Avgolemono is a Greek soup made from simple ingredients – chicken, garlic, onion, carrot celery, lemon, egg and dill. It is extremely satisfying and we at all of it. This soup goes great with a side salad and bread.
You can make this soup with chicken breasts and chicken stock from the store, but I highly suggest my much cheaper and way more delicious method. Buy a whole roasting chicken, put a tbsp of oil in a stock pot and brown the chicken skin (after removing the packet of neck and gizzard that is in most whole chickens), cover with water and add some salt, pepper, and if you like a half a carrot or half an onion or other stock vegetable. I often add nothing except salt and pepper. Bring to a high simmer and then reduce heat as low as you can and ignore it for 2 hours. When it is done you have super tender chicken that is not at all dry (it was a struggle to keep my kids from eating all the poached chicken before I made the soup because it is SO good), plus you have a whole bunch of really tasty chicken stock with no added crap.
I often do this when making soup and you usually end up with more stock than you need, so I freeze the rest and then have homemade stock when I need it. Since dill is a primary seasoning here, I recommend fresh if you can get it, but dried works too if not. I add a bit more lemon than typical here because we like acid and I love lemon flavor. You can adjust to your liking. Make sure to temper the egg yolks before adding to the soup so you don’t get scrambled egg soup.
Avgolemono – Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken neck pack removed
- 2 tbsp olive oil divided
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 onion diced
- 1 carrot diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 3/4 cup orzo
- 2 egg yolks
- 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
- fresh dill
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large stock pot and add the chicken. Season with salt and pepper and then cover with water and bring to a high simmer. Reduce as low as you can and simmer 2 hours until the meat is falling apart and the broth is wonderful.
- Remove the chicken and strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer and reserve. Remove and shred the chicken and set aside.
- Rinse the pot and add the other tbsp of oil. Heat over medium and add the onion, carrot, garlic, and celery and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add 6 cups of stock, the onion and garlic powder and the meat and the bay leaves and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the orzo and cook as long as the package says until it is tender.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice. Add 1/4 cup of hot broth one tbsp at a time while whisking to temper the yolks. Then add to the soup. The egg thickens and soup and gives it a great creamy consistency. Add in some chopped dill and season with more salt, pepper or lemon as needed. Remove bay leaves and serve.
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