Chicken Lemon Soup with Rice | Cookbook Review

Similar to the Greek soup avgolemono, this Turkish Chicken Lemon Soup with Rice is creamy and easy to whip up, even during those busy weeknights. Plus a review of the cookbook, The Weeknight Mediterranean Kitchen by Samantha Ferraro.

Chicken soup is one of those iconic dishes that can be found in almost any culture around the world. Maybe that’s why this beloved comfort food is known to feed the soul and cure the common cold. My kids positively love chicken noodle soup, which I make for them weekly for their school lunches.

Why this recipe is so great

When we visit our beloved mediterranean restaurant, they always order avgolemono, the Greek chicken soup made with eggs, lemon and rice. So when they saw this recipe for the Turkish version of chicken lemon soup with rice from my friend’s cookbook they begged me to make it.

Avgolemono is a classic Greek chicken soup made with rice. It is creamy from the addition of eggs stirred into it. And it is oh so delicious! It is super easy to make.

You can whip it for dinner in no time, for a warm and comforting meal. You can serve it as a first course when you are entertaining family or friends. This soup reheats beautifully and can be a wonderful lunch.

It is bright and vibrant and just a delicious soup.

Ingredients you need

• Chicken stock: You can use homemade or store-bought chicken stock. Just be sure it has great flavor or your soup will be bland.
• Basmati or jasmine rice: I always have basmati rice in my pantry, so I use it in this soup. You can also use jasmine rice.
• Cooked shredded chicken: If you do not have some leftover chicken to shred, quickly brown one chicken breast before you start your soup and shred it.
• Egg yolks: The yolks are used to thicken the soup and make it creamy. You do not need the whites.
• Lemon juice: You can use freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice.
• Seasonings: salt, black pepper, parsley

About Samantha Ferraro

I have known Samantha Ferraro from the blog The Little Ferraro Kitchen for years. She’s one of the first bloggers I befriended in my 10 years of blogging. Samantha is a girl after my heart, cooking amazing and incredible Mediterranean recipes that reflect her Jewish, Italian and Turkish background.

Samantha and I wrote our two cookbooks around the same time, following similar deadlines from our publishers. We followed each other’s progress and cheered each other as we each crossed the finish line and turned in our babies. And now, we are reviewing each other’s cookbooks!

Her book, The Weeknight Mediterranean Kitchen, is beautiful and filled with so many vibrant and amazing recipes. I hope you check it out for yourself.

Step-by-step directions

1. In a large pot, bring chicken stock to boil and add rice. Reduce to simmer, cover the pot and cook until rice is about halfway cooked, about 15 minutes

2. Add shredded chicken and continue cooking until rice is fully cooked, another 10 minutes. If you do not have already cooked chicken, just brown a chicken breast before you start your soup.

3. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks and lemon juice. Slowly stream in a ladle of hot broth, whisking at the same time to temper the eggs and prevent curdling. This is a very important step so work slowly.

4. Remove soup from heat and slowly stir egg mixture in, whisking continuously. Soup can be cooked on low heat to thicken, just do not bring to boil or you may curdle the eggs.

5. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley.

Disclosure: I was provided a cookbook to review, but no additional compensation. This post does include affiliate links. The opinions I expressed here are my own. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t blog about it!