ingredients
Broth
- 1 liter water
- 4 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder red can with MSG; or any chicken bouillon
Seasoning
- 1.5 teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon MSG
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 2-3 drops toasted sesame oil
Cornstarch Slurry
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon water cold
Eggs
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 teaspoon water for thinning
Garnish
- 1-2 green onions thinly sliced
Instructions
Season the Broth
- Add 1 liter of water and 4 teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder to a pot over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the bouillon and bring to a light simmer.
- Add 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt, ⅛ teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon MSG, ¼ teaspoon sugar, and 2-3 drops of toasted sesame oil. Stir to combine. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning. It should taste like a well-seasoned chicken soup.
Thicken with Cornstarch
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water. Stir until it becomes a smooth liquid. It will resist at first because cornstarch mixed with water is a non-Newtonian fluid. Just keep stirring for a few seconds.
- Bring the seasoned broth back to a simmer. Give the slurry one more stir (it settles quickly), then slowly drizzle it into the broth while stirring. Let it simmer for 1-3 minutes to thicken. The broth should have some body and lightly coat a spoon, but not be as thick as gravy. If it's too thick, add a splash of water. If too thin, mix another tablespoon each of cornstarch and water and drizzle that in.
Add the Eggs
- Beat 2 eggs with 1-2 teaspoons of water until completely homogeneous. You should not see any distinct whites. The added water thins the eggs for a finer pour.
- Lower the heat until the broth is just under a simmer. You do not want it boiling, as this will curdle the eggs too quickly and make them tough. Give the broth a gentle stir in one direction.
- In a very thin stream, slowly pour the beaten eggs into the broth while continuing to stir gently in the same direction. Stirring in one direction creates longer, more delicate ribbons. Do not stir too vigorously or it will break the eggs into small pieces and cloud the soup.
- After all the eggs have been added, let them simmer gently for 1-2 minutes to ensure they are thoroughly cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning one final time. Garnish with thinly sliced green onion and serve.
