Chicken Albondigas Soup

Prep Time: 1 hour | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Serves: up to 12

This recipe makes about 60 meatballs but you don’t have to use it all at one time, thus the huge range on servings listed above. This is something that you can make and store some in the freezer and pop some in chicken stock for a quick weekday dinner. Traditional sopa de albóndigas is made from uncooked rice, ground beef and chorizo, but my mom used to make it for me with chicken. I used Shelton’s ground chicken and cooked brown rice as uncooked brown rice would take forever and still be a bit hard just boiled in the soup.

Ingredients for the Meatballs (makes approx 60 meatballs)

• 2 lbs Ground Chicken
• 3 cups cooked Brown Rice
• 3 Eggs, beaten
• 1 medium Yellow Onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Thyme leaves from 5 sprigs
• Handful chopped parsley
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions for Meatballs

1. Combine all ingredients above well
2. Form 1″ balls using a spoon to keep the size consistent.  Make sure to roll them well so they don’t break apart in the soup. You should yield about 60 meatballs (I made 63 with this recipe)
3. Lay out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Reserve meatballs to be used now
5. Note: Do not freeze in a bag or else they will all stick together. Instead, freeze the remainder on the cookie sheet, covered. When they are frozen, transfer to a freezer zipper bag or tupperware.

Ingredients for the Soup (for about 10 -12 meatballs – 2 servings of soup as a meal; multiply below quantities by 6 to use all the meatballs.)

• 16 oz homemade or store bought organic chicken stock
• 16 oz water
• 1 carrot, sliced into rounds
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 cup tomatoes, diced (or you can use canned – I halved cherry organic sugar plum tomatoes)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
• 1/2 red onion, quartered
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Instructions for Soup

1. Place stock and water in a medium pot and bring to boil.
2. Add tomatoes and jalapeno and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Drop meatballs one at a time. Cook for 15 minutes or until they rise.
4. Add onions, celery and carrots and simmer for about 20 minutes or until carrots are tender.
5. Add cilantro right before serving.
6. Divide into bowls and serve immediately.