Easy Restaurant Style Italian Chicken Meatballs
We recently went to eat at Olive Garden and tried their new chicken meatballs. I was impressed, I usually don’t care for chicken meatballs or sausage, I like my ground beef. I was surprised at the flavor AND the price…2 for $5. Craziness. My first thought, of course, was I can make these just as good and at a fraction of the cost per serving. So the next day I grabbed some ground chicken ($3.58lb) a few other ingredients and made my own chicken meatballs. These came out amazing. I knew they would. Here is why…
Chicken has a really low fat content, so if you do not cook it just right it will turn out dry. To compensate for this I used mayonnaise in the recipe. It is commonly used to keep chicken moist. Win.win. Even if you are a die hard fan of beef meatballs, give these a try. You will be surprised, I was!
What you need:
- 1lb ground chicken
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 1/4 teaspoon of fresh, minced garlic (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon of Italian blend seasoning (or a pinch of each basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary)
- pinch salt & pepper
Note* If you do not have all of the seasonings above, it is ok the seasoned bread crumbs make up for it.
What to do:
Preheat the oven to 350º
Whisk the egg and mayonnaise together
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well , use a fork or your hands
Drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil, roll mixture into 2-3 inch meatballs.
Place on the cookie sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes.
You want to make sure to cook these all the way through since it is chicken. Do not be afraid to cut one right in half to check if you don’t have a meat thermometer.
Enjoy!
