Baked Chicken Meatballs

By Alqualonde

These were unbelievably good, quite possibly my new favorite meatball recipe; they pack a lot of flavor from a few ingredients. Serves 4, or more as appetizers or sliders

Ingredients

• 3 slices Italian bread, torn into small bits (1 cup)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 ounces sliced pancetta, finely chopped (you can swap in Canadian Bacon if you can’t find pancetta)
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 large egg
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste, divided*
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Soak bread in milk in a small bowl until softened, about four minutes.

Cook pancetta, onion, and garlic in one tablespoon oil with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until onion is softened, about 6 minutes. (Alternately, as in “I thought of this after the fact”, I’d bet you could render the pancetta for a couple minutes and cook the onions and garlic in that fat, rather than olive oil.) Cool slightly.

Squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with chicken, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, pancetta mixture, bread, and parsley. Form 12 meatballs and arrange in another 4-sided sheet pan (I used a 9×13 roasting dish).

Stir together remaining tablespoons of tomato paste and oil and brush over meatballs (the paste/oil does not mix in any cohesive manner, but just smoosh it on and run with it) , then bake in upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes (though mine took a good 5 minutes longer).

* I accidentally added a heaping tablespoon of the tomato paste into the meatball mixture the first time I made it, and ended up liking it better than without it. I’d use the tomato paste on top too. It’s good both places.