No.20 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Chicken soup with matzo balls

Made famous by Joan Nathan

Photo: Andrevan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Jewish Cooking in America, 1994.

Chicken soup is the dish most families everywhere make for anyone who's sick, and matzo ball soup is its most famous form. Joan Nathan is the authority.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Jewish Cooking in America.

Ingredients

• For the soup: 1 whole chicken (4 to 5 lb, 2 kg), cut into pieces, plus 1 lb chicken wings or backs if you can
• 4 quarts (3.8 L) cold water
• 2 onions, unpeeled, quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled; 4 celery stalks; 2 parsnips, peeled
• 1 bunch dill and 1 small bunch parsley
• 1 tbsp fine salt, plus more to taste, and 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• For the matzo balls: 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) schmaltz (chicken fat) or neutral oil
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) chicken broth or seltzer
• 1 cup (125 g) matzo meal
• 1 tsp fine salt and a pinch of pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped dill or parsley

Steps

1. Put the chicken and wings in a big pot with the cold water and bring slowly to a simmer over medium heat. As it heats, skim off the gray foam for the first 15 minutes; this keeps the broth clear.
2. Add the onions, 2 carrots, the celery, parsnips, half the dill, the parsley, salt and peppercorns. Simmer very gently, partly covered, 2 1/2 hours. Don't let it boil hard or the broth turns cloudy.
3. Make the matzo balls: whisk the eggs, schmaltz and broth. Stir in the matzo meal, salt, pepper and herbs. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to 1 hour, until firm.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. With wet hands, roll the mix into 1-inch balls without packing them. Drop into the water, cover, lower to a simmer and cook 30 to 40 minutes, until puffed and cooked through (cut one open to check). They will double in size.
5. Strain the soup. Pull the meat from the chicken and keep it for the soup or another meal. Skim the fat from the surface (save it as schmaltz).
6. Slice the remaining 2 carrots and simmer them in the strained broth until tender, 10 minutes. Taste for salt.
7. Serve each bowl with 2 or 3 matzo balls, some chicken and carrots, and chopped dill.

Chef's tips

• Cooked in water, the matzo balls don't cloud the soup.
• The broth keeps 4 days in the fridge and 3 months frozen.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Jewish Cooking in America by Joan Nathan: get the book.

← No. 19Pizza margherita→ No. 21Meatloaf