Aromatic Greek chicken soup

A classic winter dish which brings memories of my childhood

Ingredients (for 4 to 5 persons):
1 ½ kg chicken, without the skin (so not to be too fatty) and cut into portions
1 large onion, peeled
1-2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut in four
2 cloves
3 carrots, peeled, cut in half
3 sticks of celery (with the leaves on)
1 bouquet Garni (1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of dried thyme + 1 sprig of parsley tied together with kitchen string)
2 ½ litres of water
500 ml white wine
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tbsp of risotto rice

For the lemon sauce:
3 eggs
juice of 1 ½ lemon

Procedure:
Wash the chicken well. Place it in a large saucepan with water and wine. We put the saucepan on the fire and gently simmer, remove the foam that forms on the surface. We continue to skim for 10 minutes.

Add the onion with the 2 cloves stuck on it, carrots, celery, potatoes and bouquet Garni. We salt and pepper, cover the pot and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the chicken and the vegetables from the pot and place them on a serving dish.

Continue to boil the broth. Allow chicken to cool slightly and remove the meat off the bones. If we do it carefully the breast meat will stay intact and it will present nicely on the table.

The chicken bones are thrown back into the pot. Continue to boil the broth for 10 to 15 minutes over low heat. We strain the broth into a another saucepan and we add the rice. Allow them to boil for 15 minutes.

Egg-Lemon sauce:
Meanwhile, separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the yolks in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites well until they are white and fluffy - but no need to make meringue. Continuing the beating, little by little add the beaten egg yolks and the lemon juice. The ingredients have to get mixed together well.

Take the soup off the heat. Into the bowl with the egg/lemon sauce we add slowly 1-2 ladles of the broth and we stir the food. Then, we pour the egg/lemon sauce into the pot with the rest of the soup and with our hands we shake it to mix well. We don't cover the pot with the lid so not to ruin the soup.

Serve the soup warm as it is and the chicken with the vegetables separately on a platter, sprinkled with some freshly ground pepper.