baked chicken meatballs

Meatballs people, I made meatballs. Chicken meatballs of all things! After an average week of cooking, trying to revive my kitchen mojo, I browsed through Gourmet hoping to find something delicious to un-slump me, and randomly found a recipe for which I had actually heard praises sung, but had completely forgotten about.

Tightly packed ground meat balls have never been my thing. I guess you could say the parties and backyard picnics that are lined with crock pot after crock pot overflowing with frozen meatballs smothered in their meatball sauce (read: grape jelly and chili sauce (re-read: shudder)) have caused all interest in meatballs to be lost, preferring to stick with juicy meats that can be sliced into with a sharp steak knife, or better yet, not needing a knife because they are soft, and covered in red wine and caramelized onions.

In my absolute terror for not having a freezer burnt meatball doused in sauce to cover-up any remnants of what a meatball actually tastes like I was lazy extra-cautious as I meticulously went through the recipe, throwing in the extra half pound of meat, more pancetta, handfuls of parsley, and a squeeze of tomato paste not realizing it was actually meant for the top of the meatballs. Like I said, I was extra-cautious (you can stop rolling your eyes now…)

And, well, the meat turned out sticky and goopy – which I guess is better than dry and crumbly – and refused to be rolled into a shape, especially not a shape resembling a circle. I sort of smooshed them together in my hands and dabbed extra tomato paste on top, poking them into the best round shape I could get. And baked them. Surprisingly my method (which I don’t really know what it is yet) seemed to work, as the meatballs were full of flavor and most certainly not tight, dry, freezer burned balls smothered in sauce I wouldn’t even feed to my dog…if I had one. So meatball lovers (ahem, and haters) make these, they will re-enforce your love (or provide new love) for little balls of meat.

Baked Chicken Meatballs
Adapted from Gourmet

A few notes: My meatballs were very sticky and had to be gently packed into little balls. Next time I will use a cookie scoop like  this, which will help achieve a more traditional round ball, and my hands will be less goopy. I also recommend spraying your pan lightly with Pam, my balls decided to bake themselves onto the pan, and the bottoms of my balls got left behind. I also had a hard time brushing the tomato paste on top of the balls, as they were very sticky. In the end I just used my finger and dabbed it around.

Serves 4, more if they are appetizers

3 slices Italian bread, torn into 1/2-inch pieces (1 cup)
1/3 cup milk
4 ounces sliced pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch lardons
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken
2 tablespoons tomato paste, divided
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 400°F. In a small bowl, add bread and milk. Toss lightly and let it soak until softened, about 4 minutes.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook pancetta until brown and slightly crisp. Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the pancetta and let it cool on a paper towel lined plate. Add onion to pan and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground pepper (do not pour out grease, this will add more flavor to the onion). Cook until soft and caramelized. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. In a large bowl, add chicken, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, pancetta, onions, bread, parsley and 1 egg. Form 12 meatballs and arrange on a rimmed baking sheet.

Stir together the remaining tablespoon of tomato paste and olive oil and brush over meatballs then bake in the upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.