Heirloom Meals - Avgolemono Soup for Tony Simotes

A few weeks ago I had Tony Simotes share his culinary history with me on my radio show.  Shortly therafter we found out that Tony has throat cancer (with a very good prognosis).  He is undergoing treatment and I asked if I could make them (he and his wife, Lucy) some food and he asked me if I could try and make his Mom's avgolemono soup.

So this soup's for Tony!!!

1 whole organic chicken
Enough water to completely cover the chicken
3-4 stalks celery, cut into quarters
1-2 onions
Juice of 3 lemons
3 eggs
2 cups of cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Clean and place chicken in soup pot and cover with water.  Add celery and onion. Heat over medium heat to a boil and then simmer for about an hour until chicken is cooked.  While chicken is cooking, occasionally skim off the scum.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove from water and let cool.  Meanwhile, separate your egg whites from yolks.  Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form and then blend in the egg yolks and juice of 3 lemons.  Then add about a cup of the warm chicken broth to the egg and lemon mixture to acclimate and then add to chicken broth along with the rice and the chicken which you have taken off the bones and chopped into bite-sized pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste and Enjoy!!

GET WELL SOON TONY!!  xxoo