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Chicken Parmesan Meatballs are breaded and stuffed chicken meatballs smothered with sauce and melted cheese. Serve with your favorite pasta.
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Chicken Parm Flavor but Served in Meatball Form
Our Chicken Parmesan Meatballs have the same flavors as a classic chicken parm recipe – reimagined in a totally new way.
You’ll start by making meatballs out of ground chicken and stuffing them with little mozzarella cheese balls. Next, you’ll coat them in breadcrumbs and bake until golden brown.
Finally, place the meatballs in a casserole dish with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on top. Bake until hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted. Then serve with your favorite pasta.
Key Ingredients
- Ground Chicken – Any ground chicken can be used (breast, thigh, or a mixture of the two). If you want to keep these meatballs extra lean – choose the 100% breast meat. For the best flavor and moisture – choose the thigh or mix of breast and thigh meat.
- Eggs
- Olive Oil
- Yellow Onion
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley
- Parmesan Cheese – You’ll mix this into the ground chicken mixture for extra flavor.
- Fresh Basil
- Seasonings & Herbs – Dried basil and oregano, kosher salt and black pepper.
- Mozzarella Pearls – These are stuffed inside each meatball, as well as sprinkled over the top before baking. Alternately, you could buy the larger balls of fresh mozzarella and cut it into small pieces.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Breadcrumbs – Use the fine Italian breadcrumbs for this recipe. You can use plain or seasoned.
- Marinara Sauce – Make your own or use your favorite jarred sauce.
- Pasta – We served our Chicken Parmesan Meatballs with spaghetti but any favorite pasta shape will work.
Tips & Tricks
- For even sized meatballs, use an ice cream scoop and/or a scale to measure out the meatball mixture.
- Wet your hands with water to make rolling the meatballs easier.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make Chicken Parmesan Meatballs ahead of time? Yes, you can start and stop at any point during the process. Just keep in mind that once you open the ground chicken package and start to mix the meatball mixture, the clock starts ticking on how long the meat will stay fresh. It’s better to fully cook the meatballs in one session, then reheat them if necessary.
- How do I store leftovers? Store the leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
- How do I reheat leftovers? Reheat the casserole dish in the oven, or the microwave individual portions.
- Can I freeze? Yes, these meatballs should freeze fine. We suggest freezing them in a single layer so the meatballs don’t stick together, then you can bag them up in individual portions of you’d like.
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Chicken Parmesan Meatballs
Chicken Parmesan Meatballs are breaded and stuffed chicken meatballs smothered with sauce and melted cheese. Serve with your favorite pasta.
Yield: 12 meatballs
Prep: 2 hours 30 minutesCook: 30 minutesTotal: 3 hours
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped fine
- 2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped, or half that of dried
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 8-ounce tub of mozzarella balls, drained
Breading
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 whole egg
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
Other ingredients
- 1/2 cup light olive oil or a neutral oil, to drizzle on meatballs before baking
- 1 24–ounce jar of your favorite marinara sauce divided, or make your own following this recipe
- 1 additional cup of grated Parmesan cheese, to sprinkle over the top before baking
- Spaghetti or other pasta, for serving
Instructions
- Line a medium sheet tray with foil or parchment paper.
- In a sauté pan, cook onions in olive oil for three minutes, add garlic and cook for one more minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix ground chicken, whole egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, basil and oregano.
- Add cooled cooked onions and garlic and mix to combine.
- Divide the mixture into 12 even portions using an ice cream scoop and a scale if needed. Ours were between 1.8 and 1.9 ounces each.
- Drain the liquid from the mozzarella balls and stuff each meatball with one mozzarella ball each. Do this by flattening the meatball, place a mozzarella ball in the center, then fold and pinch the meatball mixture around to seal.
- Repeat and roll each between your two palms to form 12 round balls.
- Place the meatballs onto the prepared sheet tray and refrigerate for two hours to set up.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- In three bowls, add flour to one, egg and a teaspoon of water to the second, and the breadcrumbs in the third.
- Coat the meatballs in flour, beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs, one at a time, moving them back to the prepared sheet tray as you work.
- Drizzle on the light olive oil over each breaded meatball, dividing the oil between them. (about two teaspoons per meatball)
- Bake for ten minutes, remove from the oven and flip each meatball over and bake for five more minutes.
- If serving with spaghetti, start cooking that now.
- Reduce the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Brush a 9X13 casserole dish with olive oil, then pour a cup of the marinara sauce into the bottom to cover.
- Place the cooked meatballs onto the sauce and cover with the remaining two cups of sauce.
- Coarsely cut up the remaining mozzarella balls then sprinkle over each meatball.
- Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese over each meatball and bake uncovered for 15 minutes just to melt the cheese over the top.
- Serve with cooked spaghetti or other pasta.
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Why don’t you address what type of ground chicken? Is it breast, thigh or a mix, to me it makes a big difference.
Great suggestion Meg – any ground chicken mix can be used although we tend to cook with the breast/thigh mix ourselves.