Avgolemono

Avgolemono is chicken broth thickened with whisked egg and sharpened with lemon juice, tempered in slowly so the egg turns silky rather than curdling. The name literally means "egg-lemon," and it names both this specific soup and the whole wider technique of using whisked egg and lemon to thicken and sharpen a broth or sauce — a method that turns up across Greek cooking well beyond this one bowl.

What it really is

Chicken simmers with rice or small pasta until both are tender, and the broth reduces down concentrated with flavour. Egg whisks together with lemon juice in a separate bowl, and then — this is the technique that makes or breaks the dish — a slow stream of the hot broth ladles into the egg mixture while whisking constantly, gradually warming the egg up to the broth's temperature before it all goes back into the pot together. Poured in too fast or too hot, the egg scrambles into curdled lumps instead of dissolving into a silky, pale thickened broth.

Tempering the egg slowly, not adding it straight into the hot pot, is the one step the whole dish depends on. Skip that gradual warming and the result is chicken soup with bits of cooked egg floating in it — technically the same ingredients, but not avgolemono, which is judged specifically on how smooth and unified that egg-lemon broth turns out.

How it's served

• Hot, in a bowl, with the rice or pasta and shredded chicken already in it.
• Sometimes finished with a little extra lemon zest or a sprinkle of black pepper.
• As a starter or a light meal, especially popular as a comforting soup in colder weather.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the egg.
• Say whether rice or a small pasta shape is used, since both are common but change the texture.
• Note that reheating can risk the broth separating, so leftovers are best warmed gently.