In my ongoing quest to make some of my favorite recipes a bit more healthy I decided to try making meatballs out of ground chicken & turkey instead of the usual beef, pork & veal I’ve always used. They are definitely a bit different from the traditional beef meatballs, but they still came out pretty good. I chose a chicken/turkey combination because I wanted to make these as lean as possible. The ground turkey has a texture that is similar to ground beef. You could easily make this recipe using just ground turkey, but I don’t think I’d make it using just ground chicken. I find the chicken to be great for binding, but it is a bit of a tougher meat and you don’t want the meatballs to be chewy.
This is the first recipe post using a photo image from my new camera. When I started this blog I was taking pictures with my iPhone, then a Canon PowerShot and now I’ve just recently made the investment into a Canon EOS Rebel T6i with some different lenses. I’ve been getting more & more into photography in general and look forward to bringing you more crisp images as part of the 2016 Pumpkins & Spice transformation!
Yield: 18-20 Meatballs
You will need:
1 lb. ground chicken
1 lb. ground turkey
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated + 3 tbsp parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
1/3 cup very finely chopped yellow onion
1 large egg + 1 egg white
2 cloves finely chopped/minced garlic
1 tbsp basil leaves
2 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees & spray a large baking sheet w/olive oil (I use a Misto sprayer).
2. Mix the chicken & turkey together well in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Add the egg & egg white, breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup cheese, onion, garlic, basil, parsley, salt & pepper to the mixture and using your (freshly washed) hands, blend all of the ingredients together well.
3. Once all ingredients are blended together well, form into balls. I used a 3 tbsp. cookie dough/ice cream scoop to make them as even as possible and ended up with a batch of 19 large meatballs.
4. Place the meatballs on a large greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes.
Top with your favorite pasta sauce & remaining 3 tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve as desired. They can be served over pasta, zucchini noodles, next to ravioli, on a roll with melted cheese or even alone as a meal with a salad or other vegetable on the side.
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