Recipe: Mom's Matzo Ball Soup
A comforting classic perfect for Passover, or when you just wanna feel okay
An aromatic broth packed with chicken flavor seeps into the matzo ball for moist bites. Celery, onion, carrots, parsley, and parsnips are the aromatic stars that give depth and sweetness to the pure chicken broth taste. Fresh dill brightens everything up, and proper seasoning is key to bringing out all of the flavors. This recipe must be prepared one day ahead of eating, but the wait is well worth it. You’ll end up with tender and substantial matzo balls suspended in an aromatic, flavor-packed broth. This soup will transport you to my childhood home and fill you with comfort.
To be honest, I don’t have any experience with vegan matzo ball soup. However, this recipe seems like it approximates a more classic flavor profile. Try it out and let me know!
Learn more about the inspiration for this dish and the story behind it: Saying No to a Bar Mitzvah, and the Perfect Matzo Ball
Learn more about why and how this dish works: Notes on Mom’s Matzo Ball Soup
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 120 minutes (This recipe must be prepared one day ahead to allow the broth and matzo ball mixture to cool.)
Yield: Makes 8 matzo balls, and 10-15 cups of soup
Ingredients:
Matzo balls (adapted from the Vassar Temple Sisterhood Cookbook):
1/2 cup of matzo meal (buy the can at a Whole Foods, Safeway, Fry’s, etc.)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, substitute with vegetable oil if you can’t make/find schmaltz)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
a pinch of baking powder (optional, makes matzo balls lighter and fluffier)
garlic powder
onion powder
black pepper
Chicken soup:
1 whole chicken, around 3-4 pounds (or 3 pounds of chicken legs and thighs, with the skin and bones)
1 small parsnip (1 inch diameter)
2 large carrots
1 large onion
2 celery stalks
10 sprigs of parsley
10 black peppercorns
fresh dill (for garnish)
1 Tbsp salt
celery seed (optional)
dill seed (optional)
Tools needed:
cutting board
knife
stock pot
pot
mixing bowl
strainer
measuring cups
Suggested directions:
Wash your hands and set up your workspace with your tools and ingredients.
Get about 10-15 cups of water boiling in a stock pot.
Wash the vegetables, and peel the carrots and onion. The dill is only for garnish, so it won’t be needed until the next day, or whenever you’re planning on eating it.
Roughly chop the parsnip, onion, and celery. It doesn’t matter exactly how you cut these pieces since they’ll be discarded later.
Slice the carrots into 1 inch pieces. These will be served along with the matzo ball soup later. Later, if you’d like more bite size pieces you can slice the carrots into thinner coins.
Slowly place the chicken into the boiling water and keep boiling on high for about 5 minutes. Skim off any bubbles and scum that floats to the top.
Put the vegetables in the boiling water along with the peppercorns, celery seeds, and dill seeds. At this point, season the broth with about a tablespoon of salt or more if needed. Make sure to taste it as you season, it shouldn’t be overly salted. Turn the heat to a low simmer, and cover, cooking for 2 hours. For an extra clear broth, continuously skim as the broth simmers and make sure to keep it at a low simmer.
While the stock is simmering, prepare the matzo balls. Mix the dry ingredients, then pour in the water, eggs, and oil and mix.
Once those ingredients are well incorporated, cover and put in the fridge. It needs to cool and hydrate until it’s firm enough to roll a ball. This is a crucial step and normally takes about 30 minutes.
After 2 hours of simmering, remove the stock. Let it cool for about an hour.
Remove the chicken from the pot, then separate the meat from the bones. Feel around the carcass and pull the meat off of the bones. Try not to waste any meat on there. I’d say most people only use the meat, and discard the skin and cartilage. I like to keep the skin and some cartilage.
Strain the stock liquid and set aside the carrot pieces. You may discard the other vegetables as they have most likely lost all of their flavor. Place the strained stock, carrots, and chicken stored separately in the fridge overnight.
The following day:
After the stock is fully cooled, remove the layer of chicken fat on top of the stock. Reserve this and use it later to fry some onions, or as a flavorful topping over some noodle soup. Chicken fat is great. I used a Vikon Chicken, which has low fat content and a more intense chicken flavor, so I didn’t have much chicken fat to skim. Most likely, your chicken will render out a lot more fat than what’s shown below (just the top yellowish layer is fat).
To cook the matzo balls, get a wide pot with 15-20 cups of water boiling. The balls will double in diameter, so make sure the pot is wide enough. Put a small pot of chicken stock to simmer on medium-low to reheat it.
Form the matzo mixture into balls. They should only be about 2 inches in diameter because they will blow up to almost twice their size depending on how much baking powder the mixture contains. You can coat your hands in oil to avoid making a mess like me, but my mom has suspicions that this can affect the texture of the matzo ball later on. The sphericalness of matzo balls are a point of pride for many Jewish cooks. However, my mom says she rolls irregular matzo balls to rebel against her mom’s strict guidelines.
As you form the balls, gently lower them into the boiling water, cover, and boil for about 20 minutes covered. After 20 minutes of boiling, take the most imperfect matzo ball out and cut it in half to test the texture. Take a bite. Don’t leave them uncovered, otherwise you’ll end up with weird coloration and dense matzo balls.
A good matzo ball will be tender and moist all the way through, but not mushy. An underdone matzo ball will be dry on the inside, mealy, and dense. An overdone matzo ball will fall apart and not have a bite to it. You can’t un-cook something, but you can always cook it longer, so make sure to check right at 20 minutes to avoid a mushy matzo ball. Daniel Gritzer’s article suggests cooking the matzo balls in broth to maximize flavor. We don’t need to do that because we seasoned our matzo balls liberally, but cooking them in chicken broth would be optimal.
Once done, place a couple of matzo balls into a bowl. Put in some shredded chicken and a couple of pieces of carrots, then douse with hot chicken soup. Chop up a few sprigs of fresh dill, then season with salt to taste. Your steaming bowl of comforting matzo ball soup is ready to eat.
I recommend only making an amount of matzo balls that you’ll eat fresh. They can keep in the fridge, but they lose their texture and get a bit soggy and even more tender. You might actually like this texture though, so make sure to experiment with a few leftover matzo balls to see for yourself.