My Chicken Parmesan obsession runs deep. We kicked off the week with a classic chicken parmesan recipe and today we’re getting fancy with Chicken Parmesan Meatballs!!
My cooking skills were somewhat limited in college. If you came over for dinner it was either chicken parm or a roasted chicken with salad. That’s it. The only options you got! You could say I’ve expanded my repertoire a bit since then (with over 1000 recipes on this site I think culinary school has officially paid off), but I always come back to chicken parm. My classic chicken parm recipe is a winner, but I wanted to jazz things up a bit today.
So I took each and every ingredient from the chicken parm recipe, and turned it into mozzarella stuffed chicken parmesan meatballs. So all those herbs – into the meatballs! The parmesan and breadcrumbs – into the meatballs. The mozzarella, well, you get the point! There’s even a bit of flour on the outside of every meatball to give it a bit of a crust.
I kinda of hate myself for not making these earlier, because to say I’m obsessed would be an understatement. I practically licked the skillet clean when I made these. You absolutely, positively, must try these!
Stuck in a dinner rut? Looking for new delicious dinner ideas? Check out my roundup of 50+ easy dinner ideas here.
Chicken Parmesan Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cups flour
- bocconcini mozzarella balls
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 jar marinara sauce
- handful of basil leaves torn
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the chicken, parmesan, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley and red pepper flakes. Carefully combine everything with your hands until the ingredients are evenly mixed.
- Form the ground chicken mixture into small meatballs, each the size of a golf ball.
- Insert a small bocconcini ball in the center of each meatball, taking care to reform the meatball around the cheese once it’s been inserted. The mozzarella should be completely hidden from sight.
- Dredge each meatball in the flour to lightly coat it and gently tap off any excess flour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add half of the meatballs and sauté for a 3-4 minutes, turning every so often to brown the outside.
- Once the meatballs are browned, remove them from the oil and repeat the process with the remaining meatballs.
- Once all meatballs are browned, add the tomato sauce to the skillet and place the browned meatballs on top of the sauce.
- Transfer the skillet, meatballs and all, into the oven and let the meatballs continue to bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and dusting with salt, pepper, freshly chopped basil and extra bocconcini if desired. Serve immediately.
Photo by Matt Armendariz / Food Styling by Adam Pearson / Recipe from What’s Gaby Cooking
Thank you and have a Happy Monday.
I want to dive into a platter of these! Hope you are having a BLAST in South America!!
O.M.G.
Um. I need these. SERIOUSLY!!!
Cheesy meatballs are the BEST! These look amazing!
Yum! These look fantastic!
Yum! Great minds think alike. I posted a mozzarella stuffed chicken meatball recipe this morning. They are great for snacking!
I want to gobble up this entire pot full of meatballs Gaby!!
Love all of the cheese!
Wow! These look & sound incredible! On my list of things to make soon! as in this week!
I could definitely do these chicken parmesan meatballs.
Yum!!! Look at that gooey cheese.
I LOVE the cheesy center!! What a perfect surprise when biting in! 🙂
Wow these look amazing!!! I love chicken parm. What a fun spin on it!
Chicken and eggplant parm were definitely my go-to college dishes. They look impressive and everyone loves them. These meatballs look awesome! The cheese in the middle is genius!
I never get tired of chicken parm! I can’t wait to try your meatball version 🙂
I hate you for not making these earlier too!! j/k!!! but seriously…instantly craving these.
These look both delicious AND easy … surely a winner! Especially love the idea of the mozzarella ‘surprise’ in the middle ..yum!
Why didn’t I ever think of that?? I love meatballs & I love chicken parm. This makes perfect sense!!
These meatballs sound tasty! Love the melted cheese in them!
These look incredible, Gaby!
I love meatballs, and parmesan, so combined they are magical. I need to try these, they look spectacular.
I made these meatballs for Hiro’s 2nd birthday to RAVE reviews. So delicious!
What an incredible idea! Terrific party food. 🙂
Can’t wait to try this. It looks so good.
Do you know how many meatballs can you make with the ingredients you’ve posted? many thanks
about 16-18!!
What would you serve these with if you wanted to make them the main course for a meal? They look so delicious!
pasta!!
LOL. I was apparently over thinking it. 🙂
Thanks! Stumbled upon your site a month or so ago. Love it!
These look amazballs! No pun intended!
Any way these could be frozen beforehand or cooked in a crock pot?
You could absolutely assemble these, freeze them, and then pop them into the crock pot with the marinara sauce to cook!
These could be a new weeknight staple at our house!
I will be making these this weekend!
The recipe calls for a jar of tomato sauce. Do I use a jarred marinara (or the like), or straight up tomato sauce?
Yhanks.
marinara!
Genius!! I can’t wait to give these a try. I love all this deliciousness rolled up into a little ball!!
These look delicious! I’d love to try them!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
I made these meatballs a few weeks back for a Super Bowl and they were a hit!! This weekend my parents are in town and I will definitely be whipping up another batch. Gaby, I love your snapchat recipe episodes! All of your recipes I make always turn out great!
Thank you Sara!! xx
You may have created the PERFECT dish! Making these asap!
Made this for dinner, and it was a huge hit!! So delish! Thanks!
When I saw these on Insta my jaw dropped. What a great college-turned-gourmet meal. GIMME ALL OF THEM
I made them for lunch on Saturday, they were truly delicious, thank you! I made them with a yummy tomato sauce and some spaghetti and courgette, which was a great combination.
Made a healthier version of this and it was delicious! Omitted the mozzarella and served over sautéed garlic kale. My preschoolers gobbled it up!
Made these today and they really do taste like chicken parmesan. I bought the mozzarella balls but they were large when I opened the container. I cut them in half but still only got 9 BIG meatballs. Trying to work the chicken mixture over the cheese balls so none peeked out gave me the end result. Still they taste delish!
This was ridiculously delicious. I had to make my meatballs a bit bigger than a golf ball to make sure the bocconcini fit inside. I browned the meatballs longer than the recipe calls for since I wanted to brown them on all sides, and baked them for about 15 minutes, and I was surprised how juicy they came out! I would definitely make this again since it was fairly easy and very yummy.
What marinara sauce do you recommend using for these? Thanks so much!!
I use the one from Trader Joes and I love it!
Are the parsley and oregano dried or fresh? Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
dried!
Hi Gaby, just wanted to know how you would prepare and transfer these as an appetizer for a party.?
Once you’re done cooking them, I’d pop a lid on the skillet and transfer them just like that. Then warm them back up in the same skillet once you get to a party!!