chicken in egg-lemon sauce (avgolemono)

chicken in egg-lemon sauce
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

There were drizzly days last week, and I felt like eating some comforting food. For me, chicken stewed for a longer period of time is one of these comfort foods, especially with rice. I remembered the Greek style of thickening sauces with lemon juice and eggs (avgolemono), and felt that was what I wanted to eat! Take 4 chicken legs and brown in a saute pan with some chopped onions in some butter and olive oil. Put on pepper and salt, add a little white wine, and so much water it almost coveres the meat. Let simmer on a slow fire with a lid on top of the pan until chicken is done, so much it almost falls from the bone - this might take 50 minutes, but there is no fuss in cooking this, you just have be patient a little while. Meanwhile, make a pilav style rice: fry some very finely chopped onions in butter and add washed rice. Stir around in the pan until all rice grains are translucent, add 1,5 times the amount of water to the rice and some saffron if you like. Cook for 20 minutes until done; you could add some peas to the rice to make it look prettier and more interesting. When your chicken is finished, leave the chicken legs like this, or take the meat off the bone for more easy eating later. Put the juice of one lemon with one egg in a bowl and beat it together. Take your chicken sauce off the heat and put one ladle of sauce in the bowl with the egg and lemon mixture. Stir to combine, then add the mixture to the sauce, add it slowly and make sure the egg doesn't curdle. The sauce becomes velvety, lemony and very delicious. A small salad on the side doesn't hurt and you could eat this forever! Add more pepper to the chicken if you like that. Enjoy!