This is my take on a classic Greek favorite. It’s one way I use up the remains of a rotisserie chicken. It’s also one of my favorite go-to soups when I’m sick. The combination of chicken soup with all the lemon in it always helps me get over a cold extra fast (at least I think so!)
INGREDIENTS
- Remains of a rotisserie chicken and 5 chicken drumsticks (or 1 whole chicken, raw)
- Enough water to cover the chicken plus 3 additional cups to add later
- 3 lemons
- 1 cup brown rice
- 3 jumbo eggs
- Salt, to taste
- Fresh dill for garnish
DIRECTIONS
In a large stew pot, place your chicken and cover completely with water. Bring to a boil and simmer on low-medium heat for about 1 hour. This makes the chicken stock for the stew.
After making the stock, strain out the chicken and save the stock, bringing it back to a simmer. Add the brown rice while you prepare the chicken. Simmer for about 30 minutes. About half-way through, slice one of the lemons and let it simmer in the chicken stock and rice.
Strip all the chicken from the bones. Remove any skin. Throw out the bones and skin, and dice up the chicken. Fish out the lemon slices from the stock and add in the diced chicken. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Juice the remaining two lemons, straining out any seeds.
When the rice is fully cooked, add the additional 3 cups of water and salt to taste. Bring the soup to a boil and then turn the heat to low, keeping the soup hot. In a bowl, crack the three eggs, whisking them until frothy. Then slowly whisk in the lemon juice. As a final step, carefully take two ladles of the hot broth and whisk them slowly into lemon-egg mixture to temper the egg (this prevents it from curdling in the hot soup, giving it a creamy texture instead of an egg-drop texture). Once you have tempered the lemon-egg mixture, whisk it slowly into the soup. Keep the soup on low heat and continue whisking for 3-5 minutes.
Immediately remove the soup from the heat. Serve with some fresh dill as garnish.