Almost every culture I know of has some form of chicken soup.  All are wonderful in their own way.

The Greek Avgolemono soup is quite a unique one.

It’s a basic chicken soup with rice. It is kicked up about a million notches with the addition of an egg and lemon sauce. The result is a silky, rich with the egg sauce and also light and refreshing lemon flavor.

It’s an easy and straightforward recipe that involves only one unique technique of tempering the egg sauce. You would not want chicken soup with a float of scrambled eggs. Therefore, the eggs need to be brought up to temp in a measured manner.

Let’s dive into this.

AVGOLEMONO SOUP WITH CHICKEN

Makes 8 servings

• 1 whole chicken
• 10 cups of water
• 3/4 cup short grain rice
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons juiced)
• 1 large white onion, cut on half
• 3 carrots, 2 cut in big chunks, 1 chopped fine
• 3 stalks celery, 2 cut big, 1 chopped fines
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Prepare the broth by cutting up the chicken into about 6 pieces. I recommend a quick hard boil of the chicken. This helps avoid having to skim any scum while making the broth. Just add the chicken to a large pot. Add water to about 2 inches over the chicken. Bring up to a boil on high heat. Boil for about 5 minutes, remove the chicken and dump the water. You’ll notice lots of scum and fat will will go down with the water. Then wash the pot and start over.

Put the chicken in the pot. Add 10 cups of water. Add 2 carrots cut in big chunks. Add 2 celery stalks also in big chunks. Add an onion cut in half. Add some salt to taste and bring back up to a light boil, cover, and let cook for an hour.

After an hour, the broth will fill the house with a fantastic scent. I think there needs to be a chicken soup candle… take the chicken out and place on a platter to cool. Strain the broth through a mesh strainer to remove the veggies and other chicken bits.

Add the broth back to the pot. Add the finely chopped celery and carrot. Heat back up to a boil. Once boiling, add the rice and lower the heat to a simmer. The rice will take about 20 minutes to cook. 

While the rice is cooking, shred the chicken meat. I like to add it back to the soup once the rice is cooked.

Also, while the rice is cooking, make the Avgolemono sauce.

Crack and separate 4 eggs and reserve the yolks. Put the whites into a metal bowl. Hit it with a handheld mixer until the whites look nice and frothy. Once frothy, blend in the yolks and then drizzle the lemon in also while beating. 

Now it is time to temper the eggs.  Take out about 2 cups of the broth from the soup. Very slowly blend the broth into the eggs. Start with a few drops and just add it in a slow steady stream while beating eggs with a spoon. This is to be added right when the rice is done.

Add that mixture to the soup while stirring. The whole point of this is to slowly bring the eggs up to the temperature of the soup. This method prevents them from turning into scrambled eggs. It’s actually easier than described. It just takes patience.

At this time, the rice should done done and then add the shredded chicken meat. 

Serve promptly. It’s fantastic!

OPA!