Avgolemono Soup With Chicken, Rice & Kale

Last Sunday I cooked a more traditional dinner for over 30 guests (more to be written soon) and one of the Greek classics that was enjoyed was Chicken Avgolemono Soup. This soup is our panacea for the common cold. It’s Greek comfort food and anytime I’m feeling a cold coming on, I have Avgolemono soup.

This soup means Egg/Lemon soup (Avgolemono) and it’s made by slowly adding hot stock into a bowl of vigorously whisked eggs & lemon juice so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs. The slow tempering of hot liquid into the egg/lemon mixture prevents the scrambled egg disaster from occurring.

My family prefers using Fide or vermicelli noodles but rice is more commonly made by Greeks. Aalways, the key to a great soup is using homemade stock. Leftover chicken or turkey carcasses make for good stocks or you can ask your butcher for chicken carcasses and use those.

After you’ve made your own stock, this soup is very easy and the only twist(s) I’ve added is to add some finely diced celery and carrots along with some chopped kale to life the dish’s presentation and add more goodness.

If you’re patient and slowly add the hot soup into your egg/lemon mixture, you have no worries and you’ll have made your very own Greek comfort in  bowl – Chicken Avgolemono Soup.

Avgolemono Soup With Chicken, Rice & Kale

10 cups of Chicken or Turkey Stock
1/4 cup finely diced celery

1/4 cup finely diced carrot

1/4 cup Arborio/Carolina rice

chicken meat harvested from chicken/turkey carcasses
salt to taste

1/4 cup Cookin’ Greens chopped kale

Avgolemeno

2 eggs
juice of 1 lemon

1. Bring your stock to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add the celery, carrots, rice into the boiling stock. Boil for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Start making your Avgolemeno by adding your eggs and lemon juice in a big bowl and whisk them together.
2. Take the pot of soup off the element. While whisking, s-l-o-w-l-y add one ladle at a time of the soup to the Avgolemeno mixture (bout 4-5 ladles) to temper the heat of the Agvolemeno).
3. Add the contents of of the bowl back into the soup and stir in the reserved chicken meat and chopped kale.  Let the soup rest for about 5 minutes.
4. Adjust seasoning with salt and serve with cracked black pepper,  crackers or homemade bread.