This is one of my favourite soups to make. We had roast chicken this week and whenever I have carcass, I make broth - and nothing beats this Greek classic made with rich chicken broth from scratch. The original recipe calls for the addition of Orzo (which is to die for) but it's January and we're watching what we eat so Paleo's back in this household. In order to make the dish more filling, I've kept the celery and carrots used to make the stock and serve it alongside the soup.
INGREDIENTS
serves 4 bowlfuls of soup (or more)
BROTH
Note: You can always use chicken stock, but it won't taste the same
1 whole organic chicken
1 chicken carcass (leftover from roast)
8 sticks organic celery
1kg organic carrots
6 bay leaves
3 bouquet garni (store bought or make your own)
EGG & LEMON MIXTURE
Note: Make this at the very end right before you serve the soup
4 large organic eggs
3 lemons' juice (freshly squeezed)
1 - 2 extra lemons to squeeze (optional)
pinch salt & pepper
MAKE THE MAGIC HAPPEN
- Put a litre of water to boil in large stock pot. Throw your chicken carcass in with the bay leaves and bouquet garnis. Chop your celery into 2cm chunks and carrots into 1cm chunks (I wouldn't recommend going any smaller as we want the veggies to retain their shape whilst slow cooking the broth). Toss celery and carrots into the stock pot.
- Prep your chicken. Remove the two legs, wings and breasts. Here's how. Drop the chicken pieces and the bones/carcass into the stock pot and that's it for the broth! It's your choice to leave the skin on or not. I leave it on because it adds even more flavour to the broth and use a jar trick to get rid of all the gunky grease that floats to the top, then toss the stock bit back into the broth and throw away the fat. Cover and leave to boil over low to medium heat - I leave it for at least 4 hours. Make this dish ahead and leave it boiling until meal time so that all the herbs and bones and flavours integrates with the broth.
- Taste the broth and add salt, bring the temperature down to very low heat. Remove a few chicken pieces and pull the meat off the bone and set it into bowls.
- Whisk your eggs and freshly squeezed lemon juice in a bowl. Add a ladle of chicken broth (room temperature) into your mixture and whisk, then add another ladle and whisk. Now slowly add this mixture into the rest of your stock broth and turn off the heat. Mix well and spoon the broth into the bowls on top of the meat.
- Crack black pepper on top and serve with extra wedges of lemon for those who like their Avgolemono extra lemony.