digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Make avgolemono, a Greek lemon chicken rice soup, using condensed chicken broth, water, rice, eggs, and lemon juice, tempering the eggs with hot broth so they don't scramble. The host calls it a simple soup made from pantry staples, and she also describes it as a Greek version of "kosher Jewish penicillin."
Key Points
- The base is canned condensed chicken broth (the host uses Manischewitz), diluted with about eight cups of water and a little kosher salt.
- Rice is added after the broth boils; the host uses already-cooked rice, though she notes uncooked rice would simmer about 20 minutes.
- Three whisked eggs combined with lemon juice are the soup's thickening and flavoring element.
- The key technique is tempering: a ladleful of hot broth is added gradually to the egg-lemon mixture before it returns to the pot.
- The soup is reheated gently to thicken and should not be brought back to a boil.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Add about 8 cups of water and a little kosher salt to the condensed chicken broth in a pot, then bring it to a boil.
- If using uncooked rice, add 1 cup of rice once the broth boils, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes. If using cooked rice, add it directly to the boiling soup.
- Whisk 3 eggs together with lemon juice in a separate bowl.
- Remove the pot from the heat, then slowly add one ladleful of hot broth to the egg-lemon mixture while whisking constantly.
- Slowly pour the egg-lemon-broth mixture back into the pot, stirring as you go.
- Return the pot to low heat just to warm through and thicken; do not boil.
- The host attributes this tempering tip to her friend Rebecca, who warned that adding all the eggs to the hot soup at once would scramble them, resulting in a different recipe.
Bottom Line
Avgolemono is a quick, pantry-based soup whose success depends mainly on tempering the eggs correctly and keeping the soup below a boil at the end.
