Chicken soup avgolemono-style

Because, fall.

Chicken soup is not a thing I nostalgically associate with childhood or crave when I’m feeling sick. As you’ll come to learn, I’m not a huge chicken fan, and most soups leave me feeling short-changed when they’re served for dinner. But all this changed the first time I had my mother-in-law’s avgolemono chicken soup . Avgolemono is a Greek sauce that is literally just egg (avgo) and lemon (lemono). But oh-man, it takes regular chicken soup from okay to holy-damn-get-me-three-bowls chicken soup.

I made a cheater version tonight (my Greek husband would debate whether or not this is even a ‘version’ of avgolemono, but that’s an argument for another post), and it turned out pretty damn good.

Tonight’s takes:

Husband: “Really good. Clean-and-bright. Should have added the rice; real Greek avgolemono is just chicken, rice, egg and lemon. Add more egg next time.”

Helen (5 1/2 years): “Pretty good. Too lemon-y. I couldn’t taste the other things. I really like these vegetables.”

Hector (3 years): “I want more bread.”

From the expert, Vefa Alexiadou

What I used:

A bit of context because this is my first post. When it comes to food, I want every meal I eat to be delicious; and I’m willing to put in the time or pay the money to get it. I love to cook and I’m full of opinions after everything I eat. But I also work and am a mom of two young kids. So I’m not afraid to simplify and use quality pantry staples to make grocery shopping easier and meal prep faster. I’m not trying to win “Top Chef” here. I’m trying to make a healthy-ish home-cooked meal that we can all sit down to together most nights of the week.

• 1 chicken breast and 3 chicken thighs - this is what I had in my freezer

• Approx. half of a 750g bag of mixed frozen vegetables

• 2 eggs

• 2 lemons

• Flat bread

What I did:

This is my first post so I missed a few photos at the beginning. Bear with me.

Filled a large pot 2/3 full with water (approx. 4 litres) and added a few teaspoons of salt to it.

Took chicken right from the freezer, added it to the soup pot.

Brought water + chicken to a boil, reduced the temperature, and simmered it for 20 minutes.

Prepared avgolemono: whisked 2 eggs and the juice from 2 lemons together.

After 20 minutes, turned the heat off.

Removed the chicken.

Added vegetables.

Waited a few minutes for the chicken to cool enough so I could handle it.

Once cooled slightly, diced the chicken into bite size pieces.

Added the chicken back to the broth and vegetables.

Added the avgolemono: first added a ladle of hot broth to the avgolemono (to bring it’s temperature up), then added it to the soup.

If you’re making this, make sure you don’t turn the heat back on - if you do the eggs will separate from the soup.

Tasted, added a bit more salt.

Done!

Served with some flatbread I had from the freezer.

Finished the soup with some extra olive oil. My mother-in-law would have boiled a whole chicken, not just the pieces, resulting in a broth that’s fattier; I cheated and just used the extra olive oil.

Next-time:

I’ll definitely make this again. Next time I’ll add 3 eggs instead of 2. And if I have time I’ll use bone-in, skin-on chicken so my broth has more flavour.

😋😋

-Ellisa