These Baked Chicken Meatballs are tender and moist, filled with the most delicious flavors of garlic, Romano cheese, and herbs. They are baked until golden brown and can be served on top of spaghetti, in a meatball sub, or just to snack on by themselves (they are that good!!). You are going to love this meatball recipe!
These chicken meatballs make a super family friendly dinner! Kids and adults absolutely love them. Serve them to your pickiest eaters.
Listen to the Audio Recipe!
You can LISTEN to an audio version of the full recipe, skip down to the recipe card below! It is a full episode on the podcast Let’s Make Dinner, all the tips and tricks are included to make your Chicken Meatballs perfect.
These are the most flavorful chicken meatballs I have ever made. I have used them in pasta sauce with spaghetti and have also used them for meatball subs – both were delicious. They are so good you can just eat them plain
five stars – tas
The Trick to Keeping Ground Chicken Moist
To secret to keeping your ground chicken meatballs moist and tender is using a panade.
Traditionally a panade is a mixture of stale bread and liquid which helps ground meat retain its moisture, no matter how long it is cooked (within reason!).
In this meatball recipe you combine the ground chicken with a panade mixture of panko bread crumbs and milk. It retains the moisture while the chicken cooks all the way through.
Ingredients
Since ground chicken can be a blank canvas it is important to add plenty of flavorful ingredients to your meatball mixture:
Panko Bread Crumbs are one of the secrets to keeping your ground chicken juicy. This courser bread crumb mixes perfectly with milk and turns into a panade. Make sure you find “panko” bread crumbs in the grocery store.
Italian Seasoning is a great way to get a lot of flavor from one spice. It is commonly a mix of dried basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil will not only help keep your chicken meatballs tender, it will also impart a nice flavor. Make sure to use the “extra virgin” olive oil and not just plain olive oil.
Romano Cheese is a super flavorful hard Italian cheese that grates and melts perfectly. You can also purchase parmesan to use in place of the Romano.
Fresh Parsley not only adds a nice fresh flavor to your chicken meatballs, it adds a few green speckles, like a garnish. You can absolutely swap out fresh chopped spinach here for a punch of nutrition.
Ground Chicken when you purchase ground chicken make sure to not purchase the extra lean all breast ground chicken. It will be too lean and may dry out.
How to Make and Bake
Preheat the oven to 400. Grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, spray the paper with the non stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl combine the panko bread crumbs, milk, salt, pepper, parsley, Italian seasoning, onion powder, shallots and garlic.
In another small bowl whisk together the egg and extra virgin olive oil. Pour it into the bread crumb mixture.
Add the grated Romano cheese and ground chicken to the bread/egg mixture. With clean hands or a fork, very lightly combine everything, do not overmix or you will have tough meatballs.
With a light touch roll 18-20 meatballs and place on the prepared baking sheet. Spray the tops of the meatballs with the baking spray.
Pop in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Make sure they are golden on the outside and cooked through with a 160-165 degree internal temp.
If you like a little more of a golden finish you can pop them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes.
Serving Chicken Meatballs
These Baked Chicken Meatballs are perfect to top spaghetti with marinara, they also would be amazing inside a meatball sub.
If you want to stick to something healthier you could serve them atop spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles (zoodles).
However they are delicious enough to serve on there own too, maybe with a side of creamy Instant Pot Risotto and roasted broccoli.
Freezing
You can absolutely freeze your chicken meatballs. I recommend baking them completely and then freezing.
Let the baked meatballs cool, then pop them in the freezer on a baking sheet. Once they are frozen, about 2 hours, you can place them in a freezer safe baggie. Keep for up to 3 months.
Reheating & Using Leftovers
Reheat your frozen meatball from FROZEN, do not thaw first. Pop the frozen meatballs in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes.
More Meatballs To Try…
If you love these chicken meatballs, here are a couple more meatball recipes to check out:
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Flavorful Baked Chicken Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken do not buy the extra lean all breast meat, it is too dry!
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoon shallot, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup Romano cheese, grated
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large egg
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a reusable silpat, spray with cooking spray.cooking spray
- In a large bowl combine the bread crumbs, milk, salt, pepper, parsley, Italian seasoning, onion powder, shallots and garlic.½ cup panko bread crumbs, ¼ cup milk, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, 2 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 2 tablespoon shallot, finely chopped, 2 garlic cloves, minced
- In another bowl whisk together the egg and extra virgin olive oil. Pour it into the bread crumb mixture.2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 large egg
- Add the cheese and ground chicken to the bread/egg mixture. Lightly combine, do not overmix or you will have tough meatballs.½ cup Romano cheese, grated, 1 lb ground chicken
- Form the chicken mixture into 20 meatballs, placing them on the prepared baking sheet. They will be a little smaller than a golf ball. Spray the tops of each meatball with the baking spray.
- Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes until they are cooked through (165° internal temp). For a golden top place them under the broiler for 3-4 minutes.
Serving
- These meatballs can be served on top of spaghetti with marinara sauce or in a meatball sub!Or they are yummy enough to eat by themselves with a little dipping sauce!
Notes:
If nutrition facts are provided they are calculated as an estimate to the best of our knowledge.
Andrea Howe
My kids LOVE meatballs and will eat them just about anyway I prepare them! This recipe was so delicious and easy. I was worried using chicken, they would be a little dry but they were very moist and tender and flavorful. Thanks for this easy recipe!
TAS
These are the most flavorful chicken meatballs I have ever made. I have used them in pasta sauce with spaghetti and have also used them for meatball subs – both were delicious. They are so good you can just eat them plain.