Did you love Progresso Chickarina soup growing up? Try this Homemade Chickarina Soup recipe for a healthy homemade version of a classic.
Make-ahead
Mnimal prep
You’ll Learn: How to make chicken meatballs stay tender
Worth It: It builds a freezer stash for stress-free meals later
Bonus: Simple swaps to match what’s in your pantry
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ultimate comfort food – Chicken soup is such a big comfort food for me. Growing up loving the Progresso chickarina soup, I knew I needed to recreate it!
- Great to bring to friends – I love making this recipe to bring to friends when they are sick or new parents who don’t have time to worry about cooking. This chicken meatball soup is the perfect thing to heat up and enjoy.
- The best leftovers – A big batch of this soup will give you the best leftovers. I love heating up a bowl of this soup the next day for lunch!
- Freezer friendly – To freeze this soup, follow all steps except for adding the pastina, then freeze for a future meal!
Serving Suggestions
This soup is delicious on its own, but I love serving it with some of my overnight bread or focaccia.
If you want to serve it alongside a salad, it would be delicious with kale cranberry quinoa salad, or this lemon kale caesar.
Ingredients
- Olive oil – I used olive oil for this soup, but you could use any neutral oil
- Yellow onion, carrot, celery – this classic vegetable combination creates the mirepoix for your soup
- Chicken thighs – use boneless skinless chicken thighs to make it quick and easy to shred the meat
- Pastina or pearl couscous – you can use either pastina or Israeli couscous for a delicious soup
- Kosher salt and black pepper – you just need a bit of salt and pepper to bring out the flavors in your soup
- Ground chicken – the ground chicken will be the base of your meatballs that go into your soup
- Egg – the egg binds the meatballs together
- Fresh parsley – I use fresh parsley in my meatballs, but you can also substituted dried parsley
- Chicken broth – use your favorite chicken stock to make your soup
Ingredient Substitutions
I love the classic chicken soup, but you could also use turkey or pork to make your meatballs instead. The chicken thighs are delicious in this recipe, but you could use chicken breasts instead if you prefer white chicken meat.
If you want to make your meatballs a bit heartier, you could add some breadcrumbs to the mixture. If you do add them, use just a couple tablespoons of bread crumbs. I used a whole egg to bind the meatballs, but you could use egg white instead. Feel free to add a bit of cheese to your meatballs as well. Parmesan cheese or pecorino romano cheese would both be great. You could also opt to sprinkle some cheese on at the end!
I find that this soup has plenty of flavor on its own, but you can mix it up with different spices. Add a teaspoon of garlic powder or onion powder, or you could toss in a bay leaf while it simmers. If you want a bit more of an Italian wedding soup taste, you could also add in some spinach or escarole.
How to Make
Step 1: Saute Vegetables and Make Meatballs
To begin, dice the onion and chop your celery and carrots. Then, heat oil in a large dutch oven or large stock pot over medium heat.
Then, when the oil is hot add the celery, carrots and onion to the pot along with the salt and pepper. Sauté until the veggies are they are soft and fragrant – about 7 minutes (Image 1).
Next, add chicken thighs, water and broth to the pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Then, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 14 minutes uncovered.
As the chicken thighs cook some white foam will rise to the top. You can skim that off with a spoon.
Step 2: Prepare and cook chicken meatballs
While the chicken thighs cook, prepare the chicken meatballs by combing ground chicken, egg, salt and fresh parsley in a mixing bowl (Image 2). When the chicken thighs have simmered for 14 minutes, remove from the pot, but keep the water simmering.
To make the meatballs, use a cookie scoop to take about 1 heaping tsp of the chicken meatball mixture and drop each one directly into the simmering broth on the stove. The meatballs will start to rise to the top as they cook.
Step 3: Simmer pastina and finish the soup
Once you have added all of your meatballs to the simmering pot, shred your chicken thighs (Image 3) and add them back to the pot along with the pastina or pasta pearls (Image 4).
Then, continue simmering the soup for about 15 minutes. At this point the pasta should be fully cooked and you can remove the soup from the heat.
Lastly, top the soup with parmesan, lemon zest and parsley and serve!
Step 4: Enjoy!
Storage and Reheating
Once prepared, allow the soup to cool completely. Then, transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge.
The chickarina soup will be good in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat the soup on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Check Out These Other Soup Recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Homemade Chickarina Soup (Progresso Copycat)
Ingredients
Soup Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 cup chopped carrot
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups water
- 3/4 cup dry pastina or dry pearl cous cous
Chicken Meatball Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken breast
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley or 1/2 tbsp dried
Instructions
- Dice the onion and chop your celery and carrots
- Heat oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat
- When the oil is hot add the celery, carrots and onion to the pot along with the salt and peper
- Saute until the veggies are they are soft and fragrant – about 7 minutes
- Add chicken thighs, water and broth to the pot and bring to a boil
- Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 14 minutes uncovered
- As the chicken thighs cook some white foam will rise to the top so you can skim that off with a spoon
- While the chicken thighs cook prepare the chicken meatballs by combing ground chicken, egg, salt and fresh parsley in a mixing bowl
- When the chicken thighs have simmered for 14 minutes, remove from the pot, but keep the water simmering
- To make the meatballs, take about 1 heaping tsp of the chicken meatball mixture and drop each one directly into the simmering broth on the stove. The meatballs will start to rise to the top as they cook
- Once you have added all of your meatballs to the simmering pot, shred your chicken thighs and add them back to the pot along with the pastina or pearl cous cous
- Continue simmering the soup for about 15 minutes
- At this point the pasta should be fully cooked and you can remove the soup from the heat
- Top soup with parmesan, lemon zest and parsley and serve!
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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