I’ve been thinking about Greek Chicken Meatballs for a while. I’ve had them and liked them, but I’ve never made them until yesterday. I was flipping through a Greek cookbook and happened upon a recipe. I’m sure those meatballs were authentic, but the recipe had a whole bunch of steps. I wasn’t looking to spend quite that much time and energy on them. So after a few days I hit up Google.
I immediately found a much simpler recipe. It was on a cooking blog called thewoodenskillet.com. I made them yesterday, but I tweaked just a little. I subbed cracker crumbs for the almond flour I didn’t have, and I skipped adding fresh mint. I didn’t have any, and I’m not really a fan of mint in savory dishes anyway. The author also included a recipe for Greek vinaigrette to serve with the meatballs, and I loved that idea. I did use one that was slightly simpler. They were delish! We liked them so much that I made them again today and took pictures.
The first day we had Greek Chicken Meatballs in a pita with tzatziki sauce. Today we’re having them with lemon rice, roasted tomatoes, a generous amount of feta, and more tzatziki.
These really are easy. Ground chicken (you could use ground turkey if you prefer), an egg, crumbs, and herbs are mixed together then browned on the stovetop in olive oil. (Don’t overcook them, they will dry out and get hard.) The dressing is made quickly in a jar and simply shaken to emulsify. As soon as the meatballs were all cooked, I poured the vinaigrette directly on the meatballs. Those herby meatballs soaked up the tangy dressing and were absolutely awesome. Greek Chicken Meatballs would be lovely as part of a Greek salad, too. If I were serving them that way I’d at least double the dressing.
All told, the entire meatball operation took less than 30 minutes, including cleanup. The two meatballs that were left were excellent cold, straight out of the fridge, at a little after midnight.
Oh, and Greek Chicken Meatballs work well as football food! Serve with toothpicks and either tzatziki sauce, or more vinaigrette with a little sour cream or Greek yogurt stirred in.
And whatever you do, please don’t tell anybody these are health-nut approved.
Greek Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 lb. ground chicken
- ½ cup buttery cracker crumbs, about ½ of a sleeve worth
- 1 egg
- 1 t. each salt, oregano, basil, dill, garlic powder
- ½ t. each pepper, onion powder
- 2-3 T. oil for frying
Quick Greek vinaigrette:
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1 T. red wine vinegar
- 1 T. lemon juice
- 1 t. Dijon mustard
- ½ t. dried oregano
- 1 dash honey
- a pinch each of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Put all of the meatball ingredients except for the oil in a mixing bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Heat a heavy skillet to medium heat and add the oil. Using wet hands, gently form the meat mixture into balls. The mixture is very soft, so you might not get perfect spheres. Working in batches, brown the meatballs well on both sides, about 5 or 6 minutes total. They should be cooked through at this point, but you can check them with an instant-read thermometer to be sure. They are done at 165°.
- Put the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar with a tight lid. Remove the meatballs to a bowl as they get done. When all the meatballs are cooked, drizzle the vinaigrette over them.
- Serve over rice or on a pita with tzatziki sauce and feta for garnish.
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