I made this with a corned beef brisket a few weeks ago because I didn’t know what it was but I’d heard the name a lot. Turns out it’s basically chicken noodle soup, but instead of noodles you use matzo balls. Which I have to say seem far superior to noodles.
One note on the stock: If you have good stock to use for this, then you can just grab some boneless chicken breasts from the store and use them for the meat. If you don’t have good stock on hand or want to kick it up a notch, then what you want to do is boil a whole chicken in the soup first until it’s fully cooked. Then, remove it and pull the chicken from the bones before returning the meat to the pot. That’ll give you a really good flavor if you don’t have stock to work with.
Also, although the dish is jewish this version isn’t strictly kosher. I used baking powder in the matzo balls, but if you want to be strict, apparently soda water can be used as a substitute.
Ingredients
for the soup:
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
3-4 ribs celery, chopped
8-10 cloves garlic, smashed
6-8 cups stock or water
2 large chicken breasts, cut in to bite sized pieces
1 bunch parsley, chopped
handful fresh dill, chopped, or ~1 tablespoon dried dill. But the fresh is going to taste a lot better
1-2 tablespoons oil
salt and pepper to taste
for the matzo balls:
1 cup matzo meal
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup oil or warm butter (not melted, just room temperature)
1/4 cup water
salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder
Directions
First, make the matzo dough. Mix together everything listed for the matzo balls in a medium dish. Stir vigorously until well combined. Cover and set in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to rise. Longer is better in this case. I let mine sit for a few hours.
Once it’s been sitting for a while, start the soup. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and oil to a pot and saute for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables soften. Add the chicken and water or stock to the pot, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for an hour. At this point everything will be thoroughly cooked.
If using a whole chicken, remove it from the pot, shred the meat off the bone, and return the meat to the pot. The meat will be hot! Let it sit, or if you’re impatient, throw it in the freezer or use gloves. I’ve done both, and the freezer works surprisingly well. Give it 15 minutes and it should be cool enough to handle.
Now that the meat is done, bring a second pot of salted water to a boil. While it’s heating up, make your matzo balls. Take the dough and form it in to ping-pong sized balls, give or take. Set them on a cookie sheet while the water comes to a boil. Once it does, gently place the matzo balls in the boiling water (a slotted spoon is great for this), reduce the heat, and cover the pot. Let the matzo balls cook like this for 20 minutes – leave the cover on the pot the whole time. Don’t peek in on them. The matzo balls will at first sink to the bottom of the pot but will float to the top in short order – and after 20 minutes, remove them from the pot with water and place them in the pot with the soup. Add the parsley and dill at this point and simmer the soup for another 5 minutes.
All done!
eatbensmeat 