Avgolemono – My Way
Posted by terrepruitt on April 10, 2019
I am not sure if I have said this before in other posts, but for 38 years of my life I did not really care for Greek Food. I was not a fan of tomatoes and it seemed like there was a lot of tomatoes in the Greek food here. When I went to Greece my mind was changed. There wasn’t tomatoes in everything and I liked the way they cooked their food. Although I still believed I didn’t like Greek Lemon Soup. I am not a fan of the lemon flavor for the most part so I never tried it. When there was opportunities to try it there was always either rice, celery, or carrots in the soup in some combination. I do not like rice in soup and I am not a fan of water-laden carrots. I do not like celery. One day we were at a local restaurant and my husband ordered the Greek Lemon Soup. Even though he “doesn’t share food” he let me have a spoonful – it was delicious. It was simple, just chicken and pasta! Ahhhh . . . . I found some Avgolemono I liked! So I decided to make some. I found a lot of recipes online with celery and carrots and rice in some combination, so I didn’t look past the ingredients. I wasn’t finding one to use. I knew I wanted to use pasta. I had purchased some orzo online with the sole purpose of making Avgolemono, but I hadn’t planned on making it the night I ended up making it. I did not make a special trip to the store for ingredients. So I made the soup with what I had on hand, which was a limited number of eggs and canned chicken. Just to put it out there, there is NO CELERY, NO CARROTS, and NO RICE in this soup.
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Avgolemono – My Way
–1 tablespoon olive oil
–1/4 onion
–two cans of chicken (a little over 3 cups)
–garlic salt
–2 tablespoons butter
–3/4 cup orzo (going forward 1 cup)
–8 cups chicken broth
–7 eggs
–4 lemons / 3/4 cups lemon juice (more if you like it really lemony)
Juice the lemons. Set aside. (Zest one if you want some zest for garnish.)
Chop the onion. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Cook the onion then add the chicken to the pan to heat it up a bit*. Sprinkle some garlic salt on chicken while stirring.
In a large pot, melt the butter, then add the orzo to toast it. Add the chicken broth to the orzo. Bring to a boil. Then let simmer.
While the orzo is cooking in the broth mix the eggs together with a hand mixer. Mix the eggs at least 3 minutes on low allowing a lot of air to get into them making them frothy. After the “at least 3 minutes,” add the lemon juice slowly while mixing the eggs.
Once the orzo is cooked (about 15 minutes – test to verify) add the egg mixture to the broth BUT not all at once. Put a little bit of broth into the eggs while mixing. Keep adding broth a little at a time to slowly bring the eggs up to the temperature of the broth. Once the eggs are tempered add the mixture to the broth. Stir the egg mixture and broth together. Once it is all incorporated add in the chicken. Mix it all together. Then taste. Is it lemony enough for you? If not add more lemon juice. Or add some lemon zest as garish to each bowl – this gives it an extra zing!
*if using raw chicken cook it thoroughly
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I had typed this up to use as my recipe to make the soup. I figured I would need to play with it a lot in order to get it to what I was looking for, but nope. THIS. IS. IT. Oh, except I will use more orzo . . . perhaps a cup maybe more. But I really think that the orzo is all that I will adjust.
Originally I wrote the recipe with salt and pepper as ingredients, but I did not add any additional salt besides the garlic salt. And my husband added pepper to his bowl, but said it did not really add anything to the soup so he would not be using it, so I didn’t even try.
I am going to check in with my uncle who, I am told, makes Avgolemono all the time. I want to know what he does. Although, my husband and I really loved this and so for the most part I will probably just stick to this. But sometimes it is nice to try things a little differently so that is ALWAYS an option.
How about you? Do you like Avgolemono? Have you found a place that serves one you like? Do you make it? How do you make it?
joan meyer said
OMG!!! You are making me soooo hungry!! And I’m glad you put it on FB also!
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terrepruitt said
Yay. Go make some or go to John’s or Bill’s and get some! Thanks for checking it out here and commenting!!!
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Sean Crawley said
I made a similar similar soup once with fish and fish broth instead of chicken, it was YUM. So, I am definitely going to give this one a go, thanks.
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terrepruitt said
Well, people often put lemon on fish so I can see how people might like that. (I don’t eat fish so I will defer to you.)
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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Catherine B Cooper said
Strangely enough, I like lemon on fish and some seafood, but NOT in soup. Weird, I know. I know that I don’t care for canned chicken, so I would make this with fresh chicken. Sounds yummy.
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, I didn’t try Avgolemono for years – until just recently – because I don’t like lemon. And I think I tried my husband’s order first. We were at a restaurant and he got some and I tried it and liked it. Then when we went again, I ordered my own. I liked it, but then I tried it at another restaurant and I didn’t like it . . . so it can’t have rice.
I don’t think it is weird you not liking lemon in your soup. I don’t like lemon pretty much at all, but I like this soup. I don’t care for any ol’ canned chicken either . . . we bought one brand and I just threw it out . . . it has to be Kirkland. I used some pre-sliced chicken before, too and that was good. A lot of people boil a whole chicken to make the soup, but I don’t deal with whole animals and animal bones. But I bet that makes the soup even yummier! As I say, a recipe is just a guide, that is one reason why I call my recipe page a “recipe” page because it is just a starting point for one to make the dish their own. When I first started making this I used less lemons than I do now. It could be that for one that doesn’t like lemons in their soup they just us less lemons . . . it is the Greek’s version of chicken noodle soup and it is yummy!
Thank you for reading and commenting! XO
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Joan Meyer said
haha…… I put as much lemon as I can in all the soups I make!!! Really kicks it up! But then I do like all citrus …… but not so much whole oranges….. but LOVE love orange and chocolate together!!! But that’s another story!
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Joan Meyer said
Oh ya….. after tasing that soup …. years ago!…… I started my “fixer” of straight chicken broth filled with lots of lemon juice, in a mug!! Best thing if starting to get a cold! … lots and lots of it!! (decided I didn’t need the rice or chicken…… then dropped the egg…. voila!
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terrepruitt said
Yup, chicken soup is supposed to be great for colds. Even though I don’t put veggies in mine Avgolemono, I am going to think of it as great for colds! And there, you have it, also . . . . just chicken broth and lemon is a fixer! Which when you aren’t feeling well, is probably a lot easier to pull together than making Avgolemono.
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terrepruitt said
I started out not using a lot of lemon, but I have starting using more. It could also depend on the lemons one gets. Meyer lemons are sweeter than some lemons. I am happy to be making and eating Avgolemono! I pretty much turned my nose up at Greek Food all my life, so I am happy to be liking it and eating it now.
I love oranges. I didn’t think I loved those “balls” of chocolate that have orange in them. One sat in my cupboard for a long time. Then one day I wanted something sweet and that was all there was. It was pretty good!
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