Avgolemono Soup or Sauce

A traditional Greek soup or sauce. Most often, when it is made as a soup, bits of chicken are added to make it similar to a cream of chicken base. Also added to the soup is cooking liquid from fish or chicken, combined with eggs and lemon juice. As a sauce for fish or poultry, the egg yolks and lemon juice are whisked separately from the egg whites, which are beaten into a stiff foam. The yolks and lemon juice are added to the stiff whites and the ingredients are then combined with the cooking liquid, which is reheated until fairly thick in consistency. The soup generally will have a filler such as rice added and is thinner in consistency than the sauce. The sauce makes a very tasty light textured addition to meals with fish and fowl. This soup may also be referred to as a Greek chicken soup or a Greek egg lemon soup.