Planting Seeds

Like these Chicken Meatballs, life in KilKenney Kitchen included some unexpected ingredients this past week. The Community Food event at Valley Natural Foods on Saturday was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with people about KilKenney Kitchen and my love for delicious, healthy, gluten free food. A big thank you to my culinary partner-in-crime, Carol for helping me.

This, first of its kind, experience and the emergence of spring have encouraged me to keep nudging this journey forward. Slowly but surely the blog is growing and I’ve begun to reach out to people and organizations who share my passion with the hopes of creating some clever Kitchen connections down the road.

Since I was shaking things up a bit this week, it seemed appropriate to create a recipe that was a little unusual too. Enter my delicious, easy, quick and versatile Chicken Meatballs. These juicy little nuggets fit everyone’s diet: They are gluten free (of course!), high protein, low fat, Paleo and best of all – delicious! We love to eat them with pasta and my Weeknight Marinara sauce, cut up on some great bread (gluten free for me) as a sandwich, warmed and tossed with some lightly dressed greens or simply out of the bowl as a snack. The recipe makes a big batch. You’ll be amazed at how fast they disappear.

I invite you to embrace the unexpected this week too. I’d love to hear about the seeds you are planting.

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.

Servings people

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

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