Dre Does Lemon Chicken Rice Soup
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I know this is a beauty blog but I can't help but share this recipe because it's so ridiculously yummy and easy that you have to try it. I fell in love with Lemon Chicken Rice soup last summer when I worked at a Greek restaurant. When the new year began I told myself I was going to learn how to make it no matter how hard it was because I missed eating it. So I got to googling and YouTubing and I was pleasantly surprised to find how simple and easy it is to make. I didn't follow an exact recipe because it all depends on how lemony you want it and whether you want rice or pasta (like orzo), but you can easily tweak it to your liking.
Here's the basic guidelines I followed (I call them guidelines because I come from a family of non-measuring cooks):
64 oz. of chicken broth (I prefer low sodium but you can use what you like)
1 cup of uncooked rice (let's be real though. I love rice...I probably used more haha)
2 cooked and shredded chicken breasts
3 eggs
2-3 lemons
Salt and Pepper
Dash of Oregano (one recipe I found called for it and I can't escape my Italian roots so I obviously loved it)
The really awesome thing about this soup is that you can utilize leftovers! Takeout rice from leftover Chinese food can get a second life and so can leftover or rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I however was starting from raw rice and chicken so this is what I did.
1. In a large soup pot, I added all the chicken broth and brought it to a boil.
2. In a large sauté pan, I added a little butter and started to cook my chicken breasts after I seasoned them with a little sprinkle of salt and pepper.
3. Once the broth was boiling, I added my uncooked rice and stirred it every once in a while to keep from sticking to the bottom, in between checking my chicken breasts.
4. Once the chicken was cooked, I let it cool for a few minutes, shredded it, and threw it into the big soup pot. The time that it takes to cook the rice and sauté the chicken were pretty even which works out nicelyv.
5. In a small separate bowl I squeezed my lemon juice, removed an seeds that tried to make it to the party, and cracked my eggs into the juice. I then whisked everything together.
6. Now you have to temper the eggs. If you were to just add the egg and lemon juice mixture to your soup pot, you would make Lemon Chicken Egg Drop Rice soup, because they would cook so quickly, so you have to slowly warm them first, then add them to the soup. To do this you just slowly add ladles of the hot soup to the eggs while you are whisking it. I added about 5 but it'll be different for everyone. Once you can feel the mixture warm up a significant amount, stir the big soup pot and add your egg, lemon juice and broth mixture. You'll notice the broth thicken up and kind of get creamy but this is totally normal and the whole point of what the eggs do. They make the soup so thick, creamy and delicious.
7. Now I just add my dash of oregano, let everything hang out for a little bit together, and test for salt and pepper.
That's it! You now have an amazing soup you can eat all year round. It's filling, yet still refreshing because of the lemon. One thing to remember is that it thickens if you save it for later in the fridge, so if this bothers you, when you warm it up just add a little water or broth to thin it out. Like I mentioned before, you can customize the amount of lemon and other ingredients to your liking, but I hope you try it out and enjoy it! If you do let me know!
Have a beautiful day,
Dre
