Avgolemono Soup

Plague has befallen the home of The Littlest Anchovy.
When I say plague, I mean something in the form of a cold/flu/bronchitis hybrid that has lingered for 2 weeks, claiming the spark and liveliness of both myself and the Bearded Gamer. Bottles of cough syrup have replaced olive oil on the kitchen bench and we wander the house in a congested and weepy-eyed daze.

Which brings me to that soup you see up there. That is Avogolemono, a traditional Greek soup made with chicken, stock, eggs, rice, lemons and that is about it. Fabulously beautiful in its simplicity and powerful in its ability to make even the sickest of sick anchovy's feel a whole lot better.

I was worried about how much effort and brain power I might need to make the soup but the most effort that it took was squeezing a lemon and shredding up a chicken. The rest was all about pouring and simmering and slurping. And maybe a little whisking..

It was hard to know which Avgolemono recipe to choose to make "the soup that would cure" and I am sure that in future the method I use will evolve depending on the recipes I might be reading at the time. 

The below recipe is cobbled together from a few but I largely followed this one here because, well, I was too sick to make my stock from scratch and yet I loved the idea of getting more chicken goodness in there from the whole chicken simmering in the ready made stock. Maybe if I were to make this another time (when I am not at Death's door), I would make my stock from scratch. I think I might also like to try using orzo instead of rice to see what that would be like.

I was a little afraid of adding the eggs and watching them curdle before my red bleary eyes but it turned out just fine! All I had to do was whisk the eggs and add the hot broth, one ladle at a time until the eggs were nicely tempered and then add the lot back into the soup to make the creamiest, silkiest chicken soup that may not have cured me on the spot but I like to think played a big part in lifting the great plague of 2011 from The House of Anchovy.

Avgolemono Soup

Adapted from here, here and here

1 small whole free range chicken

2 litres of good chicken stock

1/2 cup of short grain rice - I used carnaroli

2 eggs or 1 per litre

Juice from 1 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the chicken in a large, heavy bottomed pot with the stock and bring to the boil.
2. Cook the chicken for approx 45 minutes, skimming off any fat or scum during the cooking process.
3. Once cooked, remove the chicken and set aside to cool.
4. Add the rice and cook for about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Remove the skin of the chicken and shred the meat. Add back into the pot with the rice. Turn the heat down low and keep warm.
6. Whisk together the eggs until light in a separate bowl with the lemon juice.
7. Slowly add a ladle of the stock to the eggs and stir through until combined.
8. Ladle the stock into the eggs four times, stiring well each time and then add the egg mix back into the soup. Stir to combine and be very careful not to let the soup boil at all.
9. Ladle some of the shredded chicken and rice into a bowl, top with the soup and garnish with fresh parsley if you have it to hand.
10. Slurp and enjoy.