Looking for something new to add to your dinner recipe rotation? Try these delicious, protein packed, low carb chicken meatballs!
After searching recently for a great chicken meatball recipe and not finding anything I loved, I decided to take some of what I was finding and adapt it to get the protein and carb profile I was looking for. There are many chicken meatball recipes on the web, but so many of them include an undesirable breadcrumb to chicken ratio, vegetable oils, juicing and zesting lemons, or required cooking in a skillet then transferring to the oven. I wanted something simple to make with minimal ingredients for a perfect weeknight dinner.
So, this is what I came up with. These are super easy to throw together and bake in just 20 minutes. Everytime I make these, I use at least 3 pounds of chicken to make a huge batch so I can freeze a bunch for another time.
These meatballs are so versatile. Throw them in a salad, serve them over zucchini or rutabaga noodles with marinara sauce, add them to a mix of roasted veggies and cauliflower rice, or serve with tzatziki dipping sauce as a low carb appetizer. Enjoy!
Recipe
yield: 50 meatballs
3 lb Ground Chicken Breast
1/2 Bulb of Garlic
12 oz. Feta Cheese*
2 eggs
1 cup Diced Mushrooms**
1 10 oz Package of Chopped Frozen Spinach
3 Tbsp of Chicken Seasoning
Instructions
1. Take spinach out to thaw and preheat oven to 350.
2. Dice garlic and mushrooms.
3. Roughly chop block of feta into small pieces (or buy crumbled).
4. Drain most of water out of spinach by squeezing it. Chop into smaller pieces if desired.
5. Mix meat, eggs, garlic, seasoning, mushrooms, and feta cheese together by hand or with the paddle attachment of a KitchenAid mixer.
6. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and form 1.5 inch diameter meatballs.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Turn over half way through cooking if desired.
Nutritional Info
per 3 meatballs
Protein: 21g
Fat: 7g
Carb: <1g
*I use full fat feta for this recipe and that is what is reflected in my macro breakdown below.
** Mushrooms are used here as a gluten free bread crumb substitute. If you'd rather not make your meatballs gluten free, I'd suggest using panko Japanese style bread crumbs rather than traditional bread crumbs because it is significantly lower in carbs. If you choose to use panko, use 3/4 cup to replace the mushrooms. This adds less than 1 gram of carb per meatball. Panko will also give you a more perfectly round meatball than the mushrooms will because of panko's ability to absorb moisture.