Chicken Meatball Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound Ground Chicken
• ½ cup Panko Breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tablespoon Parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Grated or Finely Minced Onion
• 1 Garlic Clove, minced or grated
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1 Egg, slightly beaten

• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Medium Onion, finely diced
• 1 Carrot, diced
• 1 Celery Stalk, diced
• 2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• ½ teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1 (14½ ounce) can Diced Tomatoes (we used fire roasted diced tomatoes)
• 6 cups Chicken Broth
• ⅔ cup Orzo, or other small pasta
• 5-6 ounces Fresh Spinach
• Salt, if needed

You will also need:

• Cooking spray or oil for hands to make it easier to form the meatballs
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper

Make the meatballs

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

These meatballs are simple to make but forming them can be a little bit of a challenge. I find that the ground chicken is stickier than ground turkey, beef and even sausage.

Refrigerating the ground chicken mixture until it is chilled helps with the stickiness. Rubbing oil on your hands a few times while forming the meatballs also makes the whole process quicker and neater!

• If you have a cooking partner, have them lightly coat your hands with cooking spray every so often.
• If you’re flying solo, add a little bit of oil to a small bowl and keep it next to your workstation. Help yourself as needed. As a reference, I used olive oil for our meatballs.

Add the ground chicken, panko breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, 1 tablespoon grated or finely minced onion, 1 garlic clove grated or minced, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper and the egg to a large bowl.

Use a fork (or your hands) to combine the ground chicken mixture. Do not overwork the meat, mix just enough to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Lightly coat your hands with oil and form the ground chicken mixture into small balls. Make them about 1 - 1½ inch in diameter.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to prevent sticking. Place the meatballs on the pan leaving some space between them so they’re not touching. You should get about 24 meatballs.

Bake the chicken meatballs on 350°F approximately 18-20 minutes or until they are fully cooked. They should register at least 165°F on an instant read thermometer.

The meatballs are not going to cook for very long in the soup so we want them fully cooked when we add them in.

Start the soup while the meatballs bake

If we time this soup just right, it will be just about done when the meatballs are ready. Then, it’s less than 10 minutes to a delicious, warming soup!

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, but nowhere near smoking, add the onions, carrots and celery. Cook the vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so the onions don’t burn.
• Next, add the minced garlic and oregano, cook 1 minute while stirring.
• Stir in the diced tomatoes and the chicken broth, while gently scrapping any bits off the bottom of the pot. Raise the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. It will take about 3-4 minutes to come to a boil.
• Once the broth is boiling, lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook the soup for 10 minutes. Keep it at a simmer to let the flavors come together and get that homemade taste.
• Add the orzo to the soup, cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes (still on medium-low). Stir the soup occasionally to keep the orzo from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
• Add the meatballs, cook covered another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Finally, add the spinach to the pot and stir as you add it in. Continue cooking the soup for 2-3 minutes until the spinach is wilted.
• Taste and add salt if needed. We want to hold off until the end to add extra salt because the chicken broth and canned tomatoes both contain a good amount already. As a reference we added ½ teaspoon to ours.

Serve and enjoy!

You may also like these soup recipes:

• Chickpea Soup
• Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
• Lentil and Andouille Sausage Soup
• Lasagna Soup
• Chicken Egg Noodle Soup
• Turkey Taco Soup