I don’t’ know what it is about the summer, but it always puts me into the mood for anything lemony. I start buying lemons by the bag when the weather gets warm so I can include them in as many recipes as possible, whether it’s the main course, side dish, dessert, or beverage. Today it will be a main in the form of Avgolemono Soup (aka Greek Lemon Chicken Soup). This soup promises to be light, bright, and a little creamy thanks to the combination of chicken, lemon, and arborio rice. I’m looking forward to it!
A light and bright Greek style lemon chicken soup with rice that is thickened with eggs.
The Ingredients
The list of ingredients for avgolemono is pretty short. I opted to go the traditional route and skipped the white miso paste. It’s not something I normally keep around, and I was afraid most of it would go to waste.
The ingredients were standard fare, and I found all of them easily at my local grocery store. The one that piqued my interest was the arborio rice.
A quick search and I found out arborio rice is a starchy short-grained from Italy. The high starch content gives it a creamy consistency when cooked, and it’s most famously used for risotto. I’ve never prepared it, but I have eaten my share (mental note: idea for a blog post), and it’s delicious! I’m sure it will give this soup a beautiful consistency.
The Process
This soup was quick and easy to make, but I had to start by making the cooked chicken. To do that, I brought a saucepan of water to a rolling boil and dropped in a whole chicken breast. I boiled it for 20 minutes, removed it, shredded it once it was cooled, and popped into the refrigerator until I was ready to use it. That gave me a little over 2 cups of chicken, but I used it all in the avgolemono.
So making this recipe went pretty smoothly until I realized I used a pan that was too small. I began with the 2.5-quart saucepan I used to boil the chicken breast, but I realized it was too small when I added the chicken broth and nearly filled the pan. I had to switch to my 4.5-quart pan in the middle of cooking.
The pan switch happened as I was bringing the broth to boil, so I’m sure it slowed me down by a few minutes. Otherwise, it wasn’t a big deal, and I quickly got back on track. Finishing the soup went according to the instructions, although I skipped adding the miso paste (Step 5). Here’s how my time was spent:
- 7 minutes to prep
- 26 minutes to cook
- 33 minutes total
Thank you, I’ve just been searching for a good recipe for a long time and yours is the best I’ve found out till now.
This is a favorite of mine, and I make it regularly. Sometimes I add a little sauteed garlic to change things up. Please let me know how it turns out for you!