Healthy Shrimp Stuffed Chicken Meatball Soup
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Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that every culinary culture has its own variation of meatballs. There are probably thousands of ways to make meatballs with different flavors, textures, and shapes. Yet they all share one common characteristic – delicious!
Seeing all these fancy meatball specialists showing up across the city, I have been meaning to write a meatball post ever since the meatball obsessions started in NYC a few years ago. But of course I am not going to write another recipe about the traditional meatball covered in that all-too-familiar red sauce. After all, I am here to bridge the culinary cultures and provide original Asian recipes that are unique, creative, but always delicious!
So for my very first meatball recipe, I want to make it special…so special that I can trace my association to this dish back to my childhood. I was a picky eater when I was little. Worse, for some unknown reason, I hated meat (no I wasn’t a vegetarian). So to trick me into eating meat, my grandfather made these special chicken meatballs for me. He rolled them so nicely that I could resist but to try them. That was basically my short but memorable meatless diet. What’s more memorable are those meatballs.
Now I’ll share my memory of those meatballs with you. I modified my grandfather’s original recipe to make this light and healthy meatball soup dish. In the recipes I am sharing today, I have stuffed meatballs with shrimp. You might find putting the shrimp in the balls not as easy as it sounds, but with some practice you will become an expert.
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Step by Step Instruction:
Marinade the shrimp with salt and pepper. If using medium size shrimp, cut the each shrimp to halves. Finely chop 3 slices of ginger, scallion, and cilantro. Set aside
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken with chopped ginger, chopped scallions, chopped cilantro, egg, and corn starch. Mix using a spoon to incorporate
Add 1 -2 tsp of water to the meat mix, then stir with a spoon in one direction until the water is absorbed. Repeat this process for 3-4 times
Or until the meat mixture becomes fluffy and paste-like. Flavor the mixture with salt, white pepper powder, and sesame oil. Stir to mix
Before rolling out the meatball, start to boil a pot of water to pre-cook the meatballs.Spoon 1 tbsp of meat to form a ball. Poke a hole in the ball and stuff a piece of shrimp in. Seal the shrimp with additional meat. Gently drop the meatball to the boiling water.
Cook for about 2 minute, or until they float. Take out the meatball and set aside.
I normally cook in batches of 6 – 8 each time. Save the water used to boil the meatballs
To make the soup, run the meatball water through a fine mesh strainer. Keep the filtered water and bring to boil. Add 2 slices of ginger, cut up cabbage to the soup. Bring to boil again
Add the pre-cooked meatballs and boil for another 5 minutes. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Cut open one of the meatballs to make sure it is fully cooked inside. Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the soup hot
Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the soup hot!!
P.S. If you are still craving for more stuffed “balls” you might also like this popular Stuffed Glutinous Rice Flour Ball (Tang Yuan) dish!
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb fresh small shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1lb ground chicken
- ½ cabbages cut to smaller pieces
- 5 slices fresh ginger
- 2 stalks scallion
- 1 stalk cilantro (operational)
- 1 egg
- 1tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Salt
- White pepper powder
- Additional ginger and scallion for the soup
Instructions
- Marinade the shrimp with salt and pepper. If using medium size shrimp, cut the each shrimp to halves. Finely chop 3 slices of ginger, scallion, and cilantro. Set aside
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken with chopped ginger, chopped scallions, chopped cilantro, egg, and corn starch. Mix using a spoon to incorporate
- Add 1 -2 tsp of water to the meat mix, then stir with a spoon in one direction until the water is absorbed. Repeat this process for 3-4 times or until the meat mixture becomes fluffy and paste-like.
- Flavor the mixture with salt, white pepper powder, and sesame oil. Stir to mix
- Before rolling out the meatball, start to boil a pot of water to pre-cook the meatballs
- Spoon 1 tbsp of meat to form a ball. Poke a hole in the ball and stuff a piece of shrimp in. Seal the shrimp with additional meat. Gently drop the meatball to the boiling water. Cook for about 2 minute, or until they float. Take out the meatball and set aside. I normally cook in batches of 6 – 8 each time. Save the water used to boil the meatballs
- To make the soup, run the meatball water through a fine mesh strainer. Keep the filtered water and bring to boil.
- Add 2 slices of ginger, cut up cabbage to the soup. Bring to boil again.
- Add the pre-cooked meatballs and boil for another 5 minutes. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Cut open one of the meatballs to make sure it is fully cooked inside.
- Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the soup hot
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Made this soup tonight for my wife and kids. Wife said she was full from previous meal and wasn’t going to eat my soup. That is until I had her try one of the meatballs. She quickly changed her mind. Excellent recipe yi. Thank you.
HI Michael, thanks for the kind feedback. I am so happy to hear that these meatballs turned out great. Thanks again for checking out my blog.
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when you say “slices” of ginger, what do you mean? is there a way to add a spoon size? small slices, large slices? I don’t want my soup to taste like ginger.
You also had sugar in your recipe but forgot to mention it in the instructions.
Also how much water? 5 cups 6 cups?
Hi Fatima, sorry for getting back to you late. Regarding the amount of ginger, the slices are thin slices about 1×2 inch. In terms of water, I normally fill my stock pot with a littler over 1.5 quarts (6 cups) of water. You can make some adjustments depending on your preference. Hope this helps.
when you say “slices” of ginger, what do you mean? Thick slices thing slices? Isn’t there a better way of doing this? I wouldn’t like the soup overwhelmed with ginger flavor
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This soup is so delicious, and is warmed my winter frozen soul 🙂 Love how delicate it is 🙂
Thank you for sharing 🙂
Mette, thank you for stopping by. I am glad that you like this meatball soup. I had this soup multiple times over this cold and draggy winter.
Hello Yi , I can just imagine how tender these meatballs are with the delicate favors of the soup. Great comfort food. Thanks for sharing your childhood stories
Thanks for dropping by Bams. I am glad that you enjoyed my story haha
What an extraordinary alternative to European meatballs! I do prepare chicken balls, but never with shrimp and never in a soup. It sounds delicious and healthy indeed!
Thank you for commenting on my blog. I am very glad to discover yours and love it! (Finally I will be able to learn genuine Chinese cuisine!).
Hi Sissi, thank you for coming by. Yes these meatballs are absolutely delicious but you have to try them out yourself.
I think you’re right, just about any food culture I can think of, has some sort of variation of meatballs. This soup would be so good on cold evenings!
hey Gourmantine, thank you for the visit. Yes I’ve been making this soup a lot over this cold winter!
Your meatball soup sounds wonderful and comforting. I can probably eat this every day! I especially love the clear broth that you made with this soup. YUM! 😛
Hi Amy, i used to be able to eat this every day for about a week at the time i was really crazy about these meatballs. It is kind of addicting 🙂
When I was young I had similar issues with eating and my mother tried all kind of tricks to get me eating. I like this recipe about meatballs and it’s a healthy one, too. Well done.
Thanks for stopping by Frank. Isn’t it amazing how our palate can change over time?!
I can never turn down a good meatball. This bowlful of meatballs looks irresistible and oh-so nourishing.
Hi Carolyn, totally agree with you on how irresistible meatballs can become. Hope you get to try these meatballs.
This is usually how I make meatballs too – the seasoning and the aromatics (ginger, scallions etc.). I usually add shrimps but will mince/chop them to paste-like consistency and mix it to the ground chicken. However, adding bigger bits of shrimps in the chicken meatballs like what you did will give more textural bite to the meatballs.
You are right tigerfish. The ginger and scallion marinade is some awesome! The shrimp paste version sounds also very delicious perhaps gives a more consistent texture. Will try that next time.
Today is such a cold and gloomy day and the picture of this meatball soup is so attracting! Thanks for sharing your childhood story too. I couldn’t eat big chunk of meat like steak when I was small (my issue was that I couldn’t swallow) so my mom had to use ground meat often. My grandpa owned teppanyaki style steak house which served great wagyu steaks and he requested chef to make me Japanese hamburger steak (ground meat)… I cannot believe when I think of it now. Anyway it was fun to find out another foodie who couldn’t eat meat! I’ll check if I have ground chicken in freezer. I think I do. I want to make this tonight.
Thanks for sharing your story Nami. I remember seeing the teppanyaki steakhouse post sometime ago and I was drooling over the wagyu steak during the whole time. I’d love to try a wagyu beef burger soon!
I would love right now bowl of that soup, and this recipe for chicken meatballs is the bomb esp. because you stuffed it with shrimps. Great idea! Fantastic post, delicious pictures and recipe! Must try soon! Thanks for sharing and have a great day!
thanks Sandra.
Yi, these look really good and sound like the perfect comfort food. Denver is expecting snow this weekend. That might be the perfect time to try these!
Thanks Abbe. Keep yourself warm and these meatballs might be able to help 🙂
Yi, I actually planned to make a shrimp ball and vegi soup for tonight’s dinner. It’s vietnamese style and super simple. Your recipe looks wonderful, bet the whole house smells homey!
This is actually the meatball I ate as a kid…my mom likes to prepare the soup with them and some silky tofu for the lunch. Yours looks very delicious!
Lovely recipe and pictures! I really like the idea of the shrimp surprise in the meatballs. 😉 This look extremely flavorful, yet easy to make. And light, as you say. Really good stuff – thanks so much.
Enjoyed your article here. I never considered braising meatballs. I remember 40 years ago, for parties, my mother would serve Swedish Meatballs in a thick Tomato Sauce in a chafing dish over flame. This was the rage for appetizers. The so called “Swedish Meatballs” are traditionally served with mashed potatoes. Not only are there variations but clearly wrongly named.
This looks so easy. I want to add more seafood into my diet. Would fish work as well or does shrimp make the soup? I want to try this soon.
Hi Janet296, thanks for your question. You can certain substitute the shrimp with fish. The seafood is stuffed inside of the meatballs but the flavor will get out to the soup as you boil it. Please let me know how it turned out if you got to cook this! Thanks.