Eric's Recipe

Greek Egg-Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Category: Recipes

A small roaster/fryer chicken; 4 to 5.5 pounds. Remove neck and giblets. Remove any fatty tissue.
Two large onions; quartered.
Celery stalks, your choice how many.
Two or three carrots. (You'll pitch the veggies after the broth is formed)
Chicken broth; two quarts (any brand will do)
Water; two or three quarts.
Olive oil (just coat the stock pot for easy cleaning after)
One half to three-quarters of a box Orzo pasta.
Three eggs
Four or five lemons

Cut the onions in quarters, half the carrots lengthwise and cut the celery to fit the pot. Place the celery stalks and carrots on the bottom of the stock pot and place the chicken on them. Keeps the meat from sticking to a hot surface early in the cooking. Place the onion pieces around the bird. Add the broth and water Place on low simmer and cook until the meat falls off the bones. Usually two to three hours. Remove the chicken (good luck, it falls apart) and set aside. Remove the carrots, onion and celery and discard. Pour the broth through some sort of sieve/strainer into another pot.

Take the chicken meat off the bones and put into a bowl for later. I'm pretty fussy what I use meat-wise. Stay away from any skin, fatty stuff, etc. Plenty of meat on those birds. Boil the strained broth and cook the Orzo in it.

Avgolemono is Greek for "egg-lemon."

Beat the three eggs for four minutes (electric beater). Add the juice of the lemons, continue to beat the mixture. Note: you can also zest one or two of the lemons for extra flavor.

Add one cup of the chicken broth (hot) while beating; add a second hot cup.

Add the meat of the chicken to the broth and orzo; stir in the Avgolemono.

You are done. Enjoy! This freezes well.