Chicken Meatball Soup
I created this chicken meatball soup be the ultimate comfort food, surpassing even traditional chicken noodle soup.
- We absolutely love meatballs in my hours and after making them hundreds of times, I have one amazing recipe.
- Meatballs are not just an appetizer or to serve with sauce for dinner. I’ve been making soups with meatballs for years and it is one of our favorite ways to eat meatballs. This recipe is a personal go-to, it’s so easy but also nutritious and packed with flavor.
- This is a complete, satisfying meal in one bowl. It features perfectly flavored chicken meatballs and a broth loaded with nutrient-rich vegetables like kale and carrots, making it both hearty and healthful. But you can easily adjust this soup by variating vegetables, meat, pasta, and grain.
Key Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Ground Chicken – You’ll need a pound of ground chicken meat, make sure to get one with no additional flavors mixed in.
Breadcrumbs – Use plain breadcrumbs, without any other flavors added.
Gluten free substitution – the only ingredients you need to substitute to make the soup gluten free is the bread crumbs. Use your favorite unflavored gluten free bread crumbs.
Herbs – you can use fresh parsley and dill weed or dried if needed. Just note that dried herbs are a little more potent, so use slightly less.
Parmesan cheese – fresh grated Parmesan will give you the best flavor and melt into the meatballs.
Vegetables – the classic soffritto is a combination of yellow onion, celery, and carrots, and it’s a great base for many soups. Aromatic fresh garlic will add a lovely overall flavor, simply peel, smash, and mince it before adding to the soup.
Chicken Stock – For the best flavor ever, use homemade chicken stock instead of store-bought. When using store-bought, I highly recommend getting “low sodium” or “no salt added.”
Seasonings – to enhance the flavors of this soup even more, toss in some crushed red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper.
Kale – kale is a great dark green to use in soups because it’s hearty and stands up to cooking well. Make sure to remove the stems before adding. Another dark green option could be Swiss chard or collard greens.
How to Make Chicken Meatball Soup
- First, start by rolling all the meatballs! Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, then roll the meatballs and place them on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper.
- Start preparing the soup by first preheating a Dutch oven and add some oil. Sear the meatballs a few at a time, then set them aside.
- Next, sear the onions, celery, and carrots. Make a little well in the center of the veggies and add minced garlic, cooking until fragrant.
- Mix the veggies and add the meatballs back into the Dutch oven. Then, pour in the chicken stock, seasonings, and herbs. However, do not add the kale quite yet!
- Bring the soup to a low boil, then lower the heat. Let the soup simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
- Chop up the kale and stir it into the soup. Cook it for another 5 minutes, then take it off of the heat and enjoy!
Variations and Additions
Vegetables: Feel free to add some other hearty vegetables like potatoes, mushrooms, or green beans. You can also add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the cooked soup for a zesty lemon note!
Spice: adjust the spice level as you wish by using more or less red pepper flakes.
Pasta: When the soup is almost cooked, add some dried pasta, cover, and let it cook just until the pasta is tender. Pasta usually takes 8-10 minutes to cook, unless it’s small like orzo, then it’s less. Make sure to adjust the amount of liquid through if you plan to add pasta. Increase the amount of chicken stock by 1-2 cups.
Meat: you can use ground turkey instead of ground chicken in the meatballs recipe.
Grain: you can add rice, quinoa, or many other grains to the soup but note that the grain does take quite a bit of liquid to cook. So you will need to increase the amount of broth by 1-2 cups for a cup of rice.
Storing and Reheating
Store the leftover soup in the same pot you cooked the soup if it has a lid, or transfer it into a food storage container with an air-tight lid. Store your leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
You can reheat it in the microwave just until it’s hot, or in a sauce pot on stove top over medium-low heat until it’s warmed through.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE leave a 🌟 star rating! Let me know how you liked it by leaving the 📝 comment below or share and tag me on social media @willcookforsmiles. DON’T FORGET to subscribe to my newsletter!
Chicken Meatball Soup Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh minced dill weed
- 1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
For The Soup:
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 2 celery ribs sliced
- 3 medium carrots sliced
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5-6 cups chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley
- 1/2 tbsp fresh minced dill weed
- 1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 3-4 oz kale stems removed
Instructions
To Make The Meatballs:
- Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs in the mixing bowl and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Cover a cutting board with parchment paper and set it next to the mixing bowl.
- Use a cookie scoop to get an equal amount of mixture for the meatballs and roll the meatballs quickly. (If you don't have one, use a spoon and try to keep the meatballs as equal size as you can.) Place the rolled meatballs onto the parchment paper.
To Make The Soup:
- Preheat a Dutch oven over medium heat and add some olive oil.
- Sear meatballs a few at a time, don't overgrown the pan! You are looking for a nice golden-brown sear on both sides, don't need to actually cook the meatballs through. Take seared meatballs out of the pan and do remaining batches.
- Set seared meatballs aside.
- Add a little more oil to the Dutch oven if needed and sear onion, celery, and carrots until it starts to soften and get a golden sear as well.
- Make a little well in the middle of the veggies and add minced garlic. Sear just until garlic is fragrant, for a few seconds.
- Mix veggies and add back the seared meatballs to the Dutch oven. (Make sure to add the juices that ran off the meatballs as well!)!
- Pour in chicken stock, and add seasoning and herbs. (Do not add the kale yet!)
- Bring the soup to low boil and lower the heat to medium-low. Taste to make sure you've added enough salt and heat.
- Let the soup slowly simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
- Chop kale and add it to the soup. Stir and let everything cook another 5 minutes of so.
- Take off heat and serve!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Comforting Soups To Enjoy!
If you love the sound of this comforting chicken soup, make sure to try my Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Categories:
Chicken Dinner Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Healthy Dinner Ideas, Soup Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
My kids love this meatball soup!