Avgolemono Soup

This Greek lemon chicken soup is like a warm hug in a bowl -- flavorful, light, bright and satisfying. It's my go-to soup to make someone who is ill or recovering. I just made a double batch for my son who's coming home from college, and a friend recovering from a knee replacement surgery. Avgolemono soup is comfort food at its finest!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic

8 cups chicken broth or stock (homemade poultry stock recipe here)

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs diced (about 2 pounds)

2 cups cooked rice (or riced cauliflower if you prefer grain-free)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

4 large eggs

1/4 cup minced fresh dill or parsley

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes until slightly golden. Add the broth, and turn heat to high. Bring broth to a simmer.

Lower the heat to medium, and keeping the broth at a simmer, add the diced chicken breasts. Cook for 5 minutes until the chicken is mostly cooked through. Add the cooked rice.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, and then beat in the lemon juice and zest. Working quickly, whisk the egg mixture while you drizzle in a ladleful of the hot broth from the pot (see Cooking Tip). Drizzle in another ladleful, whisking all the while, then transfer the hot egg-lemon mixture back to the pot, whisking constantly as you add it. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Simmer gently for a couple of a minutes (no not allow to come to a boil), then stir in the dill or parsley if using. Serve the avgolemono soup hot.

Cooking Tip: Tempering Egg in the Broth

What you are doing here is tempering the egg mixture. If you were to add the egg mixture to the pot all at once, even if you whisked very fast, you would still end up with cooked strands of eggs in soup (in some soups, this is desirable – think about egg drop soup at a Chinese restaurant). Add the hot liquid in slow steady amount to the eggs, while whisking all the while, thickens the eggs. Whisking keeps them from cooking in a clump, and then once that mixture has become thick, smooth, and warm, you can whisk it back into the soup and it will simply thicken the whole pot of avgolemono.

Recipe inspiration credit to along-gone website, MmmPaleo. Thank you!