There’s something uniquely comforting about a bowl of hot soup on cold days, and most countries have their own version of a hearty and nourishing chicken soup. In Greece, you’ll find avgolemono, a citrusy chicken soup defined by an egg and lemon sauce that gives the final dish a creamy and zesty character.

Avgolemono starts with chicken meat (boneless, skinless breasts work best), onion, carrots, and celery boiled in chicken broth. The famous sauce, which is also called avgolemono, is made by whisking eggs with a substantial amount of lemon juice into a foamy consistency; the mixture is then tempered by the hot chicken broth.

Most authentic Greek avgolemono includes orzo pasta for heftiness, but quite a few online recipes say that you can use rice instead. Orzo is shaped similarly to rice grains, but has a soft and creamy taste that further enriches the soup; if rice is all you have, it will work just fine, but the grains will be firmer and more toothsome.