Oh well, I had to give this name to the post. Though I have been making lamb meatballs for a while now which are tastier than anyone else’s I have had or from any restaurant, I recently made these based on a recipe on a show called ‘Diners, Drive Ins and Drives’ on food network. This show follows the host Guy Fieri all over America as he goes to drives, drive ins and diners which are recommended by viewers. They show food of all types cooked all over America and luckily for us, give out the recipe too!
My favourite channels being Spike and Food Network – though one has no connection to the other what with spike being all about action movies and the other, well – food!, I always try to catch up on this show. Depending on how easy the recipes seem to be and whether I have the ingredients at home, I do try and experiment on some of those.
And one of the days I watched this show, they were featuring this Italian Diner Place in NY or some other place (forget the name) where the cook made these baked meatballs which just looked too tempting. So I duly made a note in my head on the basic ingredients that go in and decided to make them one day.
Around a month later, hubby got some minced meat home and my immediate thought was – lets make meatballs! But he wanted a curry, so we compromised and he got me some minced chicken instead to try. And we ended up making it this weekend.
These meatballs are seriously so moist and tender but at the same time so well cooked, that I did not want to stop eating it! And it actually tastes really good as a souvlaki or gyro with salads and tzatziki sauce which I was in the mood for that night.
Ingredients
500 gms chicken mince (or any mince of your choice)
1 egg
salt to taste
1.5 tspns cumin powder
1 tspn chilli powder
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
2-3 cloves of garlic finely minced/crushed
1 red onion finely minced or grated
2-3 chillies sliced very thin and fine
2 tbspns oil
A deep baking dish oiled on all sides
Aluminium foil to cover the dish for baking
Method
Mix all the dry ingredients in a dish. Add the egg and then the chicken mince and mix it together. Do not overmix otherwise the meatballs will get a bit tough after they are cooked.
Add a tbspn of oil to the mix and also rub your hands with the second tbspn of oil. Chicken mince is very sticky and the oil will help you make the ball easily in your hands. Make medium to large sized meatballs and place it in an oiled baking dish. Cover the dish with an aluminium foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove the foil and cook for another 5-10 minutes depending on how your meatballs look. I like mine a bit browned on top and hence I cook it this way at the end.. If you think they need to cook further, bake it for 10 minutes more by flipping the meatballs. This way, both sides can get browned.
Remove and eat it in a Gyro or sandwich or even as a burger! You can even make smaller balls and serve it as an appetiser for parties. Believe me, your guests will be happy to kiss your fingers after having one of these!!!!!!!!
Note: The original recipe called for milk to be added along with italian spices like oregano and parsley. I decided to just go with cumin and chilli powder. Since chicken mince is very fine, I did not add milk or there could have been a chance that the mix would have been thinner than I wanted.
CookLikeMe 