Soup · Greece
Avgolemono
Greek chicken soup thickened with egg and lemon.
About the dish
Avgolemono means egg and lemon in Greek, and the name covers both a sauce and the soup made with it. The soup is chicken broth with rice or orzo, thickened at the end with eggs beaten with lemon juice. Related egg and lemon sauces are found in Sephardic Jewish, Turkish and Arab kitchens, and the Greek Easter soup magiritsa is finished the same way.
The technique is tempering. The eggs and lemon juice are whisked together, then hot broth is beaten in a ladle at a time to warm them gently. Only then does the mixture go back into the pot, off the heat or over very low heat, while the cook stirs until the soup turns silky and pale yellow. If it boils after the eggs go in, they scramble into shreds.
The flavor is a balance between the sour of the lemon and the richness of the yolks and the chicken, with the rice adding body. Some cooks use whole eggs, some only yolks, and some whip the whites first for a lighter, frothier soup. It is a common meal for anyone feeling unwell.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Avgolemono in Night Kitchen
In the game, Avgolemono is a soup in the recipe book. A plate is named Avgolemono when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient, and tastes the part: sour 2 or more.
Ingredients
- Chicken thighs
- Eggs
- Lemon
Technique
- Simmer
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Odile (2 stars), Mr. Vane (2 stars) and Captain (2 stars) most.
More soups
- French onion soupFranceOnions cooked down until mahogany, simmered in stock, under a lid of bread and melted Gruyère.
- New England clam chowderNew England, United StatesClams, potatoes and onion in a creamy broth, the white chowder of the New England coast.
- Miso soupJapanMiso stirred into hot broth with soft tofu and scallions.
- GazpachoAndalusia, southern SpainCold Andalusian soup of raw tomatoes and cucumber, sharpened with vinegar.
- PhoNorthern VietnamVietnamese beef and rice noodle soup, its broth built on charred ginger and warm spices.
- Tom kha gaiThailandThai chicken soup in coconut milk, soured with lime.
- CongeeChina and across East and Southeast AsiaRice simmered until it breaks down into a silky porridge, with ginger and scallions.