Chicken Matzo Ball Soup Recipe

The best chicken matzo ball soup is here! If you’re looking to make this traditional Jewish soup for the Passover holiday this is by far the most delicious. We will share our easy homemade matzo balls recipe to add and you can pack the vegetables in too.

This Matzo ball chicken soup is a fun tweak to the traditional Jewish Passover meal served during the Seder. Packed with protein you can add meat or leave vegetarian, either way this is delicious for dinner or served before your main dish. (affiliate links present)

Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

You can certainly make this and air fryer latkes year round of course, but typically it is made and eaten during the Jewish holiday of Passover. At this time there are also readings, songs, prayers, wine, and specific foods are eaten (like this one). Meat is not typically part of it, but like I said can be a nice addition if you’re looking for something different.

Make this in a Dutch Oven on your stove as directed below or in your pressure cooker too. You can even make soup with frozen chicken if that is all you have on hand friends!

Homemade is always best so you know what is in them. Our recipe for these is linked at the top of this post and in the recipe card itself. Easy to make, or you can buy a mix where you just add water.

Jewish Matzo Ball Soup Recipe

I mean you don’t have to be this particular religion to make or enjoy this dish. I’m not but I grew up with a close friend who was and went to her house often during the holidays. We went to festivals where gefilte fish were served, I helped her mom make challah many times, and I learned about the Hanukkah tradition there.

It was there that I had my first bowl of this soup. It was different, interesting, but had a story to it which was kinda’ cool. If you’re new to this and wonder why these came about it is because no leavening should be eaten during this time of year.

• SO instead of flour, Matzah meal is used. You can buy it ground or do that yourself.

It’s made from those huge white cracker like things with all the holes in it. A similar look to a saltine cracker it has sorta the same taste (not much) and is in fact unleavened so it can be consumed. Of course there are many traditions when it comes to this recipe and you may have some you remember.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts – optional if you are making a chicken soup base
• Chicken broth can make a richer broth, use water for vegan
• 1 onion diced is optional but expected for us
• Peeled sliced carrots are fabulous
• Celery sliced are great
• Minced garlic or 2 whole cloves work
• Olive oil, use the good stuff

What do you need to make homemade matzo balls?

• 1 c matzo meal
• Egg is best at room temperature
• Salt and pepper (as well as other seasonings of your choice like fresh dill, thyme….)
• Baking powder is used to make them fluffier, but could be left out

You can use this base and take it from there. If you do not want any poultry added that is okay. Just use vegetables to make a rich broth and then go from there. Easy peasy. You can even leave out the sliced carrots and celery if you wanted to and just go with the broth and balls themselves. Period.

How is vegetable broth made?

You can literally make vegetable broth with scraps that you would normally throw away! Alternatively you can add whole or halved veggies of your choice into boiling water with salt and pepper and other seasonings of your choice. A bay leaf is a great add in too. Boil for about 20 minutes, strain, and use that!!

Then you will need a large bowl to make your matzo ball mixture into dough. Wet your hands to roll and make sure they are all about the same size so they cook evenly.

How to Freeze Matzo Ball Soup

If you wanted to batch cook ahead of time you could make a lot of these and freeze for future use, or make dough 24 hours before and wrap in plastic wrap. That would cut down the prep time for you quite a bit when you are ready to make a meal with them. You will want to NOT cook them before freezing though for the best results. You basically make the dough and roll them up.

With a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet add them in a single layer and freeze matzo balls a few hours. Once rock hard put them into a freezer bag or thick plastic bag and zip closed. They can stay this way for up to 3 months. When you are ready take enough out you wish and put back on a baking sheet separated for 30 minutes to an hour so they can defrost.

• Then make your soup by boiling a whole chicken or use packaged chicken stock. Add them as you would if they were freshly made.

Boil until they have doubled in size and then you’re ready to enjoy. Nobody will ever know they came out of the freezer y’all. This way you can make this all year long, even at the end of the year with your Sweet Potato Latkes!

Instant Pot Matzo Ball Soup

If you wanted to make this in your pressure cooker you could. You’d follow the directions below for making the main star of the show, set those aside. Then use the ingredients below with the timing for our Instant Pot chicken noodle soup. When done set to saute and add your balls and allow to boil for about 5 minutes or until they double in size.