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Why I Love This Chicken Meatball Soup
Iowa winters can be grueling. The weather isn’t always full of snow and ice, but by the time February rolls around, you assume it’s almost spring. Then nature reminds you it definitely is not. Like so many Midwesterners, until the days are noticeably longer, I like to hibernate.
The perfect hibernation food — or really, food in general — is soup. For some, soup is the lesser food, something you dump together when you’re in a hurry. To me, soup is layers of flavor that can be slowly cooked or thrown together after work, yet still provide a nourishing, wholesome, and hearty meal.
What Makes a Good Soup
- Layered flavors – As opposed to throwing everything in a slow cooker, the ingredients should be added one at a time, “creating layers.”
- Aromatics – Herbs and spices help to elevate and round out the layered flavors.
- Hearty additions – Beans, potatoes, and meat help make a soup a meal.
- Sturdy greens – Kale added towards the end wilts and truly finishes a soup.
Some soups are more of a side or require a dish to complement them. Think tomato soup paired with grilled cheese. Tomato soup by itself isn’t often very filling. That’s not the case with this soup!
The best part of this soup may be the homemade chicken meatballs. This extra step seems like something that you won’t want to do on a weekend. But instead, the sausage goes together quickly with a perfect spice blend. Scooped onto a baking sheet and roasted in the oven, in just a matter of minutes, you’ll have homemade meatballs with more flavor than you’ll expect.
To start the soup, onion, celery, and garlic are sauteéd until translucent. Even though we read this step in a plethora of recipes, it’s truly important in this soup. This softens the vegetables and takes the hard, fresh flavor away to bring out the sweeter flavors underneath.
During the winter, I don’t have the luxury of pulling fresh herbs from the garden. So for ease, I use dried herbs. Dried are economical and packed with flavor.
Carrot, potato, and white beans are added to the stock to simmer. This is the best part: it only needs to be simmered until the potatoes and carrots are tender, but can be simmered longer if you want a slow, winter soup kind of day.
At the end, some pureed beans are added for their ability to thicken. This dish can really be ready in about one hour if needed. The soup hits all my needs: hearty, full of flavor, filling, and nourishing.
More Soup Recipes
- Creamy chicken and wild rice soup
- Slow cooker chili
- Curry butternut squash soup
- Slow cooker turkey, sweet potato, and kale soup
- Beef and barley soup
Have I Convinced You to Make This Recipe?
I hope you make this recipe and put some food on your table. Leave a comment and share a star rating so you can let others know how much you love this recipe. This helps show others that this is a recipe they, too, can make, enjoy, and love!
Chicken Meatball Soup
Ingredients
For the chicken meatballs
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp herbs de Provence
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- ¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tbsp pureed white beans (reserved from below)
For the soup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ½ cups diced onion
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¾ cup diced celery
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 ½ cups roughly chopped carrot
- 1 6-8 oz potato
- 2 cans white beans
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 1 bunch kale (approx. 10 oz) ribs removed and chopped
Instructions
For the meatballs
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree 1 can of white beans. Reserve 2 tbsp for the meatballs and set the rest aside for the soup.2 cans white beans
- In a bowl, combine the ground chicken, fennel seed, allspice, smoked paprika, herbs de Provence, salt, black pepper, garlic, and bean puree. Stir to combine spice and meat evenly.1 lb ground chicken, 1 tsp fennel seed, 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp herbs de Provence, 1 ½ tsp kosher salt, ¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper, 1 clove garlic, 2 tbsp pureed white beans (reserved from below)
- Using a #100 (2 tsp) cookie scoop, make meatballs and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. This should make approximately 35 meatballs. Bake in the preheated oven until browned and an internal temperature of 165°F is reached. While baking, prepare the soup.
For the soup
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a 6-quart stockpot or Dutch oven. Add onion, celery, and salt. Slowly sauté until the onion and celery are translucent and soft, 4-6 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper, oregano, and basil. Stir and heat until garlic is fragrant, 1 minute.2 tbsp olive oil, 1 ½ cups diced onion, 1 tsp kosher salt, ¾ cup diced celery, 3 cloves garlic, ½ tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 tsp dried basil
- Add carrot, potato, 1 can of whole white beans with the liquid, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the carrot and potato are cooked, 25-35 minutes.1 ½ cups roughly chopped carrot, 1 6-8 oz potato, 2 cans white beans, 5 cups chicken stock
- Once the potatoes and carrots are cooked, add the reserved pureed beans to the soup. Continue to cook to remove the raw flavor, 15 minutes. Add the kale and baked meatballs to the soup. Allow the kale to wilt and the meatballs to warm through, 6 minutes.1 bunch kale (approx. 10 oz)
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below!
This was fantastic! Nice and hearty. 10/10 will make again.
I just made this. OMG! SO good! I doubled the recipe for our crowd. I had a 1-lb package of ground turkey that I made per your seasongs and added a 1-lb package of chicken-mozzarella sausage that I sautéed first. We have Swiss chard growing in our greenhouse so I substituted yhthe
Rainy day calls for this soup! It was everything and more. DELICIOUS! Very satisfying.
Do not, as a rule follow these kinds of things, but love yours. I look forward to the recipes, and love gardening and baking as well. Really enjoy how positive, and happy you seem to be. Good for you! Look forward to more…
Delicious soup Kaleb, and even better the second day! Took a picture but can’t figure out how to add it to the review.
This soup is the bomb! Didn’t want to bother making meatballs, so I used the Italian sweet sausage I had in the freezer. Cooked it just like the chicken meatballs, and they came out great! Skipped all those meatball spices, because already spiced up pork. Everything else pretty much as shown, however should have had a lighter hand with the red pepper flakes. 😵💫
Loved this soup so much ~ will be making it again and again and again!!!!
This soup was a 5 the first day I made it , but letting the flavours mellow over into the next few days that soup just got better and better. Definitely making this again
This soup is absolutely delicious! The spices are perfect and give it a special depth of flavor. It is hearty and filling. I didn’t have ground chicken, chicken stock or kale so I used grass fed and finished ground beef, beef stock, spinach and added a little pasta. Wonderful. I didn’t want to be that person who says it’s great and then changes everything in the recipe but had to improvise tonight.
This “sausage” meatball kale soup is deeelish! It’s hearty, filling and warms you through to the soul. I can’t believe how much the herbs and spices make the chicken taste and smell exactly like sausage! It feels good to know that it’s a healthy yet uber tasty option that I can add to my food repertoire. Everyone loved it!
FABULOUS SOUP! Thank you. I used 1/2 chicken and 1/2 turkey but otherwise this was one of the best soup recipes I ever made!