finally. lemon chicken soup.

it's ridiculous how easy it is to go from chicken stock to lemon chicken soup. ridiculous. all it takes is this: strain the stock, reserving the chicken. shred the chicken and put into the stock over medium heat.  grab 6 lemons and 6 eggs.

juice the lemons (as shown) and separate the eggs (white from yolk).

beat the yolks until frothy.

add in half the whites, beat again.

add the lemon juice, beat again.

add 2 cups of the hot chicken broth — slowly — beating as you go. the point is to heat up the egg without cooking it, so that when you introduce it to the heated broth the eggs don't scramble.

remove the broth and chicken from heat and add the egg/lemon/broth, stirring as you go.

now, here's where it gets interesting. if you're paleo, you stop here and eat soup. but traditional greek avgolemono (greek for "lemon chicken soup") calls for rice. i don't like rice. and i'm not 100% paleo. so i use orzo.

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but you don't want to leave orzo sitting in your soup in the fridge. it absorbs liquid and your soup becomes "stoup" as my partner calls it.

so, i cook a half cup of orzo according to package directions per individual cup of soup.

because, cooking for one, i eat it one to two bowls at a time and leave the entire thing in the fridge for up to two weeks.

yes. for up to two weeks.

just pour soup over the cooked orzo after straining it.

be fancy and garnish with italian parsley if you're having company. if not, don't.

and that's the best "fracking" recipe i have. do it.

*this post dedicated to mary russo. for being able to find me "that lemon chicken soup without rice that i had that one time" when i was deathly ill.