Chicken Meatballs
Delicious, quick, easy and versatile, these chicken meatballs are absolutely fantastic. Perfect with Weeknight Marinara (recipe on the blog) over your favorite pasta (gluten free if needed). Keep a batch in the fridge to throw on a salad, chop up in a sandwich or just grab and go.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground chicken thigh or ground turkey
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp Italian herb mix or 1 tsp each of basil & oregano
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 tsp cream of tarter
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. The KilKenney Kitchen owl loves the spotlight
- Place the ground chicken (or turkey) in a large bowl
- Finely chop the parsley - it will be about half of a bunch
- Press the garlic or mince it very fine
- Measure the tomato paste - I hate having 1/2 a can of tomato paste sitting around so I store the extra in a jar and keep it in the fridge - easy and inexpensive.
- Add the tomato paste, garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to the ground chicken
- Mix the cream of tarter, baking soda and warm water in a small bowl and stir well. (This great idea comes from the cookbook Well Fed 2 by Melissa Joulwan - the addition of these ingredients helps to keep the meatballs light and juicy without adding any grains or fillers - brilliant!)
- Add the water concoction to the ground chicken mixture and gently mix the ingredients together.
- Using a small scoop, a spoon or your hands, form the chicken into meatballs and place on the baking sheet - it will make 36 small or 24 large meatballs. The mixture is pretty sticky, so I find using a scoop works well
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. (The larger meatballs will take between 30 and 35 minutes) If you are using chicken breast or a leaner meat, shorten the cooking time by five minutes and check them - they may cook bit faster
- Serve with with Weeknight Marinara (recipe on the blog) and your favorite pasta or...
- Serve with a side of rice, cut up on a sandwich, warmed over a bed of greens or bring them to a party as an appetizer. In any form, they'll be gobbled up quickly! Store in the refrigerator for up to a week, or freeze in a single layer and transfer to a zip top bag once frozen. To reheat thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or microwave until heated through
I’m making these tonight! Looks delicious. Thanks, Maggie!
just whipping up this recipe but am substituting pheasant breast and a bit of chicken sausage…looks and smells delicious!!!
That sounds fantastic, Molly!