Our family has been making this matzo ball soup for many years. Some members of our family claim that our great-great-grandmother Bubbie Rose was the catalyst. We believe this soup stands out from the rest because my husband, her great-great-grandson, added extra vegetables and fresh dill to it. There’s no need to wait until Passover to eat this soup because it’s so excellent.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
Ingredients
- 1 (3 pound) whole chicken
- 2 (48 ounce) containers chicken broth
- 4 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 4 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 large turnip,cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 2 medium parsnips, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 medium leek, chopped
- ½ cup chopped fresh dill
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 ½ cups matzo ball mix
- ½ cup water
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
Instructions
- Make the soup: Place chicken into a large pot and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until chicken meat is very tender and falling off the bones, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Remove chicken from the pot and place on a cutting board until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Pull chicken meat from the bones, and shred. Discard skin and bones.
- Bring chicken broth to a boil in a large soup pot. Stir in shredded chicken, carrots, celery, turnip, parsnips, onion, leek, and dill. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, make the matzo balls: Stir matzo ball mix, water, oil, and eggs together in a bowl. Use wet hands (to prevent sticking) and form the mixture into 1-inch balls.
- Return the broth to a boil. Gently drop matzo balls into the boiling broth. Reduce the heat again and simmer until matzo balls have increased in size and are cooked through, about 20 more minutes.
- You may adjust the amount of vegetables to create a soup that is more or less hearty. The soup is very flavorful as-is and always tastes better the next day. Also, if you love dill, you may consider adding some to the matzo meal before forming the balls.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 410 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 31 g |
| Cholesterol | 140 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1504 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great and tasty!! I made this for my family of 6 and we all devoured it! My first time making homemade matzo ball soup so I was very happy with how it turned out! I enjoyed making it for everyone! Thank you for sharing!
Great recipe! Even my Jewish husband and nephew say that it taste the same as what their mothers and grandmothers had made when they were young kids.
Wonderful Matoz Ball Soup. The parsnips really make it great! 5 Stars. By Gregg L. Friedman MD
Oh my goodness so so good. Will definitely be making this again.
I’ve lost my recipe for matzo ball soup, and this one is fantastic! Thanks Bubbie! I’ll definitely be making this again.
I followed the recipe, but it just didn’t hit me to a liking. The turnips and parsnips made it a bit to bitter for my taste. I grew up on chicken stew and fluffy dumplings, maybe my expectations hindered my experience of this dish. I just did not like it. Very sorry!
this was great and w mayo mix much easier
It makes a lot of food which is great for families. Although for all of the work its a relatively bland flavor. I would suggest reducing the amount of meat (x.5) and increasing the veggies (x2). The veggies were great in the soup. It also needs more salt than indicated in the recipe.
I’ve been making this style of soup, most often without the matzoh balls for over 40 years. I have made it for Passover several times with the matzoh balls as well, and I’ve developed a pared down way of doing it that is quite flavorful without adding commercial chicken broth or even home made broth. If you don’t overcook and use the natural flavors of the ingredients, the broth isn’t necessary. With the matzoh balls and all the chicken added back in to the pot at the end of cooking, it is actually a main course chicken stew–a one pot meal. To use it as a first course, with or without matzah balls, just refrigerate the cooked chicken after you’ve discarded the bones and skin, to eat the next day. When I need only up to 3 servings, I only use the split breast of a large chicken because trimming excess fat from under the skin is not needed for that part of the chicken. I bring about 1-1/2 qts of water to boil, add about 1 Tbsp cider vinegar to the pot and put in the rinsed, split breast, then put in a pinch of black pepper. I bring the water back to a simmer and turn down the burner to keep it that way, and cover. To keep the soup flavorful, I will be cooking the breast a total of 50 minutes and the vegetables will be cleaned, cut into bite size pieces, and in the pot for the last 20 minutes of cooking. If I’m making kneidlach, I prepare the veggies ahead of time. If not, I do it as the chicken cooks. One big difference my recipe has from this one is that I
Made this with my husband for date night. It was excellent! We didn’t add the leek or parsnip as we didn’t have them but added extra carrots and celery. We added fresh cilantro (what we had on hand) and dried rosemary which did not conflict with each other. We used dried dill which was fine and most importantly added a scoop of bouillon paste which adds ALOT of flavor. I add this paste to all my soups. As this soup cooked and we tasted the broth in stages we could taste depth as everything came together. My husband is not a big soup guy but he really loved this. I would say spring for a nice organic chicken as it makes a difference and this makes a nice big batch.
The soup is very similar to how I make it but I have found the best way to make matzo balls is to cover the pot securely, turn heat down to medium low, and allow to boil for at least 25 – 30 minutes. Also when preparing the matzo balls, do not squeeze them too much or they will become tough and doughy. I also add parsley to the ball mix.
This was very good! My first attempt at matzoh ball soup. And it was a hit! I will definitely be making this again and again !
I love this recipe! The only thing I do differently is used already cooked chicken from the supermarket and shred. I am too lazy to cook a whole chicken from scratch and it comes out tasting so good. My picky husband loves it and that is what’s important. Thank You for sharing a great homemade recipe.
My favorite deli back in my hometown closed down over 20 years ago and with it went the best matzo ball soup I have ever had. I’ve been searching for a good recipe since then and now my search is over. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This recipe killed it in our house! I was going for a vegetarian vibe, so I left out the chicken and used vegetable broth. Also, my turnips were (sadly) not good enough to use, so I subbed some (red) potatoes. I do love turnips, though, so the next time they’re going in! I also added some white beans because I had ’em and thought it would help in the place of the missing chicken. We were going through a cold snap when I made this and it was a lovely dish for a not-so-lovely day outside. I love how you can customize the vegetables you use, also. Thanks!