It doesn’t get much more comforting than this deliciously warming Egg, Lemon and Chicken Soup. “My Mother used to prepare this in the winter time – I couldn’t wait to get home to this delicious soup.” Serve Chicken soup with fried chicken, crusty bread, vegetable sticks and garnish the chicken with parsley and lemon wedges.
Egg, Lemon and Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
1 medium chicken (or 12 cups of chicken stock)
1 1/2 cups of washed short grain rice or risoni
3 eggs
2 lemons, juiced
salt and pepper
parsely and lemon wedges to serve
To Make the Stock
Place chicken in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat slightly and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, discarding foam.
Remove the chicken and set aside to cool. Once cooled, cut chicken into 8 pieces, season to taste, and set aside. Strain the stock and reserve.
To make the Soup
Return stock to the pot and to bring to the boil. Add the rice/risoni, stirring well. Reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Then, reduce to a very low heat.
To make the Egg mixture
In a large mixing bowl whisk eggs by hand. While whisking, very slowly add the lemon juice. Once all the lemon juice is added, continue whisking for a further 2 minutes. While mixing, slowly ladle chicken stock to egg mix (avoid picking up too much rice during this part of the process).
It is important to keep whisking the egg mixture to prevent the egg from cooking. Continue whisking, and adding chicken stock until most of the stock has been added.
Once combined, add the prepared egg mixture back to the pot slowly, increasing the heat and stirring continuously until mix comes to the boil. Remove from heat and season to taste.
To make the Fried Chicken
Option 1: In a frying pan, heat oil and butter on a medium heat. Fry the chicken skin side down first, until golden. Turn chicken to the other side and cook for 1 minute. Place on a platter and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges, serving with crusty bread.
Option 2: Shred chicken into very small pieces and add desired amount to soup and serve with bread.
Extracted from Yia Yia’s Kitchen Secrets by Poppy Stamateris, Marika Gouveros and Mary Mitropoulos.
