Chicken Meatballs: Recipes from Casa Adora and the Road

Chicken meatballs are the most forgiving thing I cook. Mince it, bind it, brown it, and let the sauce do the talking. At Casa Adora, and in the van, I've ended up making them in more ways than I ever planned, and this page is where all my chicken meatballs recipes live.

I cook for one, so most of these are scaled for one or two, and none of them needs more than a single pan.

Sauces for Chicken Meatballs: Which One to Cook

The meatballs hardly change from dish to dish. The sauce is what decides the evening, so start there: the right sauce for chicken meatballs depends on what you fancy tonight.

• Sweet and sticky: teriyaki chicken meatballs in an orange teriyaki sauce, made for one.
• Thai-inspired and creamy: spicy coconut lemongrass chicken meatballs with red curry paste, coconut milk and a little peanut butter. The sauce is good enough to mop up with bread.
• Fresh and light: sesame and ginger chicken meatballs with spinach and rice.
• Spanish and brothy: chicken, carrot, apple and chickpea albóndigas in tomato broth, my take on José Pizarro's parsnip version.
• Comforting: chicken meatballs with chickpea and cauliflower mash, seasoned with a Mediterranean spice blend you can keep in a jar.
• Rich and creamy: chicken meatballs in cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes. It works over pasta too.
• Indulgent: chicken meatballs Kiev, with a frozen garlic butter centre that melts as they cook.

Chicken Meatballs: What I've Learned

• No chicken mince? Mince your own. In a village with no chicken mince, a chicken breast and the KitchenAid mincer attachment gave me exactly what I needed in a few minutes.
• The binder is up to you. Breadcrumbs and an egg are the classic. Mashed chickpeas or blitzed Parmesan do the job too, and add flavour of their own.
• Brown first, then the sauce. Most of these are browned in the pan and finished in the sauce. The albóndigas go the other way and cook gently in the broth.
• Freeze the butter for the Kiev. Firm garlic butter is far easier to press into the centre of a meatball than soft butter.
• They travel well. Several of these were cooked in Florie, my campervan, in a RidgeMonkey, and everything reheats well the next day.

If a whole bird is more your style, my whole roast chicken guide covers how the chefs do it and how I do it at home.

If these chicken meatballs found their way into your kitchen, you can buy me a coffee ☕ — it helps keep the site going.

Footnote

This chicken meatballs guide is part of my Chicken Recipes hub — a complete collection of chicken and poultry recipes from Casa Adora and the road.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper chicken, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef