This is by far my favorite soup (besides Cream of Crab, I am a Maryland-raised girl afterall). "Avgo" means "egg" and "lemeno" means "lemon" and therefore you have Egg and Lemon soup! Ta-da! But there is so much more to this soul-warming soup including vegetables, rice, and chicken! As my father likes to say, "Once a week, go Greek!"
My family is Greek and therefore I have grown up with fond memories of this soup. It is the best. Some people can be turned off by the mention of "egg" in soup, but it's amazing how the soup changes when you add this crucial ingredient. It gets cooked so you don't have to worry about salmonella and you don't have chunks of egg floating around. I have issues with texture and egg chunks are just not my thang. Even in fried rice. No thank you.
What makes this soup taste like it came from your own Yia-Yia is the homemade chicken stock. As a forewarning right now, if you use store bought chicken stock or broth it will NEVER taste as good. NEVER. So take the time to make it right and you won't be able to make it any other way.
Lastly, soups are great if you're trying to save money, eat healthy, and make large portions. This soup is no different. Incredibly clean ingredients, cheap, and can feed copious amounts of people (well like 5-6 people) it's worth it to give it a shot.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (4-5 lbs)
5 whole large carrots
2 medium size yellow onions
2 stalks of celery
3 sprigs of fresh dill
1 egg
7-8 large lemons
1 1/2 cups white rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
1. Place entire chicken in the bottom of a large soup pot. Peel and roughly chop 3 out of the 5 large carrots. Place in the soup pot. Roughly chop yellow onions and place in the soup pot. Roughly chop celery stalks and place in the soup pot. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper to taste. Fill pot with water until it covers the chicken completely.
2. Cover and bring pot to boil over high heat then lower to the lowest setting. Cook for 3-4 hours covered.
3. Once time as elapsed, keep heat on low and remove all vegetables with a slotted spoon and throw away. CAREFULLY remove the chicken and all its pieces and place on a cutting board or in a very large bowl. It should be completely falling apart.
4. Juice the lemons into a medium size bowl making sure there are no seeds in the juice (about 3/4 - 1 cup). Beat the egg into the juice.
5. TRICKY STEP: ladle some of the stock into the lemon/egg mixture and whisk lightly. The point of this is to get the mixture to the temperature of the stock, so you only want a little bit of the liquid. Once the bowl feels warm to the touch, QUICKLY stream the mixture into the stock while whisking the stock brisquely. This is how you avoid chunks of egg in the soup. After you've poured all of the mixture in, keep whisking for another minute or so. If no chunks are appearing, pat yourself on the back! Job well done!
6. Remove leaves from fresh dill and throw in the pot.
7. Pour white rice into the pot and cover.
8. Meanwhile, peel and slice last 2 carrots.
9. Shred the chicken carefully. You want to remove all bones, ligaments, fat, and skin. Be very careful as the chicken might still be hot. You can shred either with your fingers or with two forks. Large chunks are okay too, there's no specific scientific method to this.
10. Put chicken and carrots into soup pot. Cook until carrots are just fork tender, making sure they're not mushy.
11. Serve and enjoy!!
This is also 21 Day Fix approved! 1 Red, 1/2 Green, 1 Yellow
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