Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs
Endings are always bittersweet. This post is my last one as a 2016 Chicken Farmers of Canada Brand Ambassador. On one hand, I can reflect back on the year and the fun I’ve had sharing delicious chicken recipes and other important info about the Chicken Farmers of Canada. I love sharing their great contests and helpful tips to help you in the kitchen with your chicken recipes. Still, I’m a bit sad to see it come to a close. I think my last recipe is fitting – comforting and tasty chicken soup. I need some comfort food to make me feel better!
Chicken Farmers of Canada is an excellent source for great recipes. I visit their site and their Shopping app often for inspiration. This Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs was on their site and jumped out at me when I was searching for soup recipes to try. I’ve tried Italian Wedding Soup before at restaurants, but never made my own at home. That will change now that I’ve made this easy recipe. It was a hit with my family.
Ingredients
The full printable recipe card with measurements and instructions is found at the bottom of the post.
- Lean ground chicken
- Chicken broth
- Acini de pepe
- Whole wheat bread
- Egg
- Garlic
- Onion powder
- Pepper
- Parmesan cheese
- Baby spinach
How to Make Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs
- Step One: Cook acini de pepe until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Step Two: Add chicken broth to a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to medium low.
- Step Three: Tear bread into tiny pieces by hand and add to a large bowl. Add in ground chicken, egg, garlic, onion powder, pepper and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Mix together with clean hands. Form 1 tbsp of the mixture into balls by hand.
- Step Four: Place meatballs in simmering broth, cover, and bring back to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium low, cover, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.
- Step Five: Stir in baby spinach and acini de pepe pasta. Cook until spinach is wilted and pasta is heated, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Step Six: To serve, ladle into bowls and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.
This recipe is perfect for feeding a crowd. It makes a lot of soup! That’s a good thing though. Because leftovers. It saved me from having to cook anything the next day because we had so much left. It was just as tasty heated up.
The only thing I changed was omitting the fresh parsley from the meatballs. I forgot to buy it when I was picking up the ingredients. My bad. It still turned out great though. The meatballs were perfect, in my opinion.
I wanted to quickly point out the type of pasta used in the recipe: Acini de Pepe. The name was completely foreign to me and I had no idea of what I was looking for in the pasta aisle. They are the tiny round circles. My small town grocery store carried it. If yours doesn’t have it, substitute another type of pasta like orzo or Ditali pasta.
You might also like Very Veggie Chicken and Rice Soup, Greek Chicken Orzo Soup, Chicken Fajita Soup, Chicken Tortilla Soup or Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup. Try this Italian Sub Salad.
What is your favourite recipe for chicken soup?
Disclosure: I am participating in the Chicken Farmers of Canada campaign managed by SJ Consulting. I received compensation in exchange for my participation in this campaign. The opinions on this blog are my own.
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Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs
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Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground chicken
- 16 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups acini de pepe
- 2 slices whole wheat bread
- 1 egg
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
- 6 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Cook acini de pepe until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Add chicken broth to a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to medium low.
- Tear bread into tiny pieces by hand and add to a large bowl. Add in ground chicken, egg, garlic, onion powder, pepper and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Mix together with clean hands. Form 1 tbsp of the mixture into balls by hand.
- Place meatballs in simmering broth, cover, and bring back to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium low, cover, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.
- Stir in baby spinach and acini de pepe pasta. Cook until spinach is wilted and pasta is heated, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- To serve, ladle into bowls and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Equipment
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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It looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing with us at Funtastic Friday 🙂
What a great recipe Stacie. When I first looked at it I thought it was like one of the Greek ones we make. We use ground meat and mix rice into it. A very hearty and filling soup indeed.
This soup looks so wonderful! The chicken balls make it so comforting. But what is acini de pepe? I have never heard of that before.
It’s a tiny pasta about the size of a peppercorn.
I love wedding soup but i have never made it. Your recipe sounds easy. Pinning.
Thanks for sharing at Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop. Hope you come back next week so I can stop by again.
Bev
I barely cook but I saw this at the Best of the Weekend link party and thought, “that looks tempting” so I’ve pinned it and will give it a whirl. Thanks for sharing and good luck in your next venture.
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight Party. Pinned & shared.
Pinned! Sounds amazing 🙂
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Gosh I was wanting to try and make this one day. I love this soup but have never made it homemade. Now I seriously WILL thank you to your post. Here it goes now to pinterest! 🙂 Visiting from meet up monday visit me too any time Stacie. I want blogging friends! 🙂
Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs recipe is amazing and the soup looks so delicious! I want to make it and have for dinner. IT is so cold outside and this soup is a good one to try!
This looks delicious! Saving this for sure! thanks
I had to look up what acini de pepe is, never heard of it before, great name for a form of pasta. Great sounding soup too, thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for sharing we have soup often now that the weather has chilled,love to try this one sometime.
Sounds like a great soup recipe to try out. Usually I just make Chicken Noodle Soup but this would be a nice change.
I’ve never heard of acini de pepe but it sounds like a wonderful addition to a soup such as this one. I might just blow my Italian husband away one night with this recipe,.