Soupa Rizi Avgolemono

As I mentioned a few days ago, Alex and I were feeling rather under the weather.  Now we all know that when a man is exposed to any form of the treacherous Common Cold, they fall prey to a gravely serious illness widely known as “Man Flu”.

To date, (unfortunately for us), no complete cure has been found for the vicious and dilapidating “Man Flu”, and we must pander to our poor, injured little soldiers as they hover around death’s door. 

In times of such affliction and convalescence, a man will need his wife or mother, or preferably both, to be on 24 hour duty to mollycoddle him back into the land of the living.

Unfortunately for me Alex’s mother wasn’t to hand, but I did remember how to make the Cypriot version of the wondrous chicken soup.

I usually make my own spicy Asian inspired chicken soup, but Avgolemoni is perfect for colds, and for Alex this soup embodies TLC in a bowl.  Avgolemoni is a lovely silky soup, full of vitamin C, protein, and rice and it is very comforting indeed.  Usually for an entire family, you would use a whole chicken, however, I didn’t have one to hand so I defrosted some chicken legs that I had in the freezer for a rainy day.

I have spoken to several Cypriot women about the best way to make Avgolemoni, taken notes, and this is my version of the Cypriot classic.

Here’s what I used:

4 organic free range chicken legs

1 small carrot + 2 bay leaves + 1 small onion, peeled + pinch of whole black peppercorns

(as if you were making a normal chicken stock)

½ a mug of basmati rice, starch rinsed off

2 organic free range eggs

3 lemons

Sea salt and black pepper

Put the chicken legs, carrot, bay, onion, and peppercorns in a large pot, and cover entirely with cold water.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to medium so that it doesn’t bubble and overflow whilst it simmers away.

15 minutes later the chicken will be cooked, so remove the chicken and vegetables.

Now skim the scum off of the surface of the stock.

Take the skin off the chicken and discard.  It was important to keep the skin on during cooking, as it keeps the flesh moist, but we definitely don’t want to eat it now.

Take the meat off the bones, and place the bones back into the stock.  Put the rice into the stock and cook until just under done.  This should only take around 15 minutes.

In a bowl whisk the juice of two lemons together with two eggs.  Add a little of the chicken stock into this eggy mixture, whisking continuously.  Add ladle by ladle until the eggy mixture is warm.

Remove the bones from the stock pot.  Add the eggy mixture to the soup whisking continuously.

You will see the soup turn opaque to a creamy yellow colour.  This is exactly what you want. 

Check for seasoning now, add salt and pepper as necessary.  Simmer the soup for a few minutes, but do not boil.

Serve with the cooked chicken, extra wedges of lemon, and some warm crusty bread….

…….and of course with love….xoxo……..