Italian Chicken Sausage Meatballs

This recipe for Italian Chicken Sausage Meatballs is a version of the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe… bold flavors and baked not fried meatballs make this a healthy alternative to the usual beef meatballs.

TIPS

This recipe uses ground chicken and Italian Chicken Sausage.  I found a package of fully cooked chicken sweet sausage in the hot dog and kielbasa section in the grocery store. 

Since it’s fully cooked it was a little harder to get it out of the casing… just look for the open end of the casing and cut it with a sharp knife, it should peel right off.  Then using your fingers break it into small pieces… you will be mixing it with the ground chicken.

If you don’t want to use the chicken sausage or can’t find it.. you can use all ground chicken… keep in mind chicken is bland… so you will need to add more spices.. I’d recommend about a tablespoon of Italian Seasoning and adding some finely chopped red and green pepper to the mixture… about 2 tablespoons of each.

I chop my onion and garlic clove into chunks and throw them in my mini chopper.. a few pulses and they are perfectly finely chopped or minced… it also mixes them together really well.

The recipe calls for a large egg, you can use an egg substitute like Egg Beaters to lighten it up even more.

I used skim milk for the milk.. you can use any milk you have on hand, whole, low fat or skim.

I use a 1 inch cookie dough scoop to roll the meat into balls… it’s quick and easy and makes them all uniform so they bake evenly.

The meatballs are dry… you need to simmer them briefly in tomato sauce before serving….they moisten right up after being in the sauce for even as few as ten minutes.

These meatballs (without the tomato sauce) can be added to soups as well…. although I did modify it slightly,  the original recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa’s Wedding Soup…

These are easily frozen.. making it super easy to make a weeknight supper.

I hope you try these.. they are wonderful!

Recipe:  Italian Chicken Sausage Meatballs

All you need:

1 pound ground chicken

2 links Italian Chicken Sausage **See TIPS

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, finely minced

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 3 tablespoons milk

½ cup grated Romano cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper (just a sprinkling of both)

All you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil or parchment paper.

Mix all the ingredients well using your hands.

Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls.

Place on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

After removing them from the oven…

If you will be serving them with tomato sauce….place them in a pot of tomato sauce and simmer for 10-20 minutes.

Or if you want to serve them in a soup.. add them to your soup and simmer for a few minutes… in broth they really only need 2-3 minutes to moisten up.