Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

Submitted by Claudia Dawn

"My husband got this recipe from a co-worker who raved about how good it was. We made it with a pound of ground turkey and 2 chicken breasts ground in the food processor. We loved it. A raw Tuscan kale salad that has been shredded and tossed with shallots, Pecorino, olive oil, tsp of lemon juice, salt, and pepper goes great with this dish. Originally from: http://www.dinneralovestory.com/chicken-parm-meatballs/"

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Yields: 12 meatballs
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 1 1⁄4 lbs ground chicken
• 1⁄2 cup breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• 1⁄2 cup pecorino cheese (or Parmesan)
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1⁄2 lemon zest (zest from half a lemon)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (14 ounce) can pizza sauce
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (12 thin slices)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F, setting rack to upper third part of oven.
2. In a large bowl, using your hands, gently mix together first 11 ingredients.
3. Shape into lacrosse-ball size balls (that would be somewhere between golf and tennis) and place a few inches from each other on a foil-lined baking sheet.
4. In a small bowl, mix one spoonful of your pizza sauce with olive oil. Brush this mixture on top of each meatball. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
5. Remove meatballs from oven, spoon some sauce on top of each meatball, and cover each with a slice of cheese.
6. Broil another 3 to 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden.
7. Heat remaining sauce in a small saucepan.
8. Serve meatballs with a dollop of sauce.

Reviews

[thelocket]

Followed the recipe exactly. Flavorful and a big hit with the family. I keep this in my store of recipes to use with our leftover sauce.

 

[christocc]

One star because canned pizza sauce? Really?

 

[brijpow]

This was good, but was, with some personal inventions, made amazing. My wife & I omitted the cheese, and served these with some delicious Orange Sauce on top of brown rice with broccoli as a side for an incredible & easy to prepare dinner. It was much better than the original recipe with Parmesan & Fennel (yuck!) - we tried that once, gross. Red sauce does NOT go with lemon zest to our palate. Lemon zest mixes so much BETTER with Asian flavors. As does this recipe, when you omit the cheese.

 

[IreneS]

These meatballs were so good. The hint of lemon was a very pleasing taste surprise. FYI, the original recipe from dinneralovestory's blog included 1 Tbsp chopped parsley, so the instructions to mix the first 11 ingredients should only include the ingredients through the lemon zest. I didn't have pizza sauce so I substituted a jar of pasta sauce. I used 99% fat free ground chicken and was concerned the meatballs might be too dry, so I added some of the pasta sauce into the meatball mixture. They turned out wonderfully!

 

[Shawn C]

i omit the fennel, just personal preference since fennel is such a strong spice and it reminds me of sausage. plus I hate biting downon whole seed. <br/>we tried this (from another source) and prepared just as directed except that we used fresh made marinara instead of pizza sauce (that is what we had on hand) and we ate over noodles.<br/>I was not overwhelmed but my sister loved them. <br/>I believe these would be better served with the pizza sauce and in a crock pot as an appetizer instead of a meal. just roll the balls smaller for bite size servings.