Monday, January 25, 2010

Avgolemono: Your New Favorite Chicken Soup

Dudes... avgolemono is your new favorite comforting chicken noodle soup. It's a Greek chicken soup with lemon juice and orzo pasta, and it's awesome.

I first tried and liked the avgolemono at a Greek lunch joint near my office (can't beat the "Greek value lunch": cup of avgolemono, mini Greek salad and a fresh baked pita), but I had an inkling that I might be able to make it better... while theirs is tasty, the shredded chicken is a little dry and I don't love the celery and carrots they put in it. So I Googled some recipes, and decided this version looked really simple and really promising. It was definitely a winner!
The lemon juice is mixed with whipped up egg whites and yolks, and then is tempered with the chicken broth. The result is a super lemony, super creamy, super silky broth with soft orzo floating in it. I didn't have enough chicken broth in the pantry, so I supplemented with veggie broth and turkey broth leftover from Thanksgiving. Yum.

In order to keep the chicken moist, I roasted a couple bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper, a la Ina Garten. Took the skin off, pulled the chicken off the bone, chopped it into bite-sized pieces and dropped it in the soup at the last minute. Dry chicken problem solved!

Anywho... please give this soup a try!