Liquid Gold
My friends, family and followers, even years post pandemic, ask me if I’m ever going to bring back Covid Kitchen - a live facebook ‘show’ I did sharing favorite easy recipes and often pantry challenges during quarantine. So, when deciding on a topic, it only made sense to share one of my favorite, easy recipes, with a bit of a story about what it means to me.
Avgolemono (Greek lemon rice soup) is liquid gold and warms my heart as much as my tummy. Growing up, it was served at every corner coney island restaurant all over the Detroit Area. George’s Coney Island, 2 miles from our condo, was my favorite.
Mom and I lived solo through my high school years, and I remember being thrilled the nights we’d head to George’s - just the two of us. My order was always the same. Grilled chicken gyro with extra tzatziki and a cup of Avgolemono. Mom ordered a large greek salad, and often a cup of gold too. *Message me if you want my easy, healthy tzatziki recipe*
Not until I started making limoncello, decades later, did I finally start making my own soup. Limoncello needs only the very outer layer of lemon peel, leaving dozens of lemons full of juice! Avgolemono was the perfect solution to not let that juice go to waste. Now, my Avgolemono is just as much of a yearly tradition as my limoncello - and, bonus, it only has eight real, whole food ingredients. *My limoncello recipe will be in a later blog and ironically, it is also liquid gold.*
I rarely use a recipe, so when I share one, I always give license to season to taste. I tend to use much more lemon than is listed here - and my guests always ask for seconds.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 cup finely chopped (or shredded) carrots
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup rice
Salt and pepper
2 cups cooked chunked or shredded chicken - 2 cups is a minimum - I often use a whole rotisserie chicken.
½ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 large eggs
In a large pot or dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium-high. Add carrots, celery and onions, toss together to saute briefly .
Add the chicken broth. Raise the heat to high. Once the liquid has come to a rolling boil, add the rice, salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender. Now stir in the cooked chicken.
To prepare the egg-lemon sauce, in a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and eggs. While whisking add 2 ladles-full of the broth from the cooking pot (this helps temper the eggs). Once fully combined, add the sauce to the chicken soup and stir. Remove from the heat immediately.
Serve hot with your favorite bread. Enjoy!