Italian Wedding Soup
Made with the most perfectly tender, juicy, chicken meatballs! So hearty and flavorful. Not to mention, it’s simple, quick and easy!
I know. I really need to stop eating soup when it’s 100+ degrees outside.
But I can’t help it. I can’t.
I love soup 365 degrees out of the year, but I particularly love it during the summer.
With all the summer harvest and the perfectly juicy chicken meatballs, you won’t care about the heat outside.
You’ll just keep refilling your bowl, with extra meatballs and extra Parmesan, of course.
Oh, and the crusty bread to soak up all that hearty goodness. Nope, You can’t forget about that. It’s just as important as the soup.
Italian Wedding Soup
Made with the most perfectly tender, juicy, chicken meatballs! So hearty and flavorful. Not to mention, it's simple, quick and easy!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup uncooked acini di pepe pasta
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 3 cups baby spinach, chopped
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
For the chicken meatballs
- ½ pound ground chicken
- ½ pound chicken sausage, casing removed
- ⅓ cup Panko
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine ground chicken, chicken sausage, Panko, Parmesan, egg, oregano, basil, parsley and garlic powder; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs, forming about 25-30 meatballs.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the stockpot. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in chicken stock and bay leaves; bring to a boil. Stir in acini di pepe, rosemary and meatballs; reduce heat and simmer until pasta is tender and meatballs are cooked through, about 9-12 minutes.
- Stir in spinach, lemon juice and parsley until spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Very nice soup. Broth turned out excellent. The lemon juice secretly added a lot!
Thanks
This was absolutely delicious and fairly simple! To save a little time I baked the meatballs at 400 for 25 min and sprayed the meatballs and the pan with a little olive oil to crisp them up. Thank you for this wonderful recipe! My only advice on this is to double to recipe so you have leftovers 🙂
People, please make this soup. It is healthy, filling, and beyond good. I’ve probably made it 20 times now and my family still raves every time. I also make it for friends and neighbors when they need a meal brought to them.
Thank you for this fantastic recipe!
So delicious! Everyone loved it even my 1 year old!
Best wedding soup I have ever had! Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness! I think I croaked and went to heaven with this recipe! Chungah, you have yourself yet another winner! My whole family loved this recipe. The only thing was I couldn’t find the acini de pepe pasta so we subbed in Ditalini since we had some left over when we made your AMAZING Italian Meatball soup. And I halved the thyme amount since I’m not big on that herb. But it was PERFECT! Wow. We love your recipes! People, don’t hesitate to make this. You will be so glad you did.
Made it yesterday, 5th time. Have to double batch it because it’s a crowd pleaser.
This is now my go to recipe. I used 1 pound of ground chicken (instead of using sausage) to make meatballs…I had leftover chicken thighs that I chopped up and added to the soup (only bcuz I bought italian wedding soup that weekend that had tiny pieces of chopped up chicken); used Orzo because that is all I had. Delicious!!
This was so good! My friend and I meal prep on Mondays. So we baked the meatballs ahead of time and made this in the crockpot! The day we ate it, very thing except the pasta, spinach and lemon went in the crockpot. About an hour before serving we added the uncooked pasta, spinach and lemon. It was absolutely perfect! Even the picky kids loved it!
Excellent Soup! This is one of my favorite soups. Easy & delicious. I make soups all year long and put this one into my choices very often.
I LOVED this soup. I will say, it’s better than the East Side Mario’s one 😉 hehe
I substituted ground beef and pork sausages for the meatballs and used Israeli couscous instead.
I had left overs for 3 days and it tasted just as good if not better!
Thanks so much for sharing.
The soup was terrific!!! I used turkey sausage in place of chicken sausage. I also let the stock, vegetables and meatballs simmer for the afternoon to allow the flavors to soak in.
Definitely a repeat recipe!!
Do you have the nutritional information that you can share with us?
The most amazing soup… I went by the recipe to a tee…but I used ground turkey..1 lb, and turkey sausage 1 lb…little more meatballs… but the soup was so wonderful… and thick….lots and lots of prep… but was so worth it
Just fabulous. Didn’t have pork so just used chicken for meatballs. They were a little soft to form but were delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Just made yesterday. Very good and easy recipe. I used only chicken as I had no sausage. Used orzo as pasta. Delicious. Thanks!
An excellent recipe as always!
This was seriously delicious. . I didn’t have celery but it was amazingly yummy. We served it with a side of garlic bread. I absolutely loved it. ❤️ Thanks.
Easy to follow directions……I made ground beef meatballs as that’s what I had.. and I also had orzo so used that as well….. served it with fresh baked bread…….thanks!
Looks delicious – if trying to keep it gluten-free, what would you recommend for the acini di pepe substitution? I can easily find a panko sub for the meatballs, but the size and texture of the acini di pepe look great. Thanks!
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
So good – delicious and satisfying!
Awesome!