I've made this soup numerous times over the years. Traditionally it's a chicken and rice soup that is lemon flavored and finished with eggs that gives it a light custard base. While I did that for this soup, I have in the past made it differently. When I wanted to mimic this but not go through all the steps, I would take a well done chicken broth, and thicken it with a slurry, flavor it lemons and dill, and then finish it with pasta or rice.
For this version I wanted to make it traditional, with some slight variation. I decided to start with a whole chicken that I lightly roasted, and then finished it with a blend of orzo and rice for texture. The end result was an egg thickened soup that is rich with tender chicken that has a bite of soft rice and orzo.
When I make this soup I break it into multiple steps. It seems like it's harder, but the reasoning is every step enhances the next. I roast the chicken first to get the drippings and the bones for broth. Then I season the broth and poach the vegetables in it to further enhance the flavor. After that I begin to cook the base vegetables in a new soup pan to get the caramelization so that I can add that flavor to the base of the soup. It sounds like more work, and I guess it is a little bit, but the end result is a soup that gives you what you are looking for.
A quick note on this soup is that it is dill heavy. Dill is one of those herbs that when used too much, ruins every dish. It is worse with dried dill, but even fresh can overwhelm. As long as you don't substitute dry dill for fresh in this recipe, and keep close to my instructions, you'll have an awesome soup to eat for yourself, or share with others.
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade
Chicken, whole 1 ea
Garlic Confit 1/4 cup
Greek Yogurt 1/4 cup
Avenue Spice 1 T
Preserved Lemon* 3 oz
Parsley, chopped 1 T
Soup
Celery, diced 1 bunch
Carrots, diced 5 ea
Chicken Stock 4 qt
Dill 2 oz + garnish
Preserved Lemon, chopped* 1 oz
Avenue Spice 1 T
Paprika 2 tsp
Garlic, sliced 6 ea
Lemon, zest and juice 1-2 ea + tsp to finish
Onion, diced 2 ea
Rice, uncooked 1 cup
Orzo 1 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Water 2 qt
On Pick Up, Per 2 Soup
eggs 2 ea
egg yolk 1 ea
*I like using preserved lemons because they have a sweet salty flavor and are still nice and bright, you can substitute regular lemons and juice for this, but you'll need to adjust the salt content a touch
Garnish
fresh dill, cracked black pepper
Method of Procedure
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor, or use a still blender to make it a puree.
Liberally coat your chicken as well as putting the marinade inside the cavity. Place it on a roasting pan and into the oven once preheated.
Cook for 45 minutes until almost cooked through.*
Remove from the oven and once cold, pull the meat from the bones reserving the bones to fortify your broth, as well as any of the pan drippings.**
Put your chicken stock, preserved lemon, dill, chicken bones and pan drippings into a soup pot and bring it up to a simmer for about an hour.
While the broth is being fortified, cook your rice and orzo in a pot. You can do it together, just add the orzo to the rice once the rice is about 10 minutes from being done. Or you can cook them separately and combine, which will be easier to control how they are cooked.
Using a mesh skimmer remove the bones, dill, and lemon. (If you don't have a skimmer handy you can use a strainer and pour the soup through it, returning it back to heat)
Add your avenue spice and paprika then bring it up to a boil and blanch off your carrots and celery until tender, but not over cooked, around 2 minutes (more or less depending on how large of a dice you made).
Strain the vegetables out reserving both the stock and the vegetables separately.
Clean your soup pot and return it to the stove. Saute your onions and garlic until soft, then add your pulled chicken and enhanced broth.
Zest your lemons and juice them adding to the broth then simmer for about 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper)
To serve take about 2 large ladles of soup with chicken and onions and put into a smaller sauce pot. Add about 2 oz each of the carrots, celery, and rice/orzo blend. Bring it up to a simmer and taste. Add about a tsp of lemon juice per soup that you are heating up.
Put your eggs and one extra egg yolk into a bowl and whisk until blended (it's easier to make a little more of this at a time, I just like to make it fresh with the eggs when I heat it up)***.
Slowly temper the broth of the soup into eggs. To do this make sure the soup is very hot, and using a ladle, slowly add the hot broth into your eggs while whisking. As the eggs start to incorporate the soup, you can start adding the broth faster. Once you've added about 6 oz of broth to the eggs you can pour the whole mixture back into your sauce pot with the remaining soup.
Mix everything together, add fresh dill, and season to taste.
Serve immediately garnishing with more fresh dill and fresh cracked pepper.
*You could very easily turn this into a roasted chicken dinner at this point, if you were so inclined make sure you cook it up to 165 degrees to ensure it is finished. Using a thermometer check the temp around the thigh bone as well as the fattest part of the breast.
**You can use the roasted skin to make crispy chicken skins.
***I don't use the whites for anything in particular, but I will save them to use for other recipes.
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