Avgolemono Recipe

Avgolemono originates from Spanish Jewish people who left Spain during the Inquisition. Some of these Jewish people went to Greece, and this sauce like dish was used in favor of citrus (which was hard to come by in Europe.) Over time, the sauce was turned into a soup. It is now a widely enjoyed dish today.

This recipe makes an easy to modify version of Avgolemono. You could skip the onion (I do) but you don't have to.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped onion (Optional)
  • 1/2 cup of orzo (I would use rice though)
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt (You can always add more but you probably should not.)
  • 1 pound skinless chicken breast (diced)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice (absolute minimum, I would use as much lemon as you can get away with)

Cooking Directions

  1. Boil a pot of water with added salt and cook the rice. Go off what is says on the bag.
  2. Get a bowl and put the chicken stock and water in there. I would also add salt. Bring to a bare simmer.
  3. Drain the rice and then add it to the chicken stock.
  4. Add the chicken and then cook it from 5 minutes to 8.
  5. Break the eggs, put them in a bowl and then beat and whisk the eggs. After that, temper the eggs and add lemon. Add more lemon as necessary because you can never have too much lemon. Then put the eggs into the mix from earlier. After whisking that mixure more, you can then try your Avgolemono.

Recipe Tips

In general (do not be surprised if this has a different outcome):

  • Adding more orzo/rice will both make the soup a little thicker and also make it slighly less lemon tasting.
  • If you put too much lemon in it (which is impossible but just in case) you can add more water or chicken stock. Both will greatly reduce the lemon, so be careful.
  • Finally, if you do add lemon after you finished the batch, please stir the lemon into the avgolemono. If you do not, you could end up having a lemon hotspot and no more lemon in the rest of the soup.

Watch How It's Made

Avgolemono