Avgolemeno (Greek Lemon Egg Soup)

Avgolemono Soup

As you know blog readers, I love copy cat recipes; whenever I have something delicious to eat while dinning out it's only a matter of time before I try to make it myself. 

Every time I go to my favourite greek restaurant Estia, (which is embarrassingly often, so much so that the server that works there noticed when I coloured my hair) I always order the exact same thing: Grilled Panini and Soup; with a Lemoncello Martini of course!  I go back and forth between their Grilled Vegetable Panini, and the Basil Chicken one, but the soup always remains the same: Avgolemeno.

Since frequenting Estia, as much as a Starbucks, I've nailed the 'Pesto Chicken Panini" and the 'Grilled Vegetable Panini'; we even buy Estia's bottled olive oil, so we leave nothing to chance. See this related post: http://shortpresents.blogspot.com/2011/08/basil-chicken-panini.html

Now that I've gotten the panini making down pat (and you can too); I wanted to attempt to recreate the delicious Avgolemono Soup.  I had some left over chicken in the fridge, so I hit the internet ground running, and came across this recipe.

Slightly Adapted Recipe from: 

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1820/Greek-Chicken-And-Lemon-Soup-W102906.shtml

Ingredients: 

8 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup orzo pasta (used 1 cup)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into cubes)
3 eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (I double this)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
salt and white pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of garlic powder

2 tablespoon parsley

1 tablespoon sage

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon thyme

Directions: 

In a large saucepan, bring stock to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and add orzo, and spices. Cook uncovered until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Five minutes before pasta is done, add chicken. 


Place eggs in mixing bowl. Whisk eggs while adding lemon juice. Stir in zest. Whisking constantly, slowly pour a ladle of the hot stock into the egg mixture to temper. I usually add a couple spoonfuls just to make sure.


Reduce heat to very low. Then, while whisking the soup in pan, slowly pour in the egg mixture. Soup should thicken slightly. Add salt and pepper and garnish with parsley.

Nutritional Information:

285 calories, 5 grams fat, 28 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams proteinper serving. This recipe is low in fat.

Happy Thursday,

sp