Another stop on the world-wide tour for the FACCC2 60-recipe challenge! Today, the wuff lands in Greece.

Avgolemono is literally egg & lemon. This Greek favorite is a lemony chicken broth type soup, thickened with eggs and rice. Some versions use Orzo pasta instead of rice, but wuff went with the rice version here. The recipe below is a combination of Chef John’s Food Wishes and The Test Kitchen’s versions, adapted for the Instant Pot type cooker available at the shop kitchen.

Vrgh used Chef John’s idea of adding some sautéed onion, so the sweetness balances some of the lemon tartness. And wuffy used the Test Kitchen idea of blending cooked rice with the eggs so that the amylose of the rice would keep the eggs from curdling from the heat. Vrghr also used their idea of reducing the number of egg whites to keep the thickening but reduce the “eggy” flavor.

Other cooks using the Orzo method also mentioned use of Corn Starch slurry to thicken the soup further, if required. We didn’t need that, but you may want to add this if you need more thickening.

This was a flavorful, very thick and luxurious, but not too heavy soup. Quite a prominent Lemon flavor, but with a very nice foundation of chicken soup, with some nice complexity. Definitely a delicious result with a lovely, silky mouth feel!

It certainly turned out thicker than Vrghr expected! It was nearly a thick chowder or stew more than a soup. This was due to the amount of short grain rice used (wuff used 2 Cups rice in 10 Cups of broth), along with the rice used in blending the eggs (There was an extra Cup of rice blended with the eggs).

If you would enjoy a thinner, more ‘soupy’ version, reduce the rice added to the soup to ¾ - 1 C, and only use about ½ C of rice in the blender.

Note: The Lemon flavor is a key to this soup. If at all possible, use Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice instead of any bottled type. You will be well-rewarded in the result!

BON APPETITE!

(Made about 12-16 servings)
Ingredients:
8-10 Cups Chicken Broth (Packaged or Better than Bullion soup base)
2 LB Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Onion (or large shallot), finely diced
1 Carrot, chopped
2 stalks Celery, chopped
2 TBS Olive Oil
¾-1 C Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
Lemon Zest (peeled strips) of 1 Lemon (about 10 strips)
2 sprigs Fresh Dill
2 Sprigs fresh Parsley
2 tsp minced Garlic
2 tsp Greek Seasoning Spice/herb mix
½ tsp ground Coriander
1-2 C short-grain Rice (or Orzo pasta), uncooked
1 C pre-cooked Rice (I used some leftover Japanese takeout rice) (optional)
3 whole Eggs
3 Egg Yolks

Additional Lemon Zest (grated), chopped parsley, and Olive Oil to garnish

Directions:
Set the instant pot to Brown/Sautee, high heat, and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the diced onion and cook until sweet and translucent. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook another minute or two, until the garlic becomes fragrant (do not brown the garlic!).

Slice the chicken breasts in half long-ways (makes shredding them easier later)

Add the chicken broth, lemon peels, parsley, dill, coriander, Greek seasoning, rice, and chicken breasts. Switch pot to Pressure Cook mode, high pressure, 5 minutes time. Cover with the lid and set vent to Pressure setting

Allow pot to pressure cook until done, and do a quick release (set vent to release)

Remove the cooked chicken breasts and set aside to cool for shredding. Using a slotted spoon or fine-mesh strainer, remove the lemon peels, and parsley and dill sprigs and discard

Using a fine-mesh strainer, dish up about 1 Cup or so of the cooked rice, and add it to a blender with the egg yolks. Blend until smooth. Optionally, you can use pre-cooked rice like Vrghr did instead of dipping it from the pot. If you do so, you may wish to reduce the amount of uncooked rice you add to the broth to end with a thinner soup

Set the pot back to Brown/Sautee mode, Medium heat, and add the blended rice-egg mixture back into the soup along with about 3/4 C of the fresh lemon juice. Allow to come to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up. (NOTE – if it doesn’t get thick enough for you, you can make a bit of corn starch-cool water slurry and mix that in until it thickens to desired state. Be aware that it will thicken a bit further as the remaining rice continues to break down, so stop a bit short of the desired thickness.)

While pot is coming to a simmer, shred/pull the chicken apart with a pair of forks

Taste for flavor and refresh seasonings or add more lemon juice as needed to balance flavors. We ended up using a bit more than 1 C of fresh lemon juice. Add the shredded chicken and allow to warm in the simmering broth for a couple minutes

Serve in bowls, garnished with a drizzle of really good olive oil, and a little grating of lemon zest. Optionally, add a tiny sprinkle of chopped parsley leaves. Side with a nice wedge of Italian bread with a drizzle of olive oil on it

!DEVOUR!