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Avgolemono is a Greek Sauce of chicken broth, egg and lemon. Add chicken and rice and you have Avgolemono Soup or Greek Chicken and Lemon Soup. Despite being rich and creamy, this sauce is dairy free and gluten free. It is made that way by mixing the egg into hot broth (usually chicken broth). In order to assure that the egg becames a creamy addition to the soup or sauce and not a curdled mess, we use a process called “tempering”. This is very important.
Variations of this sauce are widespread throughout Mediterranean Europe and North Africa: Tarbiya in Syria, Bagna Brusca in Italy, Agristada in Shephardic Jewish cuisine and also in Spain. This sauce is often served with lamb, dolmas, meatballs, and fried fish.
Avgolemono Soup is the first dish that I learned to make outside of my mother’s tutelage. I grew up in a small fishing town in Massachusetts with a large Greek community. My childhood friend Stephanie is a 3rd generation Greek American. Her Yaya and Papou lived next door to her and we used to walk to and fro each others houses almost daily. There was a period of time in 4th or 5th grade where we would try to make our own acceptable version of this soup everyday after school, while our parents were at work. We would use whatever we could find in the pantry, those old-school salty chicken bouillon cubes, Uncle Ben’s rice, sometimes Knorr dried chicken noodle soup packs. There was a lot of curdled eggs back in those days. This was before recipe blogs and the ability to google anything. There were no answers to the secret of Avgolemono unless we figured it out ourselves. When we landed on a creamy soup it was a major achievement, but hard to replicate on the next try. I am happy to say my Avgolemono Soup skills have come a long way. Looking back I believe that my love for the kitchen started with those afternoons spent as a kid with my buddy and no adult supervision, experimenting with this soup.
I usually make this soup with leftover roast chicken and leftover rice making this a 20-30 minute easy weeknight meal. In fact, I’ll make roasted chicken and rice just to have this soup halfway done. Anytime I roast chicken, or ham, or bone in beef roast, I make stock with the leftovers right away, and I always have a couple different kinds of stock in my freezer. Anytime I make rice, I’ll make enough for 2-3 meals. There’s so much you can do with it. I’ll give you the recipe for making it with these leftovers for a quick weeknight meal and also for making it on its own, the long version, in a separate post.
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Quick Avgolemono: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 16 cups 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Greek
Description
Quick Method
This Avgolemono Soup uses cooked chicken and cooked rice and is a quick, easy and comforting meal for busy weeknights.
It is very important to temper your eggs before adding to the hot broth and to not boil this soup after the egg has been added.
Ingredients
For the soup
6 cups broth
1/2 large onion, minced
2–3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 lemon
lemon juice, to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1–2 cups cooked rice
1–2 cups diced cooked chicken
3/4 cups frozen peas (optional)
Instructions
- Pull your eggs out of the fridge.
- Bring the stock up to a simmer with the onion, garlic, clove and bay.
- Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a bowl large enough to hold 2 quarts of liquid. Squeeze the juice of one lemon through a sieve into the bowl with the eggs. Add a pinch of salt. Whisk until frothy.
- Add the squeezed lemon halves, rice and chicken to the broth. Bring back to a simmer, then turn the heat off.
- TEMPER THE EGGS! This is the most important step in this recipe. Ladle broth into the egg mixture slowly while whisking. You may need a helper or you can coil up a wet towel around the base of you mixing bowl to help hold the bowl in place while you simultaneously whisk and ladle. You need to do at least 2-3 ladles full but I’ll ladle most of the broth into the mixing bowl, taking off the top and leaving the rice and chicken in the pot because its easier to whisk without those things getting in the way.
- Add the tempered egg mixture back to the pot with the rice and chicken. If the soup has cooled too much you can turn the heat on low and gently heat while stirring. DO NOT BOIL THE SOUP AFTER EGG MIXTURE HAS BEEN ADDED, 180 F max.
- Stir in the dill. Taste the soup. Add more salt, pepper or lemon to your liking. I like a lot of lemon in mine.
- Serve immediately. Garnish with dill sprigs and lemon slices if you like.
Notes
When reheating leftovers, do so gently, stirring frequently. DO NOT BOIL.
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