When I want to warm up on a cold day, I serve up a piping hot bowl of soup such as stuffed pepper soup, taco soup or this traditional matzo ball soup.
Matzo Ball Soup Ingredients
To make matzo ball soup you will need to make matzo balls with eggs, schmaltz or vegetable oil, club soda, matzo meal, baking powder and salt. For the soup make sure you have schmaltz or vegetable oil, onion, carrots, celery stalks, garlic, cooked chicken, Italian seasoning, chicken broth, parsley, salt and black pepper. This matzo ball soup is one of my favorite chicken soup recipes along with chicken and wild rice soup, chicken tortellini soup and chicken pot pie soup.
How Do You Make Matzo Ball Soup?
To make this matzo ball soup recipe, start with the the matzo balls. In a bowl beat 3 eggs. Whisk in schmaltz or oil and club soda. Stir in matzo meal, baking powder and salt. Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour so that it becomes firm enough to scoop into round balls. To make the soup, cook yellow onions, carrots, celery and garlic with a little oil in a large pot. Stir in cooked chicken and seasonings, then pour in chicken broth. Add the matzo balls and simmer until the vegetables are tender and the matzo balls are cooked through. Sprinkle with fresh parsley, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Soup
You can simmer a whole chicken to create your own chicken broth; however, I generally use a high quality store bought broth instead. It saves so much time! If you prefer to make your own broth, place a whole chicken in 12 cups of water with 2 sliced carrots, 1 onion cut into quarters, 2 stalks of celery, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon peppercorns and 10 sprigs of parsley. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3 hours. Strain the broth, and remove the chicken meat from the carcass. Next, proceed with my recipe as directed. Traditional matzo ball soup contains schmaltz which is rendered chicken fat. You can make schmaltz by cooking the chopped skin of 8 chicken thighs together with 1/2 cup diced onion until the fat has rendered and the skin and onions are golden brown. Remove the browned bits and strain the fat to use in your cooking. Don’t want to make schmaltz? Use vegetable oil instead. You can make the matzo ball mixture up to 24 hours before you plan to use it. Any type of cooked chicken will work in this dish including leftover roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken. I typically roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts at 425 degrees F for 40 minutes, then dice or shred the meat. Feel free to use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked matzo balls to bowls for serving. You can use store bought Italian seasoning or make your own Italian seasoning.
Flavor Variations
My mom often adds other ingredients to her soup to make it special, here are some options to customize the flavors to your tastes.
Vegetables: Feel free to add more veggies such as green beans, zucchini, frozen corn, parsnips or potatoes. Noodles: It’s fairly common to add noodles to matzo ball soup. I typically see long noodles such as egg noodles or spaghetti in this dish. Herbs: While I typically top my soup with a little chopped parsley, other types of herbs are also nice such as fresh dill, chives or a little fresh thyme.
There’s nothing better than a big bowl of matzo ball soup to celebrate the holidays or to brighten up a chilly day!
Matzo Ball Soup Video
