Chicken Meatball and Noodle Soup

Making chicken noodle soup should be simple. Choosing a chicken noodle soup to make should be simple too, thus I hadn’t intended to add another chicken noodle soup recipe here. But, I’m kind of restless. I fidget. I always wonder if something could be better. And it’s from this place that I’ve come clean with myself to admit that quite often, my least favorite part of chicken noodle soup is the chicken. It easily overcooks in the broth, ending up dry and hard to chew. Do you know what’s not? Buoyant, tender chicken meatballs.

At home, we call this Jewish Wedding Soup — a nod to Italian Wedding Soup with meatballs, pasta, greens, and parmesan. [Although it has nothing to do with weddings, fun dish names always trump boring ones.] This one has classic Grandma-style chicken noodle soup flavors: chicken instead of pork meatballs, carrots and celery, chicken broth, ample noodles, plus parsley and/or dill. Despite the fact that we have to form meatballs, the rest of the soup is a cinch and I easily make this recipe in 45 minutes on a weeknight.

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) water or milk
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup (20 grams) plain dried breadcrumbs (such as panko) or matzo meal
• 1 pound ground chicken, ideally a mix of dark and light meat

• 6 ounces (170 grams) soup noodles of your choice
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced onion
• 4 to 6 cups (950ml to 1.4l) chicken broth
• Minced parsley and/or dill to finish