Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup
Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup features flavorful homemade meatballs, plenty of tender orzo, veggies and a bouquet of fresh herbs. It’s similar to classic chicken noodle soup, but with meatballs instead of shredded chicken and orzo instead of egg noodles!
Enjoy more of my favorite comforting soup recipes like Chicken Noodle Soup and Italian Wedding Soup.
Table of Contents
For all of you picky eaters and those who try to feed picky eaters, this soup might just be your saving grace. Both of my kids can be quite impossible to feed and sometimes, even my husband whines when I make something with too many veggies!
So to try and please them, I put a fun twist on a classic chicken noodle soup with chicken meatballs instead of plain old chicken breast and orzo instead of noodles. They loved it! They loved the flavor and they loved the addition of meatballs.
My secret with this recipe is in searing to get caramelization on onions and meatballs. So much great flavor comes from caramelized onions! and meatballs, so make sure to get the onions golden brown and the meatballs too.
When you slowly add the stock, make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with your wooden spoon to deglaze all that browned goodness off the bottom of the pan and mix it into the broth. It adds so much delicious flavor.
Ingredient Notes
Ground Chicken – make sure to get the ground chicken with has no additional flavors mixed in. If you wish, you can swap this with ground turkey if preferred.
Chicken Stock – I always recommend using Homemade Chicken Stock for the best flavor.
Egg – This is used to bind the meatball ingredients together.
Breadcrumbs – Use plain breadcrumbs! We’ll be adding our own flavors with herbs and seasonings.
Garlic – Smash your garlic before you mince it. That will release the most flavor.
Orzo – If you happen to have any leftover orzo, use it to make my favorite Parmesan Mushroom Orzo.
Herbs – We’re using fresh dill weed and parsley in both the chicken meatballs and soup itself. You can swap these with dried herbs if you’d like, just cut the measurements in half since dried herbs are more potent.
See recipe card for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup
Make the meatballs. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl (1,) and mix until evenly incorporated (2). Use a cookie scoop to create evenly sized meatballs (3). Cover a cutting board with parchment paper and place the meatballs on it (4).
PRO TIP: Prepare all the meatballs before you begin cooking.
Cook the meatballs. Preheat a Dutch oven (or large pot) over medium heat and add oil. Place the meatballs in an even layer, cook until golden brown, then flip and cook until golden brown on the opposite side as well (5). Once seared on both sides, remove from the pot and set aside.
Sauté the veggies. Add the diced onion, celery, and carrots to the pot. Sauté until they soften and begin to caramelize. Stir from time to time (6).
Add garlic. Add the minced garlic to the center of the pot and cook just until fragrant (7). Mix with the other veggies.
Add the stock. Pour the stock into the pot. Scrape the bottom of the pot with a spatula (8).
Add meatballs. Add the meatballs back into the pot along with any juices they’ve accumulated (9). Bring the soup to a gentle simmer, then reduce the heat to low.
Season. Season the soup with salt, pepper, and add a bay leaf (10). Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Leave a little crack open for the steam to escape.
Add orzo. Stir in orzo and herbs (11) and cook until orzo is done (12). Discard the bay leaf.
PRO TIP: Orzo usually needs about 8-10 minutes to cook. Taste it to make sure it’s done before serving.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! You can use ground turkey just like ground chicken. I just recommend that you use “lean” ground turkey and not “extra lean.” You need a little fat in the ground meat to make it juicy, otherwise the meatballs will be on a dry side, even in a soup.
Yes, of course. If you don’t like dill weed, you can use just parsley. Parsley is a nice and mild herb that goes with just about any flavor. I would be careful about using other herbs because of a strong flavor, so if you do, stick to smaller amounts.
There are several ways you can customize this soup! Feel free to add some other hearty vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, or green beans. You can also add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the cooked soup for a zesty lemon note! Speaking of customizing, you can always make it a little spicy if you wish by adding red pepper flakes.
Yes, you can use another type of small pasta like pastina, ditalini, stellini, anellini, or another one you can find at your local grocery store.
Tips for the Best Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup
- Make sure to roll the meatballs before starting to cook!
- Remember to preheat the Dutch oven before adding meatballs. This will ensure a nice sear.
- Let the meatballs and veggies get a nice sear when cooking, this will contribute greatly to the overall flavor of the soup.
- Feel free to use fresh herbs or dried herbs, just remember that dried herbs have a stronger flavor, so you’ll want to use a smaller amount of dried herbs than fresh.
- Throw in a parmesan rind during the last few minutes of cooking for a delightful cheesy flavor!
Storing Instructions
Store the soup in an airtight food storage container in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it should be good for 3-4 days.
To reheat the soup, you can do it in individual portions in the microwave. Or, reheat portions in a small sauce pot, over medium to medium-low heat.
More Chicken Soup Recipes
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Chicken Meatball and Orzo Soup Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup minced yellow onion
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp fresh minced dill weed (or 1/2 tbsp dried dill weed)
- 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley (or 1/2 tbsp dried parsley)
- salt and pepper to taste
Soup
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil to cook vegetables
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 2-3 medium carrots shredded
- 2 celery ribs
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil to cook meatballs
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup uncooked orzo
- 1 tbsp fresh minced dill weed (or 1/2 tbsp dried dill weed)
- 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley (or 1/2 tbsp dried parsley)
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Meatballs:
- Note: make sure to prepare meatballs first, before starting to cook.
- Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs in the mixing bowl and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Use a cookie scoop to get equal amount of mixture for the meatballs. Cover a cutting board with parchment paper and place meatballs onto the paper.
Soup:
- Preheat a Dutch oven over medium heat and add some oil. Place the meatballs in one even layer. Cook meatballs on one side until golden brown and flip.
- Cook meatballs on the other side until golden brown as well. Once meatballs are seared of both sides, remove them from the pot and set aside.
- Add a little more oil to the pot if needed. Add diced onion, celery, and shredded carrots and sauté until they begin to caramelize. Make sure to stir from time to time but not too much to let them brown.
- When veggies are soft and nicely golden, add crushed and minced garlic to the venter and let it sauté until fragrant. Mix with the other veggies.
- Add the meatballs back into the pot (and the juices that may have ran off onto the plate). Pour in the stock while scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer and lower the heat to low.
- Season with salt, pepper, and add a bay leaf. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 15-20 minutes. (Make sure to leave a little crack open for the steam to escape.)
- Stir in orzo and herbs and cook until orzo is done. (About-8 10 minutes but make sure to taste the orzo to check.)
- *Remember to discard bay leaf once the soup is done.*
Notes
- Gluten Free Notes: You can easily make this soup gluten free by using your favorite, small gluten free pasta and make sure to use gluten free bread crumbs when making meatballs. Remaining ingredients should already be gluten free but double check all the packaging.
- Substituting ground turkey: You can use ground turkey just like ground chicken. I just recommend that you use “lean” ground turkey and not “extra lean.” You need a little fat in the ground meat to make it juicy, otherwise the meatballs will be on a dry side, even in a soup.
- Substituting herbs: If you don’t like dill weed, you can use just parsley. Parsley is a nice and mild herb that goes with just about any flavor. I would be careful about using other herbs because of a strong flavor, so if you do, stick to smaller amounts.
- Dried herbs: You can swap these with dried herbs if you’d like, just cut the measurements in half since dried herbs are more potent.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in November 2013.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
This looks to be a perfect recipe for us- I get so tired of the chicken breast in soup, he loves dill- could be an excellent compromise. But I have a strange question. Your orzo looks so lovely and plump. The brand I buy is more rice shaped, and the texture is hard to get right, especially when I make soup. What brand orzo did you use? I must track it down.
Our daughter-in-law brought this soup to us when we came into town to help care for a couple of family members who were having surgery After a long day at the hospital, being able to come back to where we are staying and heat up this wonderful soup made the weariness of the day almost melt away! It is a recipe I know I will use again and again and will “pay it forward” to families need a lovely dish of comfort in a bowl. Thanks for posting it! I’d give it 10 stars if possible.
Thank you so much, Linda! I am so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
DELICIIOUS…I have been cooking for longer than I care to admit and I’m pretty good in the kitchen. My son who is a trained chef is home for the holidays and I thought this was something that I could throw together that everyone would enjoy. I purchased all of the ingredients and this morning I thought I would get a head start by making the meatballs, finishing the soup later when everyone was going to home for dinner. I went to visit a friend and when I returned home the meatballs had disappeared but the ingredients needed to remake them were in the fridge times two. My husband and son tried to blame the missing meatballs on the poor dog. I remade the meatballs and then finished the soup and it was VERY good. I like that it had plenty of flavor and was really delicious but didn’t require the long slow cooking time on the stove that some soups require. Ladies with children take notice…my son shared that it was dishes like this from his childhood that encouraged him to go into culinary as a profession. He said all of the time that he spent in the kitchen with me as a child- rolling meatballs, etc. that hooked him. Thank you for sharing your love and passion with us all =sending blessings to your family for the new year.
Wow! Thank you so much for the lovely complement! I am so glad you and your family enjoyed it!
Just made this last night, it was so so good! and easy to make, thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Kelly! 🙂
Love your recipes! Always simple to follow and delicious!
Thank you, Jennie! I love hearing that! 🙂
I prepared this soup and we loved it!
The photo is what drew me too it. The picture is deceiving as mine didn’t come close to yellow. With all the wonderful scrapings from the onion and garlic along with cooked carrots I’m not sure how the color yellow came about.
Next time I will use 1/2 the orzo as it sucks up the liquid so quickly it’s no longer soup but still so tasty especially the next day. Will make again.
Honestly, I’m not sure about the color because all my onion and carrot based soups come out quite yellow. Even potato soup that i make with onions and carrots comes out with a yellow tint. May be it the type of carrots.
I agree, when kept overnight, many pasta soups soak up a lot of liquid. If I know that we won’t be eating all the soup in one sitting, I add extra stock when I cook it.
Thank you, Laurie and I”m so happy you liked the soup!
Do you know how long to cook this in an Instant Pot?
Hi Maria!
Oh, I wish I could give you exact time. I haven’t made it in an instant pot. What I would do is saute veggies and meatballs in the Instant Pot, much like on stove-top, and then add broth and orzo and pressure cook on high for may be 5 minutes. I’d let it do a natural release for about 5 minutes and then do a quick release.
I haven’t tried making it in instant pot but that I what I would do. Orzo is quite fast to cook in instant pot and meatballs will me about half done after saute.
I hope it works out well!!
The chicken meatball with orzo is THE BOMB! I’ve made it lots, eaten it lots, shared it lots. We have tried to pre-make and freeze the meatballs, but end up just eating them up. It’s just sooo good.
That fresh dill really is the game changer.
Woo hoo! I love hearing that, Beth!
Love this soup! Have made it numerous times, the whole family loves it! Ty for a great recipe!!
Thank you, Valerie! That’s always great to hear 🙂
This soup was delicious. I loved it with chicken, rather than turkey, the meatballs stayed lovely and moist. The only changes I made were to double the stock, (to make sure I had enough soup for my big boys!) and I used just a wee bit of dried thyme in the meatballs, as I am not a fan of dill. I put fresh chopped garlic in the meatballs and made sure to season them really well with salt and pepper. Then I didn’t realize I needed more garlic for the soup portion, so I just sprinkled in a little garlic powder after the veggies were mostly caramelized. The broth came out dark and rich, very tasty. I added more salt and pepper to taste just before the orzo went in. We ate it with a French loaf and a French baguette. I much preferred the chicken meatballs to the turkey meatballs I have made in the past. This was perfect for a chilly November evening. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, my word this was good!!!!!!! Your recipes make me smile every time. This was soooooooo yummy!
Awe, thank you so much, Lyana! I hope you like it!
Chicken Meatball Orzo Soup : I found it quite bland as prepared by recipe instruction. I added 2 tsps. Old Bay seasoning to zest it up some rather than a bay leaf.