Greek Lemon Rice Soup

   Last week after posting a potato soup recipe a friend of mine sent me a message about how much her son loves soup and was looking over her shoulder when she was reading it. This lovely woman, Peggy, use to babysit for my girls. She now has children old enough to read and have opinions. {sigh}. A while back I was in an antique shop and saw the Barbie case and a few of her accessories I played with when I was a young girl. The labels said "Vintage". This past weekend I saw a car that though it was a different color, it was much like the one I spent a good amount of time in while in high school. The plate said "Historical Vehicle". {ugh} Anyway, I asked her if her son had a favorite soup, thinking I could post a recipe for him. She said, "Greek Lemon Rice Soup". Peggy said she never gets it to come out right. So this post is for her and her son, Zach.
   I have several Greek Lemon Rice soup recipes, but this one looked to have more of what I look for in that soup. I had never made this one before. With some tweaking that I will mention in this post, I will use this recipe again. It is rich, and full of flavor. It does not take much to prepare it, but it does need to cook for a while because of the whole chicken. Please do not substitute chicken breasts, especially ones that are boned and skinned. The fat and the bone that gets boiled in the stock is the reason it is so rich and flavorful. I realize the chef that offered this recipe called it "Chicken Soup with Egg~Lemon Sauce", and rightly so as it has an abundance of chicken and you do make an egg~lemon sauce to finish off the recipe. I'm telling you, this is classic "Greek Lemon Rice Soup" and that is how it appears in my recipe file.

   Here is the recipe as she presents it. You can see the original recipe here.

Avgolemeno (Chicken Soup with Egg-Lemon Sauce)

Recipe courtesy Cat Cora

Total Time:   3 hr 45 min

Prep   25 min

Inactive   2 hr 0 min

Cook   1 hr 20 min

Yield:   about 8 servings

Level:   Easy

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) free range chicken

12 cups cold water

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 leek, cleaned and quartered

1 carrot, peeled and quartered

2 bay leaves

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups finely diced onion (about 1 medium onion)

2/3 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 

Directions

In a 6 to 8-quart stockpot, combine the chicken, water, and 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; immediately reduce the heat to a very low simmer, and skim the foam from the surface. Add the leek, carrot, and bay leaves and continue to simmer with the chicken until the chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove chicken from the broth, and allow meat to cool. Strain the broth and skim the fat. (Place the broth in the refrigerator to make it easier to skim.)

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Dice the meat into large cubes; refrigerate until ready to use.

Return the broth to high heat, add the rice and onion and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the rice is almost cooked through, about 20 minutes. Add the chicken and reduce the broth to a low simmer.

In a medium sized bowl, beat the lemon juice, eggs, and pepper. Ladle 2 cups of hot broth into a measuring cup with a pourable spout. While whisking, slowly pour the 2 cups of broth into the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the remaining 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir well to blend. Divide among bowls and serve immediately.

Here we go:

   These 10 ingredients are all you need for this soup unless you do use the leeks which would make eleven, and then of course the water.

   Remove that little pack of goodies from the cavity of the chicken before you start. It is not thanksgiving so I do not need the neck to boil or the gizzards for gravy. Save and freeze them if you like, I tossed mine, for which Jon thanked me :-)  Whole roaster chickens tend to be 6 ~ 8 pounds and fryers 3 ~5 pounds. Roasters tend to be older hens and fryers are younger. Fryers can just be smaller birds, but typically the are younger. I used a fryer chicken that was about 5 pounds.

Always rinse chicken before cooking it.

   Salt added and ready to cook. Covered pot while simmering for about an hour. This recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of Kosher salt. I realize that though theoretically salt is salt and it should all have the same amount of saltiness. That is not true. The cut of the crystal can alter the level of saltiness. Some salts have more air in them that can affect the saltiness. The denser the crystal the saltier the flavor. Kosher salt is saltier than table salt and sea salt. Morton is the more delicate choice on the market, particularly compared to Diamond salt. I used the 2 Tablespoons this recipe calls for at this stage of preparation, and I used Morton Sea Salt. I am wondering if the increment of salt in this recipe was a typo. More on this below.

   Please do not toss the onions and olive oil in the stock without doing this step of sauteing. This added so much flavor to this soup. Also, you would not want the harshness of the onion dropped in raw. The sauteing really sweetens the onion as the heat forces the harsh gas out of the onion.

   See that fat? Skim it off. Enough will remain naturally in the stock to retain lovely flavor. While this is cooling you can do the lemons and onions. You will notice from here on I use the word "stock" rather than the word "broth" that the original recipe uses. The reason for that is broth is made from meat and stock is made from bones and can have meat. The fat you see congealed in this stock comes from gelatin in the bones that is released when it simmers for a time. The bones give the richness and fullness of flavor. Of course the fat helps, too. You can make stock from just the bones after the meat is baked and taken off of them as well. I have done that with the bones from Thanksgiving turkeys. Boil the bones with a few carrots and onions, strain, and then add chunks of the turkey, some noodles or rice and a few fresh vegetables. 

   I enjoy juicing lemons. I love the citrus fragrance they put off. I never get tired of preparing lemons for recipes. I like lemon a lot! Say that fast a few times. 

   There it is, citrus gold. I used 4 medium lemons which yielded slightly less than one cup. I should have juiced six, but as it was the recipe was calling for only 1/2 cup. More on that later, too.

   I mentioned before how much I like the Pampered Chef Food Chopper but did not think to get a piccie of it when cooking. Here it is in action. You know how some pretty powerful bombs are detonated by mixing of two liquids that kept separate are harmless? Well that is how it is with an onion. That onion can sit long enough to rot and never emit a fume, much less a noxious one. However, There are enzymes and acids kept separate in the cells of that onion and the minute you cut into it they mix and become a nasty volatile sulpher compound that does a horrible number on your eyes. I use a candle when I am chopping onion because the that nasty sulpher compound gas will drift toward the flame and away from your eyes. Don't use a fan while cutting an onion, it only spreads that gas further only making matters worse. You can soak onions in water or cook them first to decrease the gas from forming when you cut them. One of my daughters wears goggles. Ever see Meg Ryan in Addicted to Love? That is what it looks like at her house when an onion is being chopped. Cute, really funny actually. But for me, it's the candle ~ and it works. Using that handy Pampered Chef Food Chopper helps, too.

   I meant to take a picture of this little bowl with it's lid before I cleaned everything up so you could see it. It is a bowl and lid from the 3~ Cup Prep Bowl Set I bought from Pampered Chef several years ago. It holds one cup. I have two sets actually.  I use them frequently for measuring and holding ingredients for a recipe like I am here. I store things in the refrigerator in them nearly all of the time. But a feature I really like about them is that  I can make individual cakes and individual No~Pudge Brownies for those times you just want a sweet nibble, you want it quick, you don't want to cook for half of the free world, and you would like to keep it as healthy as possible. 2 TBS No Pudge! Brownie mix for every 1 TBS of non~fat vanilla yogurt. Stir until smooth. Microwave on high for about 1 minute. YUM!!

   I had no leeks on hand though I think they would add a good hint of sweetness to the soup.Whole carrots had been picked over the last time I shopped for them and so I used baby carrots. That has never happened before, why when I want them for a recipe I want to share on my blog ~ and for a friend no less? Now we simmer for an hour or so. Again, I covered pot while simmering.

   Drain, reserving stock. I tasted one of those carrots here and realized my concern about so much salt was warranted. They were so salty is was just awful. Needless to say that last Tablespoon will not be put in the soup at the end. And in future there will be only 1 Tablespoon at the beginning and no more at any time in the recipe. It can be seasoned with salt at the table if needed.

   Time to cool. I did put the chicken and stock in the refrigerator for a bit.

   This was the first bit that came off pretty much on its own when I removed the chicken.

   This was the start of the process to get all that yummy meat off of the bones. If it were Thanksgiving that wishbone would be something my grand daughter Belle and I would enjoy together. Breaking the wishbone has been around a long time. I have heard that tradition goes back a couple thousand years. I don't know about that, but it the Pilgrim's did bring it over from England when they came. They broke the wishbone of chickens and when they arrived here in the new land it became a tradition done with the wild turkey. In case you haven't picked up on it in my last post, or in this one, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving.  :-)

   The stock is ready for the finishing up of this recipe. You may be noticing the onions covered in plastic back there behind the stock and the olive oil to the left still sitting out. I blew off the sauteing of the onions part of the recipe so in actuality this was when I stopped and did that. I put the piccie of that step up above where it should have been done.

   Chicken is ready.

   Rice added, letting it cook though not thoroughly. I did not use Arborio rice. It was not that I think that style of rice is too expensive, at least not for the Risotto's it is typically used for. It is just what that dish needs to be creamy. I wanted a recipe that would be more along the lines of what is served in typical Greek restaurants.  Peggy and I being from the same area I knew what she was accustomed to. Well, I moved out of the area over five years ago but I am certain the longer grained white rice was still rice du jour. Arborio rice is not milled as much as your average long grained white rice so more of the grains natural starch is preserved. This gives Arborio rice a much higher capacity to absorb liquid, and is why those Risotto's are so creamy. I figured if regular white rice did not give me the thickness I was looking for I could do a quick fix with a cornstarch or rice starch paste. I also was pretty confident the eggs being added like they were would bail my tush out if it came to that. And, I could always just add more white rice.

   After straining I ended up with exactly 12 cups of chicken stock. Had I not covered the pot that would not have been the case. I only wanted about 1/4 of the overall finished recipe to be rice. Cooking regular white long grain rice typically will result in double the amount of dry rice, or you could look at it as the amount of liquid you use. With some exceptions, the rule is typically 1 part rice: 2 parts liquid. So 1 cup of rice calls for 2 cups of water and your end result will be roughly 2 cups. I wanted 1/4 of 12 cups of stock to be rice so I used 1 1/2 cups of rice to yield 3 cups cooked, 1/4 of my 12 cups of stock. And of course you add no liquid because the stock is your liquid.

   Lemon juice and eggs whisked together.

   Chicken added.

   Incorporating the stock into lemon and egg mixture.

  Pouring blended stock, lemon and egg into the rest of the soup.

   Soups on!!!! As I suspected this soup was far too salty, even without the last Tablespoon of salt. I let it cook a little longer to get the consistency thicker so I could add more liquid. Just before serving I added one more cup of water and squeezed two more lemons, 1/2 cup of juice, and added the lemon juice to the soup, stirred well and then served. That balanced it out nicely; it was very good. This soup thickens when it is stored the refrigerator so I add a little water when I heat it up. This does not alter the taste, in fact it was even better the second day.

CHANGES AND NEW RECIPE:

In the pictorial above I mentioned what I did that varied from the original recipe. This recipe below is the tweaking I did and the things I will also do differently in future. Below is the recipe I will use as my basic Greek Lemon Rice Soup. 

Avgolemeno (Chicken Soup with Egg-Lemon Sauce)   Greek Lemon Rice Soup

Recipe courtesy Cat Cora   Teresa Raber

Yield:   about 10 servings

Ingredients:

1 (3 pound) free range chicken  3 ~ 5 pound fryer chicken

12 cups cold water

3 tablespoons kosher salt   1 tablespoon Sea Salt 

1 leek, cleaned and quartered (use only the white portion)

1 carrot, peeled and quartered

2 bay leaves  3 bay leaves

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil     (first cold pressed) ~ my addition

2 cups finely diced onion (about 1 medium onion)  (about 2 medium onions)

2/3 cup arborio rice   1 1/2 cups white long grain rice

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice  1 1/2 cups lemon juice  (about 6 medium lemons)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 

Directions:   My additions will be in (parenthesis and italics)

In a 6 to 8-quart stockpot, combine the chicken, water, and 1 tablespoons salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; immediately reduce the heat to a very low simmer, and skim the foam from the surface. Add the leek, carrot, and bay leaves and continue to simmer (in covered pot) with the chicken until the chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Remove chicken from the broth stock, and allow meat to cool. Strain the stock and skim the fat. (Place the stock in the refrigerator to make it easier to skim.)

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones and discard the skin (and the bones, carrots, leeks and bay leaves). Dice the meat into large cubes (shred that which is too small to cube); refrigerate until ready to use.

Return the stock to high heat, add the rice and onion and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the rice is almost cooked through, about 20 minutes. Add the chicken and reduce the stock to a low simmer.

In a medium sized bowl, beat (I whisked) the lemon juice, eggs, and pepper. Ladle 2 cups of hot stock into a measuring cup with a pourable spout. While whisking, slowly pour the 2 cups of stock into the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the remaining 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir well to blend. Divide among bowls and serve immediately. (Refrigerate leftovers. This is great reheated.)

Please feel free to click here for a cleaned up printable copy of this recipe without all of the corrections visible.

Kali Orexi!   

If that were French it would say, Bon Appétit! But that is the Greek for “good appetite” or Enjoy your meal!

   While living in NW Indiana I had the pleasure of knowing a woman by the name of Diane Costas. She is a lovely woman, she is Greek and ever so gracious. She wrote a cookbook that included recipes of  friends and family. She dedicated it to her mother and it is a wonderful little treasury of some down home, some entertaining worthy and some good Greek recipes. This is the cover of her cookbook, D C's delicacies. Please forgive the condition of this book. I do use it and have owned it since 1985, maybe '86.

   I thought I would offer Diane's recipe for Greek Lemon Rice Soup as well. This recipe requires fewer ingredients, is simple to prepare and quite good. When I consider the idea of making Greek Lemon Rice Soup; I always go to this recipe.


   Do you make a great Greek Lemon Rice Soup? I would love to hear about it and take a peek at your recipe. Please drop me a line or leave a comment. I enjoy hearing from each of you.