Greek cuisine
Avgolemono
Αυγολέμονο
Chicken soup with rice, thickened with egg beaten into lemon juice.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 65 min
- Total
- 80 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
Ingredients
- Chicken — whole1.3 kg
- Short-grain rice120 g
- Eggs3
- Lemons3
- Onion1
- Carrot1
- Celery2
- Dill20 g
- Olive oil30 ml
- Salt and pepperto taste
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Cover the chicken with two and a half litres of cold water, bring it up and skim.
15 min
- 2
Add the onion, carrot and celery and simmer forty-five minutes.
47 min
- 3
Lift out the chicken, strain the broth and return it to the heat. Cook the rice in it for fifteen minutes.
18 min
- 4
Pull the meat into threads, discarding skin and bones.
12 min
- 5
Whisk the eggs with the lemon juice to an even froth in a separate bowl.
5 min
- 6
Ladle hot broth into the egg and lemon mixture, whisking without stopping, until the bowl warms up.
6 min
- 7
Pour the mixture back into the pot off the heat, return the meat and warm it through without boiling.
8 min
About the dish
The egg and lemon are tempered with hot broth: it is poured in a thin stream with constant whisking. Tipped into the pot the mixture curdles within a second.
Once the egg is in, the soup never boils. It is warmed to steaming at most; at a boil the protein sets and the soup goes cloudy and grainy.
The lemon is adjusted at the end by tasting. The acidity should be present but not sharp, and Greek households set the proportion by taste rather than by recipe.
Worth knowing
- — Take the pot off the heat before the egg goes in. Even a bare simmer sets the protein within seconds.
- — You need both hands: one pouring, the other whisking. It is easier with two people, and Greek kitchens do it that way.
- — A curdled soup cannot be rescued by straining. The only route is to start again with fresh broth.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 420 kcal
- Protein
- 38 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Carbs
- 28 g
More from Greece
- Moussaka — Aubergine, a meat sauce with cinnamon and a thick layer of béchamel, baked until it sets firm enough to cut.
- Horiatiki salad — The village salad, with no leaves in it: tomato, cucumber, onion, olives and a whole slab of feta on top.
- Souvlaki — Pork on skewers in lemon, oregano and olive oil, cooked fast over a fierce heat.