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Today Sylvester, Jake, Sophia, Chiarina & Nicky make an entree Sylvester is well known for, — Sylvester’s famous  Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon) Soup.

Avgolemono is a Greek soup made with egg and lemon juice mixed with broth, heated until they thicken but before they boil and curdle. Avgolémono translates to “egg-lemon,” in English.

As a soup, it usually starts with chicken broth (though meat, fish, or vegetable broths may sometimes be used). Typically, rice or soup pasta, such as orzo, are cooked in the broth with thin strips of meat (chicken, for example) before a mixture of eggs and lemon is added. Its consistency varies from near-stew to near-broth. It is important to remove the mixture from the heat before adding the egg-lemon mix, in order to avoid curdling. The safest way to prevent curdling is to remove a cup of broth from the pot and let cool a little, then gradually add the egg and lemon juice while beating the mixture vigorously with a fork or whisk; once the broth is frothy, it is gently added back to the pot and the soup is served immediately. Leftover soup will invariably curdle, even if refrigerated or rewarmed. Its taste will not change but the texture and mouth-feel cannot be recovered

Ingredients:

• 1  5lb Chicken (Whole)
• 1 Medium Onion, Chop in large pieces
• 2 Medium Carrots Chopped
• 2 Celery Sticks Chopped
• 10 Sprigs of Parsley
• 10 Peppercorns
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 3/4 Cup of Rice
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Lemons
• salt /pepper

Cooking Time:

(2 + 1/4 hours ) Two hours and 15 minutes; but it’s worth the wait — promise.

Food Prep

• Chop the Onion into large pieces.
• Chop the Carrots into large pieces.
• Chop the Celery Sticks up in small pieces.
• Squeeze the Lemons

Step 1: Make the Base

1. Put Chicken in large Pot and fill with water so that Chicken is almost covered.
2. Take out Chicken and then bring water to a boil
3. Put Chicken back into Pot
4. Add Onion (Chop in large pieces), Carrots (Chopped in large pieces), Celery Sticks (Chopped), Sprigs of Parsley, Peppercorns, and Bay Leaves.
5. Bring it all back to a boil, then drop it down to simmer for 1 and 3/4 hours.

Step 2: Pull the Chicken and Make the Rice

1. Get another pot and put a strainer on top of it, put paper towel in the strainer.
2. Remove the chicken, and vegetables from the Base leaving only the stock.
3. Pour the stock through the strainer (covered with paper towels) this will filter out the fat.
4. Bring broth back to a boil and add Rice.
5. Bring Rice to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer for 12 minutes.
6. While the Rice is cooking, skin the chicken and pull it apart — chop it to bits. Only use the parts you like the best. You want to get 2 cups of chopped up chicken for the Avgolemono — but a 5 pound chicken will give you a lot more than that so save the extra meat for other things.

Step 3: Make the Avgolemono

1. When the Rice hits the 12 minute mark start the Avgolemono
2. Squeeze the Lemon to get all the juice out — use 1 and 1/2 juicy lemons.
3. Start beating the eggs and the lemon together in a mixing bowl.
4. WITHOUT STOPPING BEATING — Add a ladle of broth to the egg & lemon juice.
5. WITHOUT STOPPING BEATING — Add another  ladle of broth to the egg, lemon juice & broth.
6. Repeat until 3 and 1/2 ladels of broth has been added.
7. REMEMBER DON’T STOPPING BEATING the mixture.
8. STILL BEATING Now remove the Pot with the Rice from the Stove and pour the Avgolemono mixture into the rice / broth pot.
9. Ok — enough with the BEATING — YOU CAN STOP.
10. Add the cut up vegetables and the 2 cups of chicken back in.
11. Don’t forget to add the salt and pepper to taste.
12. in at the end.

Presentation:

Some people say that if you let a soup sit overnight it’s tastes better that all the flavors inter-mingle together.  This is not really the case with Avgolemono — it’s meant to be served immediately.

2 Responses to “How to Make Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon) Soup”

1. Br. Karekin (Ric) Yarian, BSG Says:
   November 12th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

   Makes my mouth water just looking at it! I can still smell it and remember it so well. I think I’ll make this at home tomorrow!

2. Bell Arevalos Says:
   April 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 pm

   Nice one, there is actually some good points on this post some of my associates may find this relevant, will send them a link, thank you.

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