On the heels of our grand prize trophy in 2008 for our spicy chicken soup at our synagogue’s “Souper Bowl Cookoff,” we again took up the soup-ladle of challenge to return and defend our title. Since traditional matzo ball soups were such a hit there (go figure), we opted to do one ourselves…with our own spicy twist to it. Here is this year’s recipe:

Joe & Linda’s New Mexican Matzo Ball Soup

soup
Five 49.5-ounce cans chicken broth
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 jars My Favorite New Mexico Foods Green Chile Sauce
3 medium white onions, finely diced
2.5 tsp. Spice World chopped garlic
3 tsp. Market District “Spicy Chili Blend”
1 tsp. garlic salt
2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes & green chiles, drained
2.5 chicken broth can-fulls of water

matzo balls
2 boxes Streit’s Matzo ball mix (4 packages)
8 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3.5 tbsp. mild green chile powder

First, make the soup by combining the chicken broth, water, and Spicy Chile Blend into a 3-gallon stockpot and bring to a medium rolling boil. Add the whole boneless chicken breasts and allow to gently cook until done all the way through. Remove the chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces and put them back into the broth. Add the onions, Green Chile Sauce, chopped garlic, and garlic salt. Cook on medium-high for about 30 minutes.

Make the matzo balls according to the directions on the Streit’s box by adding the bags of matzo meal, eggs, and vegetable oil together in a large bowl, and then mix them together with a large fork. Add the green chile powder, and stir the mix. If the mixture gets too dry, try adding a little more vegetable oil to help smooth it out. Allow the matzo ball mix to sit in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Wet your hands and roll out some matzo balls by making them the size of small gumballs. This should make 10 dozen or more small matzo balls. Then drop these into the boiling soup, turn the heat down to low, and allow the soup to simmer for 15 minutes, mixing often. Then add the two cans of diced tomatoes & green chiles, mix, and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Serve hot. Makes three gallons.

The picture of the ingredients above isn’t totally accurate since we opted to forego a little heat and use plain ol’ garlic salt instead of the Fire Salt. We managed to save a small sample of it that didn’t go to the competition and it looked like this yummy bowl:

While we didn’t take home either of the grand prize trophies this year, we did garner both critical acclaim from the crowd and at least one bit of appreciation from the judges:

Until next year’s competition, we’ll continue to make our soups as hot and spicy as we can tolerate. Try out the recipe if you like!