Lemon Chicken Soup Recipe

It’s soup weather! (Happy dance, happy dance) I just did an interview recently and they asked me about favorite winter activities and I listed making soup 😂. Also hiking and being by the water, but still, making soup was the first thing to spring to mind.

My family’s favorite soup recipe is Greek lemon chicken soup, more traditionally called Avgolemono. My husband remembers eating this soup every Christmas Eve with his family at a (now sadly defunct) Greek family run restaurant in Seattle. So when I heard he loved it, I cobbled this recipe together from a number of sources and voila! Our family’s favorite soup was born!

As a side note: a Greek friend told me that when a girl can make this soup perfectly without cooking the eggs in the hot broth then she’s ready to be married. I have to confess I often am impatient and end up with a few cooked egg bits, but I’m already married so…no harm I guess? Hope you enjoy the recipe! We eat this soup with fresh fruit and sliced cucumbers.

Rachel’s version of Greek Lemon Chicken Soup (Avgolemono)

Ingredients:
3 cups white or brown rice (note: we like this soup thick, almost like a stew. If you want a thinner consistency add less rice, perhaps 2ish cups)
3-4 quarts chicken stock or chicken broth
1 very large or 2 medium onions
5-6 large carrots peeled and chopped
1.5-2 lbs. chicken breast or thighs, raw and chopped
The juice of 4-5 fresh lemons, squeezed
3-4 eggs (add 4 if you like the soup creamy, use only 3 if you like it thinner consistency)
1 c. fresh parsley to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: 
1. Dice and saute 1 very large or 2 medium onions in a stock pot with a dash of oil.
2. Add chicken stock to the pot.
3. Add chopped carrots and rice. Cook until tender (about 25 minutes)
4. Add raw chopped chicken breast. Cook 20 minutes.
5. When chicken is cooked through, add freshly squeezed juice from 4-5 lemons to the soup. (Taste to determine lemony-ness. Adjust to your preferences. We like it a bit on the sour side.)
6. Take soup off heat, just so it stops boiling. Crack 3-4 eggs into a separate bowl. Slowly temper the eggs bit by bit by adding the soup broth into the bowl little by little and whisking until eggs are about the same temp as the soup. Continue adding broth into eggs and whisking until most of the broth is mixed into the egg mixture.
7. Add egg mixture back into the soup. Mix in chopped parsley. Enjoy!