Tender chicken meatballs are the perfect meat dish for any side dish. They can be prepared with various sauces, which will determine the final result both in taste and appearance. Chicken meatballs are prepared quite simply and quickly. They can be baked in the oven, stewed in a frying pan, or steamed in a slow cooker. As a result, in 45-50 minutes a full-fledged meat dish will be ready. The average calorie content of chicken meatballs is 140 kcal. We offer several recipes with step-by-step photos.
Tender chicken meatballs - step by step photo recipe
Tender chicken meatballs will please everyone without exception. They can be given even to small children (from one year old). In this case, it would be correct to use chicken breast to prepare minced meat; in other cases, meat from other parts will be suitable.
Remember to use products only from trusted manufacturers! It is advisable to buy chilled chicken rather than frozen.
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Cooking time: 1 hour 0 minutes
Quantity: 15 servings
Minced chicken meatballs in the oven
Chicken meatballs baked in the oven definitely belong to the category of “proper nutrition” dishes. Such tender and juicy meat balls can be cooked every day - they will not harm your figure or health. You can diversify the serving with side dishes - today pasta, tomorrow porridge, potatoes or just vegetables.
Instead of the cream used in the recipe, you can take sour cream and dilute it with water to the desired volume.
Ingredients:
- Minced chicken – 500 g;
- Onion – 1 pc.;
- Carrots – 1 pc.;
- Semolina – 1.5 tbsp. l.;
- Garlic – 2 cloves;
- Pepper, salt, spices - to taste;
- Low-fat cream – 200 ml;
- Greenery.
Cooking instructions:
- Chop the peeled onion into small cubes, and grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Pour a little sunflower oil into a hot frying pan and fry the vegetables in it until browned.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the herbs and garlic cloves. Remove the sauteed vegetables from the stove, add the garlic and let it cool and brew for a while.
- Add greens and sauteed vegetables to the plate with the minced meat. Mix everything well with spices and salt to taste. If necessary, add a couple of tablespoons of semolina.
- Grease the bottom and walls of the mold with vegetable oil. We make small products from the minced meat and place them in the mold. Add bay leaf and salt and black pepper to the cream. Place the meatballs in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then pour in the sauce and bake for another 20-25 minutes.
- During this time, we prepare any side dish: boil potatoes, pasta, buckwheat or other cereals. The meatballs with creamy sauce are ready and can be served immediately.
How to cook chicken meatballs in a frying pan
It is convenient to cook chicken meatballs in a frying pan. You don't need any special culinary skills for this. Following the detailed instructions, which are presented in the following photo recipe, in just an hour a delicious meat dish in tomato sauce will be ready.
Ingredients:
- Minced chicken – 1 kg;
- Breadcrumbs – 50 g;
- Parsley – 10 g;
- Onion – 100 g;
- Parmesan cheese – 40 g;
- Salt – 1.5 tsp;
- Black pepper – 0.5 tsp;
- Dried garlic – 0.5 tsp;
- Chicken egg – 1 pc.;
- Flour – 2 tbsp. l.;
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. l.
For filling:
- Onion – 100 g;
- Tomato puree – 500 g;
- Water – 150 ml;
- Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp. l.;
- Red pepper flakes – 0.5 tsp;
- Sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
- Ground coriander – 1 tsp;
- Salt – 1 tsp;
- Dried basil – 1 tsp;
- Dried garlic – 0.5 tsp;
- Tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.;
- Garlic – 2 cloves.
Cooking method:
- Place the minced chicken in a bowl. Add salt, dried garlic, ground black pepper and breadcrumbs to it. Finely chop the parsley and onions. Pour these ingredients into a common bowl.
- Grate the Parmesan cheese here on a fine grater, and then mix thoroughly until smooth. Stir in the beaten egg and set aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, pour vegetable oil into a heated frying pan and fry chopped onion (100 g) and garlic, passed through a press, for 2 minutes.
- Add tomato paste, stir and fry over medium heat for about 1 minute. Then add tomato puree and water. Add red pepper, basil, salt, dried garlic, coriander and sugar. Mix everything and simmer under the lid on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle the cutting board with flour. We form small balls with our hands and place them in rows on the board. Sprinkle flour on top. In a frying pan with the addition of vegetable oil, fry the pieces on both sides. It will take about 2-3 minutes to fry each side.
- Place the fried meat balls in a frying pan with tomato sauce. Gently roll them in the dressing, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
- The result is juicy meat balls with a lot of amazingly delicious tomato sauce. Thanks to it, you can serve meatballs even with dry porridges such as buckwheat or millet.
Classic recipe
Minced chicken meatballs can be considered a diet dish. The protein composition in chicken breast is not inferior to other meat. It contains B vitamins and iron, but unlike meat in other parts of chicken, chicken breasts have less connective fiber and are easier to digest.
Composition of ingredients
The composition of ingredients is designed for 5-6 servings.
| Components | Quantity |
| Chicken mince | 500 g |
| Egg | 1 PC. |
| Onion | 1 PC. |
| Sunflower oil | 100 g |
| Flour | 200 g |
| Salt | 1 tsp. |
| Ground black pepper | 1 tsp. |
Step-by-step cooking process
Cooking time will take 10-15 minutes.
- First, you need to remove the minced chicken from the packaging and place it in a cooking container.
- Then the onions need to be peeled, washed and finely chopped on a cutting board.
- Next, add the chopped onion to the minced chicken.
- Afterwards, all ingredients must be salted, peppered and mixed thoroughly. You need to mix the components until they turn into a thick mass.
- After this, you need to add the yolk to the pan and carefully mash it with the minced meat.
- Then pour flour onto the table, tablecloth or cutting board so as to cover the surface in one layer.
- After this, you need to take small portioned pieces from the resulting stuffed mixture and form them into lumps of meat for future meatballs. To do this, round meat balls need to be rolled out in flour so that the flour covers each lump on all sides.
- Next, grease the surface of the frying pan with a thin layer of sunflower oil and heat over medium heat.
- In a heated frying pan you need to place the resulting meatballs and fry for 3-4 minutes. over medium heat, turning the meat balls using a special spatula. You need to fry the meatballs until they are browned on the sides.
The article describes step by step how to prepare meatballs from minced chicken.
After this, you will get ready-made fried meatballs, which can be served with a side dish of boiled potatoes, cereals or fresh vegetables.
What can be added or replaced
Traditional meatball recipes can be supplemented with many ingredients:
- When forming meatballs, you can add breadcrumbs or bread pulp to the minced chicken. This way the workpieces will set better.
- When preparing minced chicken, you can use any type of hard cheese to suit your taste. Parmesan cheese or any other.
- When frying, you can use olive oil rather than sunflower oil.
- In preparations with meat, chicken eggs can be replaced with quail eggs.
- Minced chicken can be cooked without onions, but with garlic.
Recipe for chicken meatballs with sauce: creamy, sour cream, tomato
There are a huge number of variations in preparing meatballs, but when they are cooked with sauce, they turn out much juicier and more tender. Therefore, we have prepared recipes with different sauces especially for you. The first option is creamy filling with hard cheese.
Ingredients:
- Chicken fillet – 700 g;
- Onion – 1 pc.;
- Bread – 2-3 slices;
- Milk – 1 tbsp.;
- Chicken egg – 1 pc.;
- Salt, black pepper - to taste.
For the sauce:
- Cream – 500 ml;
- Hard cheese – 300 g;
- Garlic – 2-3 cloves;
- Greenery.
How to prepare:
- Soak the bread slices in warm milk. Chop the onion into small cubes.
- Using a blender, blend the chicken fillet into minced meat. Add chopped onion, bread soaked in milk, chicken egg, salt and pepper to it.
- Mix everything thoroughly and form meatballs the size of a walnut with your hands. Grease a baking tray with vegetable oil and place meat balls on it. Place in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the greens for the sauce. Grate hard cheese on a coarse grater. Pass the garlic through a press. Combine all the prepared ingredients and add a little salt. And pour the cream here. Pour the prepared sauce over the meatballs and put them back in the oven.
- In just 20 minutes you can serve a delicious meat dish. These meatballs are covered with a golden-brown cheese crust on top, and inside they are tender and soft.
If you don’t have either cream or cheese on hand, you can use medium-fat sour cream to prepare the sauce. The principle of preparing meatballs in this case is slightly different.
Ingredients:
- Minced chicken – 400 g;
- Large onion – 1 pc.;
- Garlic – 1 clove;
- Sour cream 20% – 150 g;
- Flour – 1 tbsp. l.;
- Semolina – 2 tbsp. l.;
- Butter – 20-30 g;
- Salt, paprika, pepper - to taste;
- Water – 150 ml.
What we do:
- Cut half of the peeled onion into small pieces and place in a plate with the minced meat. Add salt, black pepper and paprika there.
- Mix everything well, add a couple of tablespoons of semolina and mix the minced meat again. Let it brew for 15 minutes.
- We also chop the second half of the onion and sauté in a frying pan with butter until browned.
- Separately, dissolve a couple of tablespoons of flour in water, and then mix with sour cream and the remaining warm water. Pour the prepared sauce into the frying pan with the onions.
- Lightly add salt, add chopped garlic and simmer over low heat for about 2-3 minutes.
- Pour the finished sour cream sauce into a heat-resistant form. We make meatballs with our hands and put them here.
- Cover the container with foil and place in the oven for half an hour. Then remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
Lovers of colorful food will definitely appreciate the taste of chicken meatballs in tomato sauce. Rice is added to the minced meat, so the dish is complete and there is no need to prepare a side dish separately.
Ingredients:
- Minced chicken – 600 g;
- Carrots – 2 pcs.;
- Rice – 150 g;
- Onion – 2 pcs.;
- Egg – 1 pc.;
- Salt, pepper, turmeric - to taste;
- Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp;
- Vegetable oil.
How to prepare:
- Boil the rice in advance in lightly salted water until cooked. Place it in a colander and rinse under water.
- Grate the onion and place it in a bowl with the minced meat. Add rice here and mix everything.
- Beat in the egg, salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything thoroughly, cover the bowl with a lid and put it in the refrigerator.
- Place finely chopped onion and grated carrots in a frying pan and fry the vegetables in vegetable oil for 5-8 minutes.
- Then pour in the tomato sauce, add salt, pepper and turmeric. Mix everything and simmer the filling for another 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the stove.
- We make small balls from the minced meat with rice and place them in a hot frying pan with the addition of vegetable oil.
- Fry the meatballs on both sides until golden brown, and then transfer them to the frying pan with the tomato sauce.
- Cover with a lid and leave to simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
With tomato sauce in a slow cooker
Some housewives believe that it is better not to bake poultry meatballs, but to stew them, for example, in tomato sauce. And the easiest way to do this is in a slow cooker. The products are more juicy and do not dry out. And the housewife doesn’t have to worry about the end result, because the “smart” unit takes on most of the work.
For this option you will need:
- rice – 70 g;
- minced chicken – 500 g;
- eggs – 2 pcs. (whites only);
- carrots – 160 − 170 g;
- salt – 30 g;
- onion – 120 − 140 g;
- tomato juice – 250 ml;
- any vegetable oil;
- spices (pepper (peas and ground), bay leaf, clove of garlic).
How to properly cook minced chicken meatballs with gravy in a slow cooker:
- Rinse the rice thoroughly and cover with cold water. The cereal is used raw, which significantly reduces the overall cooking time.
- Peel and chop the vegetables. For the meatballs, you need to chop them into cubes, and for the gravy, cut the onion into half rings and the carrots into strips.
- Set the “Frying” mode on the multicooker panel. Pour oil into the bowl and add prepared vegetables one by one. Stirring occasionally, cook until softened.
- At this time, collect minced meat, vegetables, egg whites and part of the salt (15 g) in a deep bowl. To stir thoroughly.
- Form balls from the prepared mixture.
- Add juice and spices to the vegetables in a multicooker bowl. Let the mixture warm up.
- Carefully place the meatballs into the boiling sauce.
- Set the panel to “Pilaf” mode. The timer will immediately display a cooking time of 40 minutes.
- After the sound signal, so that the sauce is well absorbed, set the “Multi-cook” mode and continue to simmer for 20 minutes at a temperature of 90 degrees.
These meatballs can be served with any side dish, flavored with aromatic tomato sauce.
Chicken meatballs with rice
Chicken meatballs with rice are an ideal dish that is suitable for both breakfast and dinner. And all because such meat balls turn out incredibly light and at the same time quite filling.
Ingredients:
- Minced chicken – 500 g;
- Rice – 100 g;
- Egg – 1 pc.;
- Onions – 1 pc.;
- Flour – 5 tbsp. l.;
- Sour cream 15% – 150 g;
- Water – 150 ml;
- A pinch of salt.
Cooking method:
- Pour the rice, boiled almost until cooked and completely cooled, into a plate with the minced meat. Chop the onion into small cubes and add to the minced meat. Salt and pepper everything to taste, and then mix the mass well.
- At the very end, beat one egg into the minced meat and mix again. Sprinkle the work surface with flour. Make small balls and roll them in flour. Pour olive oil into a hot frying pan and lay out the preparations.
- Fry them on both sides until golden brown. Mix sour cream with water (0.5 tbsp) and pour over the meatballs. Cover with a lid and simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes.
- These chicken meatballs always taste amazing and look very appetizing. You can serve potatoes or pasta as a side dish.
Baked chicken meatballs with rice
In addition to minced meat and spices, any meatballs usually contain various additives: bread, vegetables or all kinds of cereals. They make the dish softer and more fluffy. For example, rice will go perfectly with minced chicken.
To keep the dish light and not absorb excess fat, it is better not to fry the meatballs, but to bake them in the oven.
For the simplest option, you will need a minimum set of components:
- minced chicken – 0.5 kg;
- Round grain rice – 100 g;
- salt;
- onion – 1 head;
- egg – 1 pc.;
- ground pepper.
How to cook meatballs in the oven:
- Rinse the rice well, boil in slightly salted water, and then strain. In this case, the grains should remain intact and not become soggy.
- Grind the peeled onion in a blender.
- Add both of these ingredients, along with a raw egg and pepper, to the minced meat. Stir and pepper a little.
- Roll the resulting mass into balls with wet hands and place on a baking sheet lined with food foil.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. It's better to do this in advance.
- Place the baking sheet with chicken meatballs in the oven for 40 minutes.
The balls turn out smooth, rosy and very fragrant. Children will definitely like this dish. But we can say with complete confidence that the rest of the family will also appreciate it.
