Lots of green things are happening, like these chicken spinach meatballs.
These juicy chicken meatballs are stuffed with spinach, feta and oregano served with a garlicky dill spinach pesto.
You're going to love this unique meatball recipe, I promise!
How to make chicken spinach meatballs
Featured Ingredients
Chicken Meatballs:
- Ground chicken: An underrated and nutritious meat option to make quick meals.
- Spinach: Use fresh or frozen leaves and chop it up.
- If using the frozen block spinach, be sure to let it thaw and wring it out with a towel (it contains so much moisture!)
- Feta: Your favorite brand, crumbled.
- Panko breadcrumbs and eggs: Act as the binder to hold the meatballs together.
- Dijon: For flavor and moisure (it's especially important when using a lean meat like ground chicken or turkey).
- Seasonings: Minced onion, dried oregano, dried dill, salt and black pepper.
Dill Pesto:
- Spinach: Handfuls of fresh spinach are an excellent addition to pesto - it adds a ton of nutrition but also cuts back on how much fresh herb you have to add, therefore is a cost effective addition/alternative.
- Dill: A handful of fresh dill.
- Garlic: Simply peel a few cloves and toss them in with the pesto ingredients.
- Nuts: Pine nuts are authentic to pesto, but really any nut will work well.
- Lemon: Fresh lemon zest and juice for the best flavor.
- Parmesan: Freshly grated!
- Olive oil: To whirl everything together.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Prepare a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together all of the meatball ingredients.
- Using your hands, form 2-inch meatballs and place on the wire rack with an inch of space in between meatballs.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until internal temperature of meatballs reach 160 degrees.
- While the meatballs cook, prepare the pesto.
- Place the spinach, dill, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, Parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor.
- Process while drizzling olive oil in through the vegetable shoot, until desired consistency is reached.
- Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Serve the chicken meatballs with the pesto sauce for dipping.
Recipe Substitutions and Alterations
For the chicken meatballs:
- Instead of ground chicken: Use ground turkey, beef or pork or a combination.
- Instead of spinach: Use chopped kale.
- For the feta: Buy it already crumbled or buy a block and crumble it yourself.
- For the breadcrumbs: I love panko because they're light and fluffy, but you can use standard breadcrumbs as well.
- For the seasonings: Adjust the amounts as desired.
For the dill pesto:
- Instead of spinach: Use fresh kale.
- If you're not a fan of dill: Use another fresh herb like basil or parsley.
- For the nuts: Use any nut, such as pine, walnut, pecan, almonds or pepitas.
Nutrition Considerations
- To make these gluten free: Use gluten free panko or traditional breadcrumbs.
- Be sure all ingredients you choose are gluten free.
- To make these dairy free: Skip the feta or use dairy free cheese.
- To make these nut free: Skip the nuts in the pesto.
- Be sure all ingredients you choose are nut free.
- To make these egg free: Try this recipe with an egg replacer, such as Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer or a flax 'egg' (although I haven't tested this).
Swoon-worthy meatball recipes:
- Curry Chicken Meatballs
- Cocktail Meatballs with Cranberry BBQ Sauce
- Greek Lamb Meatballs
- Swedish Meatballs
- Sesame Pork Meatballs
- Italian Skillet Meatballs
Chicken Spinach Meatballs
Chicken meatballs with spinach, feta and oregano served with a garlicky dill spinach pesto.
- Prep Time: 10-15 mins
- Cook Time: 15-20 mins
- Total Time: 25-35 mins
- Yield: Makes 18 meatballs 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Baking, No-Cook
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Scale
Chicken Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground chicken breast
- 2 cups fresh or frozen leaf spinach, finely chopped
- 6-ounces crumbled feta cheese
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
- ½ tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried dill leaves
- ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Dill Pesto:
- 3 cups fresh spinach
- ¼ cup fresh baby dill
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts (or other nut)
- Zest and juice of ¼ lemon
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together all of the meatball ingredients. Using your hands, form 2-inch meatballs and place on the wire rack with an inch of space in between meatballs.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until internal temperature of meatballs reach 160 degrees.
- While the meatballs cook, prepare the pesto. Place the spinach, dill, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, Parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor.
- Process while drizzling olive oil in through the vegetable shoot, until desired consistency is reached. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Serve the chicken meatballs with the pesto sauce for dipping.
Notes
Cooking Tip: Make the pesto in advance for a quick and easy weeknight meal.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 meatballs
- Calories: 343
- Sugar: 0g
- Sodium: 467mg
- Fat: 22g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 17g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 26g
- Cholesterol: 100mg
Yahhmm!
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