Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemon and Egg
I am so excited to share this recipe. This is my absolute favorite chicken noodle soup. It's the soup that I want when I have a cold or a sore throat. It's soothing, filling, and just delicious with the bright lemon. It's a great way to use up leftover chicken and comes together pretty quickly. I've been making versions of this soup for years, first with vegetable stock and TVP (textured vegetable protein) as a vegetarian. It's great in a vegetarian version but even better with leftover roast chicken. I use a boxed stock but a homemade stock would be even better!
Start with the vegetables. In a large stockpot or dutch oven, sauté one diced shallot, diced onion, and minced garlic in olive oil until softened. I like to use a microplane to mince garlic. Peel the garlic and grate carefully with a microplane until finely minced. Add diced leeks (white and light green parts). Rinse the leeks well before adding as they can catch dirt and sand between the layers as they grow. Cook leeks until softened.
Add diced carrots and celery and stir to combine. Season with basil, oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Stir in six cups of chicken stock. Add two cups of shredded chicken. Simmer the chicken soup until carrots and celery are tender, about 15 minutes. Add pasta. I use angel hair pasta broken into small pieces. The easiest way to do this is to wrap a small handful of pasta in a clean kitchen towel. On the edge of a cutting board or the counter, break the pasta into small pieces about an inch and a half long. Open the kitchen towel and add pasta.
Simmer soup until pasta is tender. While pasta is cooking, combine lemon juice and eggs in a small dish, whisking well. Ladle one cup of stock from soup pot into a liquid measuring cup. Slowly add hot stock to egg/lemon mixture, whisking quickly to combine. When all of the stock is added to the egg and lemon, add back into the soup while stirring quickly, a little at a time. The egg will help thicken the soup but must first be tempered and then added slowly so it does not scramble. Remove bay leaf and serve.
To make a vegetarian version of this soup, substitute six cups of vegetable stock for the chicken stock. Instead of shredded chicken, add two cups of reconstituted chicken-style textured vegetable protein. The TVP is quite absorbent even when reconstituted so you may find you need additional vegetable stock as the soup simmers. Omit the egg and add fresh lemon juice and an egg free pasta for a vegan version.
Recipe
Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemon and Egg
By Land of Noms, November 9, 2014
A soothing chicken noodle soup with a bright velvety broth from the addition of lemon and egg
chicken, soup, lemon, egg
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 medium sized leek, white and light green parts diced and rinsed well
- 2 medium sized carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon of dried basil
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 6 cups of chicken stock
- 2 cups of cooked shredded chicken
- 1 cup of small pasta
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 eggs
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Saute shallot and garlic in olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat
- Add diced onion and leek and cook until softened
- Add carrots and celery
- Stir in oregano, basil, salt and pepper and bay leaves
- Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer
- Add shredded chicken and simmer until vegetables are tender
- Stir in pasta and cook until al dente
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg and lemon juice
- Remove one cup of hot stock from soup into a liquid measuring cup
- Add hot stock to egg mixture slowly, whisking to combine
- Add egg and stock mixture back into soup slowly, stirring quickly to combine and making sure eggs do not scramble
- Serve hot with additional salt and pepper to taste
Useful kitchen tools for this recipe:
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