Shared by Dana and Terry Harary
Shared by Dana and Terry Harary
Hawaij Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls
Yield: 12 servings and 35 matzo ballsTime: 4 hours
Hawaij Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls
Yield: 12 servings and 35 matzo ballsTime: 4 hoursFamily Journey
Eastern Europe, Yemen, and SyriaCleveland and Kibbutz ShefayimTel Aviv
ClevelandYamit, IsraelHerzliya, Israel
Cleveland
In the early 20th century — around 1913, though no one is precisely sure — Dana Harary’s grandfather traveled with his grandmother by foot and donkey from Yemen to Palestine. He was just a year old when they made the journey. He sadly passed away when Dana’s father Shabtay was 10 years old. One of seven children, Shabtay and a few of his siblings were sent to live and study on kibbutzim around the country in a program called Yeled Chutz. So, “a lot of these [family] stories were lost,” explains Dana, who is the co-founder of the artisanal tahini company SoCo.
But Dana’s mother Terry kept some of the culinary traditions from her later father-in-law’s heritage alive. Their home in Herzliya when Dana was little “was a melting pot of very different backgrounds,” Dana explains, both of religious customs and culinary ones. “It created a fusion of food we would eat,” she adds.
Born and raised in Cleveland, her mother Terry grew up in an American-Ashkenazi home and met her husband in Israel. On Passover, when she hosted all of Shabtay’s family, she would make this golden chicken soup with her grandmother’s matzah balls. It gets its hue from hawaij, a deeply flavorful Yemenite spice blend that features turmeric, cumin, black pepper, cardamom, and coriander. “Everyone loved and really appreciated it. They wouldn’t ask anyone else to make the soup, that was her territory,” Dana explains.
Today, her family lives in Cleveland near her mother, who makes the soup year round. “She’s like a little matzo ball factory — she has a huge standing freezer and two other refrigerators with freezers. It’s not like all of them are full with matzo balls, but we have a lot of matzo balls,” Dana says laughing.
Note: Chicken necks and giblets add richness and body to the broth. If you want to make this soup ahead of time and freeze it, simply remove the vegetables from the broth when reheating, and cook fresh ones in the pot. The matzo balls can be mixed and shaped ahead of time, then frozen and cooked off as needed.
Looking for more Passover recipes? Find some of our favorites like Persian charoset, classic gefilte fish, a vegetarian mina, and more here.
Ingredients
For the chicken soup seasoning blend:
- 1 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 tablespoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoon celery seed
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 3 teaspoons pepper
For the chicken soup:
- 2 whole chicken legs
- 12 chicken necks
- ½ pound giblets
- 1 turkey neck
- 5 carrots, peeled and sliced into thick coins
- 4 onions, peeled and halved
- 3 large zucchini, sliced into 3” pieces
- 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced into ½” chunks
- 4 stalks celery, chopped
- 3 tablespoons soup seasoning (see recipe below)
- 1 ½ tablespoons hawaij
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
For the matzo balls:
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup water
- 12 eggs
- 3 ½ cups matzo meal
- 1 tablespoon salt
Preparation
Step 1
Add the chicken soup seasoning blend ingredients to a food processor and process, bringing to a powder consistency. Remove and set aside.
Step 2
Place chicken pieces and turkey neck in a mesh soup bag. Add to a 6 quart stock pot. Top with the vegetables and cover with water.
Step 3
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, skimming off and discarding any scum or foam that rises to the top. Add the soup seasoning, hawaij and salt.
Step 4
Continue simmering the stock, stirring it every so often, until it is yellow-gold, around 2 hours.
Step 5
Remove the chicken leg from the net and remove the meat from the bones, shredding it. Discard the bones and add the meat to the pot.
Step 6
Meanwhile, make the matzo balls: Mix the eggs, oil, water, and salt. Gently fold in the matzo meal. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until the mixture feels almost firm, 30-40 minutes.
Step 7
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the matzo ball mixture from the fridge. Wet your hands with cold water, scoop up a heaping tablespoonful of the mixture, and shape it into a ball by gently rolling it between your palms.
Step 8
Drop the matzo ball into the boiling water and repeat with the remaining mixture, cleaning and wetting your hands as necessary to keep the matzo balls from sticking to them. Be careful not to crowd the pot, or the matzah balls will not cook through fully; cook in batches or in two pots, if necessary. Cover pot and boil on low flame for about 40 minutes. (If your matzah balls are done before your soup is ready, let them sit on a tray, then reheat them in the soup.)
Step 9
Bring the stock back to a boil and season to taste with salt if needed. Use a slotted spoon to remove the matzo balls from the boiling water and place them directly into the simmering soup.
