Chicken meatballs with Indian spices
Announcement + I have a sneaky feeling these will be universally liked...
Chicken meatballs with Indian spices
I did not grow up eating meatballs, mainly because I grew up in a vegetarian household. I might have eaten some variation of vege-balls in a curry sauce my mother concocted but none that stood out to me enough to attempt in my adulthood. I think I tasted American meatballs sometime after college in a generic restaurant and didn’t care too much for their overwhelming meaty taste without much flavor, other than the sauce they were dunked in.
It wasn’t until a trip to New York when I ate good meatballs in an Italian restaurant that were full of flavor rather than blandness. A friend had ordered three meatballs in tomato sauce as her appetizer. I tasted with a small bite and proceeded to devour an entire one, 30% of her appetizer. Thankfully she was generously open to sharing!
I had ground chicken in the freezer that I thawed and intended to make a super flavorful keema curry with. But as I was thinking back to the New York trip, meatballs surfaced into my brain. I quickly pivoted to experiment with chicken meatballs that would explode with North Indian flavors.
That said, these can easily be made with a meat, or mixtures of meat, of your choice. For example, these would be great with any combination or sole use of ground lamb, beef, pork, bison, or even plant based proteins like Impossible Foods or Beyond Burger, etc.. More importantly, they can be drowned in different kinds of sauces. Last week I added them to my creamy onion warm-spiced winter sauce. But I bet they will be delicious in sauces like saag made from leafy greens, tikka masala sauce, simple tomato based curry, spinach potato puree, or eaten on their own as snacks or appetizers. They can also be used to prepare sub sandwiches or added to a pasta dish in place of sausage. The possibilities are numerous. I hope you try them sometime and eat them in your favorite way!
A) Season the ground meat - To 1 pound of ground chicken, I added olive oil, finely chopped garlic & ginger, cilantro, spice powders (turmeric, red chili, coriander, cumin, garam masala), dried fenugreek leaves that I crushed in my hands, salt, and chopped onions. I mixed these as thoroughly as possible so the flavors could be infused everywhere.
B) Add the binding agents - I used oat flour from 0.5 cups of rolled oats (quick blend) and 1 egg to bind the meatballs together. Any flour of choice can be used here, e.g. wheat flour, chickpea flour (besan), corn flour, bread crumbs, etc.. The flour works to absorb the moisture that is released during cooking and prevents the meatballs from falling apart. I took my time and mixed these thoroughly.
C) Assemble the meatballs - Using gloved hands with a bit of olive oil, I roughly shaped the meatballs into rounds. They were a little sticky but that didn’t affect the cooking.
D) Cook the meatballs - I decided to pan fry the meatballs but they could also be deep fried or baked in the oven. I sprayed some olive oil on a low-medium heat non stick pan and added the meatballs. I cooked them covered for 7-8 mins on one side, flipped them, and cooked covered again for 7-8 more mins. I did a quick chef’s fee taste test on one meatball to confirm they were cooked through. I cooked the meatballs in two batches and ended up with ~26 meatballs total.
E) Savor the meatballs - These meatballs turned out to be packed with multi-dimensional flavor emerging from the various aromatics and spices. I made a creamy onion warm-spiced winter sauce and dunked all the meatballs into that silky sauce and enjoyed both over steamed basmati rice. The flavor explosions of cumin and coriander and garlic and ginger hit you at the first bite, which is then layered with the warm-spiced silky sauce. All in all a bite full of comfort.
My chicken meatball experiment was a hit in my house. While I preferred to eat them with a rich warming sauce, my husband preferred them as they are with ketchup (I know, he’s so gourmet). I’ll definitely be making these again to add them to different kinds of sauces in the future.
Dish Debrief
Is this my winner or disaster? winner
How would I rate this dish out of 10? 8/10
What would I change next time? try with lamb or other meats, try with paneer or for vegetarian versions
Would I make this again? yes and yes