Rice soup with chicken heart and stomach

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g chicken hearts
• 500 g chicken gizzards
• 1 tsp, heaped salt
• 1 tsp, leveled pepper
• 200 g rice
• 2 ½ liters of water
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp, leveled chicken broth, granulated
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes

This is a recipe from my grandmother in Greece

Halve the hearts. Remove any yellowish lining from the stomachs first. It’s best to cut the stomachs into thirds using scissors, then rinse everything thoroughly. Cook the meat in a pot with about 1.5 L of salted water for about 50-60 minutes, stirring several times during cooking. Add another 1 L of water, bring to a boil briefly, then stir in the rice and cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the olive oil and stock powder and stir well. Meanwhile, whisk 3 eggs in a bowl until the yolk and egg white are well blended. Then add about 0.5 L of the stock a spoonful at a time to the beaten egg, stirring constantly. The beaten egg must be heated slowly in the stock, otherwise the egg will curdle. Only then add the beaten egg to the soup and stir in. Cook for another 10 minutes. Finally, stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, add a little more water. Serve with fresh white bread, toast, garlic bread, or baguette. The slightly sour taste of the lemon makes the soup delicious even in summer. At the same time, it has a hearty flavor and is said to be good for colds, so it’s delicious even in winter! I can’t say where this soup actually comes from. It’s a recipe from my grandmother in Greece. When she was about 20, she fled from Constantinople, now Istanbul, to the capital city of Komotini in Eastern Macedonia/Thrace. I’ve searched the internet, but I can’t find the recipe anywhere. Was it my grandmother’s invention? Is it a Turkish or Greek recipe? Perhaps the recipe comes from nearby Bulgaria. I don’t know. The fact is: this soup tastes incredibly delicious.