Chicken Rice & Vegetable Lemon Soup

Serves 4

(Image courtesy Carla - Askville)


It must be a good 20 years ago, when I first tasted the flavor of lemon in a soup. It was such a delicious experience, I of course immediately went overboard and squeezed not only "my" lemon slice into the broth, but those of my two friends who were having lunch with me.

I was in California, on a business trip. The waitress who witnessed this, had a wide grin on her face and asked me if I wanted to improve on the flavor even more. As naive as I was, I acknowledged an "of course." She excused herself and said she would be right back with secret ingredients.

I'll finish the story about how I discovered this soup...a little later.
For a truer Avgolemono (Greek egg-lemon) soup, omit the carrots, celery, onions and roux.

Guten Appetit…!

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Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken stock (1)
• 1/3 cup long-grain white rice – uncooked
• 2 large carrots – sliced
• 2 large celery stalks – sliced
• ½ cup onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup chicken – browned and sliced into ¼ inch thick by 1 inch long strips
• 2 tablespoons butter (2)
• 2 tablespoons flour (2)
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• lemon or lime slices as desired
• parsley as garnish (optional) – fresh chopped

Footnotes:
(1) If a fresh, homemade chicken stock is not available, using a quality stock like Swanson's will work just fine or make one with 6 cups of water and 3 large Knorr chicken bouillon.
(2) I prefer the thicker and cremier quality that a roux can contribute to this soup. Omit it for a more traditional style.

Preparation

1. In a large saucepan, combine chicken broth, rice, carrots, celery and onion.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice and vegetables are tender.
4. Stir in chicken.
5. Remove pot from heat
6. Then, in a small saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour until smooth – like a roux
7. Gradually add 2 cups of soup broth to the roux and slow simmer until slightly thickened, stirring constantly until velvety smooth – 5 minutes
8. In a small bowl, beat the eggs until frothy
9. Gradually add lemon juice into the eggs
10. Whisk approximately 1 cup of the hot soup broth into the eggs – stirring constantly
11. Slowly add 2 cups of thickened broth-butter-flour sauce into the large pot of soup.
12. Very slowly add egg-lemon-broth mixture into the large pot of soup – stirring constantly. Do not do this if your soup is boiling or very hot or your eggs will split. (The large pot of soup should have been removed from the burner per above instructions and cooled for approximately 5 minutes – you do not want an egg-drop soup)
13. After all is added to the large pot of soup, heat gently until soup thickens enough to coat a spoon -- do not boil.
14. Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with lemon.

Serve

1. Ladle about 1-½ to 2 cups of soup per serving
2. Garnish with parsley, squeeze ¼ (or less) lemon or lime, salt and pepper to taste

Laß es Dir schmecken...!