This Asian Chicken Meatball Soup with Rice Balls is a comforting, flavorful meal that brings together tender chicken-and-rice balls, prawns, vegetables, and a savory miso broth. The chicken balls are made with brown rice, chicken thighs, coriander, spring onions, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and kaffir lime leaves, giving them plenty of fresh Asian-inspired flavor. Instead of using ordinary breadcrumbs, the cooked rice is blended with the chicken and aromatics to create tender, satisfying rice balls.
The balls can be prepared ahead and chilled until you’re ready to cook, making this an especially convenient soup for busy days. Once browned, the chicken rice balls simmer in a simple miso broth along with prawns, pak choi, mangetout, and beansprouts. Miso adds savory depth while fresh chilli, spring onions, coriander, and lime brighten the finished bowl.
The combination of chicken, prawns, rice, and vegetables makes this more than a starter—it’s a satisfying one-bowl meal that’s both nourishing and full of contrasting textures. The original recipe serves four and takes about an hour, including 15 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking.
If you’re looking for a chicken soup that’s different from the usual noodle or chicken-and-vegetable versions, this recipe is worth trying. You can also prepare the rice balls ahead of time and refrigerate them until needed, which makes the final cooking process much easier.
Serve this excellent broth with Perfect Potstickers, Siu Mai Dumplings With Pork and Shrimp or even some Pot Stickers – Chive and Pork.
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Asian Chicken Rice Balls & Broth
- Total Time: 1:00
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 130 g brown rice
- 1 large bunch of coriander
- 6 spring onions
- 4 skinless, boneless free-range chicken thighs
- 1 lemongrass stalk
- 5cm piece of ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- sunflower oil
- 8 large raw king prawns, from sustainable sources
- 2½ tablespoons miso paste
- 2 pak choi
- 250 g mangetout
- 1 handful of beansprouts
- low-salt soy sauce
- 1 fresh red chilli
- 1 lime
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to the packet instructions. Drain and leave to cool, then chill until needed.
- Pick half of the coriander leaves, pop them in a bowl of ice-cold water and set aside.
- Put the remaining leaves in a food processor along with the cooled rice.
- Thinly slice the spring onions. Roughly chop the chicken, bash and roughly chop the lemongrass, then peel and roughly chop the ginger. Peel the garlic.
- Place it all into the food processor with the kaffir lime leaves (remove the stems) and pulse until smooth.
- Tip the mixture onto a board. With wet hands, divide it into 16 and roll each piece into a ball. Place them on a plate and chill, covered, until needed.
- Set a large casserole pan over a medium-high heat and add a splash of sunflower oil. Fry the rice balls for 5 minutes, or until golden brown all over.
- Peel the prawns, using a sharp knife to remove any black bits.
- Add the prawns to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute, then stir in the miso paste and pour in 1.2 litres of boiling water. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Cut each pak choi into 6 pieces, then halve the mangetout lengthways. Add them to the pan for the last 2 minutes. Stir in the beansprouts for the last 30 seconds and season with a splash of soy sauce.
- Thinly slice the remaining spring onions and finely slice the chilli. Divide the broth, balls, veg and prawns between four warmed bowls. Sprinkle over the spring onions, chilli and drained coriander and serve immediately with lime wedges.
- Prep Time: :15
- Cook Time: :45
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Asian