Fun twist on a classic Chicken Noodle recipe, but this particular one has much more flavor and it's much more fun! It's a delicious soup made with chicken meatballs, veggies, and orzo pasta.
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.