Chicken Soup A La Grec – comforting soup made from scratch, perfect for a cold day.
You ever have one of those days when you don’t feel so good. Well of course you do. I’m having one of those days today. I have a such a sore throat and for such days there’s nothing better than a nice cup of hot chicken soup.
But I was not in the mood for just any regular chicken soup. I remember this great chicken soup that is very popular back home in Romania, it’s called Chicken Soup A La Grec. It’s an amazing soup, it’s quite sour from the lemon juice. I for one love adding lemon juice to certain types of soups, but that’s primarily because it’s a very common way to make soups in Romania. They are actually called “ciorba” which is not a soup, but a thicker, richer and sour tasty soup. That’s what differentiates a “ciorba” from a soup, the sourness. Usually you would use lemons, but vinegar or borscht are quite common too to give these soups their sour taste.
Now this soup is one of my favorites, not only because it’s sour but it’s a creamy soup, full of chicken and veggies. It’s also very common with this soup to add rice to it, but this soup was thick enough for me, so I did not add any.
So give this soup a try, it’s perfect for a cold winter day, or when you’re feeling sick, it’s a great comfort food.
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Chicken Soup A La Grec
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken cleaned and cut into pieces
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 parsnip cleaned and peeled
- 1/2 celery root cleaned and peeled
- 1 white onion whole, skin peeled
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 carrots whole, cleaned and peeled
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice of one lemon
- 1/4 cup of chopped dill
- parsley for garnish
- 1/4 cup long grain rice optional
Instructions
- In a big soup pot, add the chicken pieces, parsnip, carrots, celery root, white onion, bay leaf and enough water to cover completely cover all the chicken and veggies.
- Bring to a boil and skim the foam as necessary to have a clear soup. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking the soup for another hour.
- After an hour, remove the chicken and vegetables from the soup and strain the soup in a large bowl so that you’re left with a nice clear liquid. Let the veggies and chicken cool.
- Shred the boiled carrots. In the soup pot add heat the oil and add the carrots to it. Saute carrots for a couple minutes after which pour the soup back to the pot. Bring to a boil.
- In the mean time, shred the chicken breast with two forks, or as much chicken meat as you want to add to your soup. Set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk the egg yolks with the milk and the sour cream. Add a couple ladles of soup, one at a time to the egg/sour cream mixture and whisk. Pour this mixture into the soup pot and add the chicken as well.
- Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to soup.
- Add rice at this time. (Optional)
- Garnish with dill and parsley and serve hot.
