Avgolemono

Αυγολέμονο

Serves:
6 people
Prep time:
5 minutes
Cook time:
1.5 hours

Pronounced 'Ah-vgo-leh-mon-oh', this soup is a Greek and Greek Cypriot classic. While chicken soup is a universal food that's in almost every culture, every household has some sort of new and interesting version of it. A lemony chicken soup with rice may seem like a bizarre meal to those unfamiliar. But naysayers are quickly converted into yaysayers with this simple, tasty crowd pleaser. And in our family, it’s more than just comfort food—it’s become a sport. Years ago at Yiayia’s house, the tradition began where ‘soup races’ sought to find who could eat the most soup, the fastest. To this day, it is still widely contested on who is the fastest soup eater in the family. Though Peter will tell you it's him.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken or 6 pieces of marylands into drumsticks and thighs or chicken wings
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups medium grain rice
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • Pinch of pepper
  • 2 large lemons

Method

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  1. Put the in a large pot and fill with cold water, ensuring that there is about 5cm of water above the chicken
  2. Heat the pot over a medium-high heat and boil the chicken for a minimum of 1 hour, making sure to regularly remove the scum that floats to the top. Cook the chicken until the meat is effortlessly falling off the bone. For best results, Yiayia suggests around 2 hours of boiling
  3. Remove the chicken from the pot and place onto a large chopping board, but keep the chicken stock in the pan simmering at this stage
  4. Debone the chicken to get all the meat off it, then shred the chicken into small pieces using two forks. If you’re game like Caitlin and Peter you can eat the chicken skin, otherwise, discard all the yucky bits
  5. Add the to the boiling chicken stock and cook for 15-20 minutes until the rice is cooked through. Add half of the and stir through
  6. After 10 minutes, ladle out 2.5 cups of stock into a bowl and set aside
  7. Juice 2 large and remove any seeds
  8. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer or soup stick mixer to scramble the eggs. Slowly add in the hot stock that you have set aside so that the eggs don’t curdle and pour in about half the lemon juice. Keep mixing until all your stock is gone and your mixture is super fluffy
  9. Taste your rice, and once it's cooked add in the mixture from the bowl. Lightly fold into the soup, combining it but not allowing the mixture to lose its fluffiness. Add in the rest of the salt, and extra lemon to taste
  10. Make sure you keep some extra lemon juice aside so people can customise their soup’s sour level

From Yiayia's Fridge · page 41