These Baked Chicken Meatballs are the BEST! The perfect addition to any meal or to eat right on their own. Bonus: they’re meal-prep friendly to stock up throughout the week!
So when I say anytime, I really do mean anytime.
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Chicken Meatballs
The best chicken meatballs baked until golden brown and flavored with garlic, herbs and spices. These meatballs are great served as an appetizer, or over a big plate of spaghetti.
CourseMain Course
CuisineItalian
Keyword: chicken meatballs
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Servings
Calories310kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds ground chicken 96% lean
- 1 egg
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with foil, and coat the foil with cooking spray.
- Place the ground chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning in a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Roll 1 inch sized meatballs, and place the meatballs in a single layer on the baking pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until meatballs are browned and cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley, then serve.
NUTRITION
Calories: 310kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 185mg | Sodium: 554mg | Potassium: 824mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 80IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg
That’s what I love about these baked chicken meatballs. They are SO EASY to make and they can sort of turn into anything. Here are some of their best features:
- They are BAKED.
- They are CHICKEN. (Turkey’s good, too.)
- They use one bowl.
- There are no cutting boards involved.
- There is no splattery sautéing.
- They are meal-prep friendly.
- Also freezer friendly.
- THEY GO WITH ANYTHING, anytime.
I’m not a meatball lover, but I LOVE THESE MEATBALLS.
You may like this spicy Lo main Recipe Homemade.
These baked chicken meatball bites can go with spaghetti and meatballs, baked rigatoni, or any pasta for that matter. They can be served with mashed cauliflower and green beans (my current favorite), or saved for quick and healthy lunch meal prep with roasted veggies. Half of the batch can be tossed with buffalo sauce and half can be frozen for next week’s Swedish meatball dinner.
I don’t memorize many recipes – I have the magic green sauce, soft chocolate chip cookies, and wild rice soup burned into my brain, but that’s about it. THAT BEING SAID, this baked chicken meatball recipe is absolutely a memorize-the-general-concept-and-make-it-anytime type of situation.
HOW DO YOU MAKE CHICKEN MEATBALLS?
To make chicken meatballs, place ground chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and seasonings in a large bowl. Mix everything thoroughly, then roll 1 inch balls out of the mixture.
K, the recipe is such a breeze. Are you ready?
First, your ingredients. Just pile ’em in a bowl. All you really need to remember is panko, parm, egg, and chicken. The spices are pretty flexible.
Now OBVIOUSLY WASH YOUR HANDS and take off your rings and all that. And then dive in.
Mix, roll, roll, roll. And bake.
Put your feet up, relax for a minute, smell the deliciousness coming from the oven.
And then you’re done!
One of my favorite things about these is that even with being baked, they get a really nice browned exterior. You can always throw them in a saute pan if you feel like they need a little extra browning, but I will legit eat these straight off the baking sheet. Browned to perfection, if you ask me.
Okay, so what are you going to make with these? Because these are the little baked chicken meatballs that could!
They can be anything they set their minds to. An-y-thing!
CHICKEN MEATBALL VARIATIONS
These chicken meatballs are fantastic because they can be used in practically any sauce or modified as you like. Here are some changes you can try.
- Greek style: Add 1/2 cup chopped cooked spinach and substitute feta cheese for the parmesan cheese.
- Cheese lovers: Add 1/2 cup each of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese to the meatballs.
- Mexican: Omit the Italian seasoning, instead use 1 tablespoon of chili powder. Use shredded cheddar cheese instead of parmesan cheese. Sprinkle a little cilantro over the top of the meatballs when serving them instead of parsley.
- Bacon: Try adding 1/2 cup of cooked crumbled bacon to the meatballs.
- Stuffed meatballs: Put a 1/2 inch cube of mozzarella cheese inside each meatball. The cheese will be melted and gooey when you cut the meatballs open.
These chicken meatballs bake up browned on the outside and moist on the inside. They work perfectly in pasta, as a pizza topping, in a meatball sandwich, or as a party snack. The possibilities are endless!
TIPS FOR CHICKEN MEATBALLS
- You can use ground turkey instead of ground chicken with great results.
- When you select your ground chicken, pick 93-96% lean ground chicken. Avoid 99% lean ground chicken breast.
- Prepare the meatball mixture. We talked about what's in this mixture already--ground chicken and a combination of spices, herbs, a little Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and an egg which helps bind everything together. Ground chicken is lean, so adding a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil as noted above helps lend it some fat and moisture. With clean hands, mix everything together until well incorporated (a pair of disposable gloves comes in handy here) .
- Shape the mixture into balls. The easiest way to arrive at the same size meatballs for even cooking is to use a tablespoon to scoop up 1 or 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time and form into balls. Once you pick a size, stick to it.
- Arrange on lightly oiled baking sheet. If you're already baking the chicken meatballs, you might as well do as I have and add tomatoes and onions to the same baking sheet. I give the tomato and onion wedges a quick toss with some extra virgin olive oil and some seasonings before adding them to the sheet pan, then I add in the meatballs one by one making sure everything is arranged in one layer without crowding the pan. Should you use parchment paper to line the baking sheet? You can, but I find that it helps to expose the meatballs directly to the heat of the pan, as long as the pan is oiled so they don't stick.
- Bake! What temperature and how long to bake chicken meatballs? I heat my oven to 400 degrees F and the meatballs along with the tomatoes and onions will bake for about 30 minutes. And if you're like me and want to add color and a little extra crisp to your baked chicken meatballs, take the pan out and give the tops of the meatballs a brush of extra virgin olive oil, then return to the oven and bake at 450 degrees F for 5 minutes or so (but watch carefully, you don't want the meatballs to turn too dark or burn).
- I like to serve these meatballs in garlic butter sauce. To make garlic butter sauce, simply cook in a pan 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of garlic, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley and a little salt and pepper to taste. You can also serve these meatballs in marinara sauce or with marinara sauce for dipping.
- Try putting a little cooking oil on your hands when you form the meatballs. That helps keep the meat from sticking to you and gives you smoother meatballs.
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