Chicken Zucchini Meatballs

I hope you will forgive me for yet another recipe with zucchini in it. I will try to not have zucchini in next weeks blog – but I make no promises 🙂 you can blame it on my garden!

IMG_3064.JPG
I just made this a few minutes ago (8am) just for you – you’re welcome! Breakfast of champions!

A couple of weeks ago one of my girlfriends came over and we did a little food prep for the week. We made a couple of frittatas, oven roasted some peppers and tomatoes. Made up some cauliflower rice along with some turkey cutlets for lunches.  We also made up some meatballs. I found a chicken meatball recipe that uses yup so guessed it – shredded zucchini, sounded perfect to me.

While I was working on the frittatas she was making the meatballs. Which is why I don’t have any pictures to share with you.  Sorry about that! Though today is a a good day to have a pot of sauce cooking on the stove; I pulled the chicken meatballs out of the freezer and added them to the sauce.

IMG_3054
these are what they look like fresh from the freezer!

It’s pretty funny that my family tends to make meatball grinders with all the meatballs I make  versus having your typical spaghetti and meatballs. I can’t even remember the last time we had a meatball sauce. We tend to just add Italian sausage to our marinara sauce instead of meatballs when making spaghetti.

IMG_3058
look and smell delicious!

The meatballs are moist with the help from the zucchini, they have a little bite from the crushed red pepper and they are a little better for you from using ground chicken instead ground beef.

Chicken Zucchini Meatballs
Ingredients

1 cup shredded zucchini
1 lb ground chicken
1 egg lightly beaten
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp dried basic
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
¼ tsp kosher salt

I encourage you to make a test ball or pattie and fry it up so you can taste and adjust the flavor to your liking.

Directions – preheat oven to 350’F

You need to get as much of the moisture out of your zucchini as possible. You can line a colander with paper towels; add the zucchini sprinkle a little salt and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes applying a little pressure every now and then. Or you can use a clean dish towel and squeeze the liquid out over the sink.

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, try not to over mix. Make your test ball/pattie and fry it up in a small saute pan. Adjust if needed.

Use a cookie scoop or a tablespoon to make the balls all around the same size. Place on a prepared sheet tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through.  Makes around 20 meatballs.

Use now or sometime during the week or freeze individually on a sheet tray and place in a ziplock bag.

Per meatball:
Macros
103 Calories – 5 Fat – 3 Carbs – 10 Protein


Recipe from BH&G magazine

One thought on “Chicken Zucchini Meatballs

Leave a Reply