#1,785: Chicken Meatballs

So my family loves meatballs.  Ok, maybe I love meatballs and want an excuse to make them for dinner. Now if I try to serve meatballs with pasta, my family could care less about them, but I add them on bread and make a sub sandwich, they have a very different opinion!  I got some ciabatta bread from the grocery store bakery and toasted them up before adding the meatballs and some cheese...the girls were fighting over these!  They were SO good.  Ground chicken was super expensive at the store this week so I used some ground turkey instead.  And I was shockingly out of tomato sauce so I added some pizza sauce that was left in the fridge.  :)  This was a very good recipe!  

1 lb ground chicken (I used ground turkey)

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 strips bacon, finely diced

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons homemade tomato sauce (I used pizza sauce)

3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Preheat your oven to 400º and place a rack in the upper third of your oven.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the diced bacon and cook until a good amount of fat has been rendered out, about 1 tablespoon or so.  (I didn't cook the onion or garlic before adding it to the meat mixture...I was too lazy).  Add the diced onion and the garlic and cook until the onion is translucent and the bacon is crispy.  Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Combine the ground chicken, egg yolk, tomato sauce, parsley and the bacon, onion and garlic in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and mix well.  Form meatballs and roll into little balls, about 1 tablespoon of mixture per ball.  Place the formed meatballs into a large baking dish about one inch apart.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through (I flipped mine over once). 

These can be served as an appetizer, alongside your favorite pasta, over zucchini noodles, etc.  As you can see above, I put my cooked meatballs in a bowl and poured spaghetti sauce over it, then added it to toasted ciabatta bread with melted mozzarella.