Cooking chicken meatballs with chicken has never been easier with this Instant Pot Chicken Meatball Soup recipe. This chicken meatball soup can be made ahead as the meatballs and broth freeze well.
Preparation:
Cook:
Level: Easy
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- FOR THE SOUP:
- 4 Large quarter chicken thighs with skin and bones
- 4 cups Water
- 2 cups Chicken broth
- 4 Chicken Stock Cubes
- 6 Medium carrots, sliced
- 1 whole White onion, cut into large chunks
- 2 tablespoons Fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 2 tablespoons Fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper
- FOR THE MEATBALLS:
- ½ cups Whole milk
- 4 Eggs
- 2 cups All purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoons Black pepper
- ¼ teaspoons Freshly grated nutmeg
Preparation
Add all the soup ingredients to the Instant Pot and stir them a few times. Close lid and pressure cook on high for 15 minutes (30 minutes if using frozen chicken).
While the soup cooks, prepare the meatballs by sifting together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Add the nutmeg and black pepper and whisk to combine well. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a separate bowl, then slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring as you go. Keep stirring until no more dry lumps remain, then set the dough aside until ready to use.
Once the Instant Pot’s timer has gone off, carefully open the vent to quickly release the pressure. When it is safe to remove the cover, do so carefully. Use a ladle and carving fork to shred the meat and remove the bones, gristle and skin from the soup. It will take about 10 minutes, but take your time getting these things out. It’s never fun to bite into a bite of cartilage or worse, bone. Although this step can be a little tedious, don’t be tempted to use boneless chicken. The skin, bones and cartilage are what give the broth its flavor! (See note below if you still want to use boneless chicken.)
Cancel the “hot” setting and set the Instant Pot to the “soup/stew” setting, then add the dumplings to the stew. I use two teaspoons to do this; one to scoop about 1 teaspoon of batter and the other to slide the batter into the stew. When adding a dumpling to the stew, immediately dip it below the surface of the broth. Although the dumplings will rise to the surface, soaking them coats them in fat and prevents them from sticking together. Continue until all the dough is used up, varying the size of the dumpling a bit to make it interesting. The dumplings will double in size while cooking, so don’t make them larger than a teaspoon (or they might not cook completely). Once all the dumplings are in the stew, continue to cook the stew uncovered for another 15 minutes. It will start to boil, it’s ok.
When you are ready to serve the soup, override all Instant Pot settings and allow the stew to cool slightly as it will be very hot at this point. Use a large ladle to serve it in bowls and garnish with fresh parsley, a pinch of sea salt and a grind of black pepper.
Note: If you decide to use boneless chicken, dark meat will give you the best result which most closely resembles homemade broth. If you prefer to use white meat, add a little olive oil or butter to the soup in the first step to prevent your broth from going flat.
