The best chicken meatballs baked until golden brown and flavored with garlic, herbs and spices. These meatballs are great served as an appetizer, or over a big plate of spaghetti.
My family loves meatballs, I often make their favorite versions including meatball soup, grape jelly meatballs, Italian meatballs, slow cooker meatballs, sweet and sour meatballs, and this lighter chicken version.
My family loves dinner recipes that involve meatballs, and these tender and juicy chicken meatballs are their all-time favorite. Chicken meatballs are a little lighter than their beef counterparts, but they’re still plenty flavorful and are super easy to prepare.
Table of Contents
Chicken Meatball Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need ground chicken, an egg, panko breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning and fresh parsley.
How Do You Make Chicken Meatballs?
To make chicken meatballs, place ground chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and seasonings in a large bowl. Mix everything thoroughly, then roll 1 inch balls out of the mixture.
Place the uncooked meatballs on a foil lined baking sheet pan and they are ready to bake. Put them in the oven until the meatballs are golden brown and cooked through. Add a sprinkle of parsley, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For Chicken Meatballs
- You can use ground turkey instead of ground chicken with great results.
- When you select your ground chicken, pick 93-96% lean ground chicken. Avoid 99% lean ground chicken breast.
- I like to serve these chicken balls in garlic butter sauce. To make garlic butter sauce, simply cook in a pan 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of garlic, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley and a little salt and pepper to taste. You can also serve these meatballs in homemade marinara sauce or with tomato sauce for dipping.
- Be sure to offer some great side dishes such as Hasselback sweet potatoes, sauteed broccolini or fennel salad.
- Try putting a little cooking oil on your hands when you form the meatballs. That helps keep the meat from sticking to you and gives you smoother balls.
- You can store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or put them in the freezer for 2 months.
- No parsley on hand? Try a different herb such as oregano or basil.
Quick Tip
Be careful not to pack the meatballs too tightly in your hands, or they can become tough.
Recipe FAQs
There are a few tricks to keep your meatballs moist. Be sure to use ground chicken that is 93-96% lean, that extra fat along with the olive oil in the recipe will keep the meat from getting dry. In addition, be careful not to over bake the meatballs. They are ready as soon as they are done and the tops are brown.
Chicken meatballs are made with ground chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, cheese, olive oil, herbs and spices.
FOLLOW ME
Chicken Meatball Variations
These chicken meatballs are fantastic in so many different ways. Here are some changes you can try.
- Greek style: Add 1/2 cup chopped cooked spinach and use feta cheese for the parmesan cheese. You can also add a tablespoon of minced onions.
- Cheese lovers: Add 1/2 cup each of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese to the meatballs.
- Mexican: Omit the Italian seasoning, instead use 1 tablespoon of chili powder. Use cheddar cheese instead of parmesan cheese. Sprinkle a little cilantro over the top of the meatballs when serving them instead of parsley.
- Bacon: Try adding 1/2 cup of cooked crumbled bacon to the meatballs.
- Stuffed meatballs: Put a 1/2 inch cube of mozzarella cheese inside each meatball, then bake.
These baked chicken meatballs bake up browned on the outside and moist on the inside. They work perfectly in pasta, as a pizza topping, in a sandwich, or as a party snack. The possibilities are endless!
More Meatball Recipes You’ll Love
Turkey Meatballs (Slow Cooker)
4 hrs 25 mins
Cranberry Meatballs (Slow Cooker)
3 hrs 5 mins
Teriyaki Meatballs
25 mins
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground chicken 96% lean
- 1 egg
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with foil, and coat the foil with cooking spray.
- Place the ground chicken, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning in a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Roll 1 inch sized meatballs, and place the meatballs in a single layer on the baking pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until meatballs are browned and cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley, then serve.
Notes
- You can use ground turkey instead of ground chicken with great results.
- When you select your ground chicken, pick 93-96% lean ground chicken. Avoid 99% lean ground chicken breast.
- I like to serve these meatballs in garlic butter sauce. To make garlic butter sauce, simply cook in a pan 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of garlic, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley and a little salt and pepper to taste. You can also serve these meatballs in marinara sauce or with marinara sauce for dipping.
How many meatballs to a serving? I’m on weight watchers and have to log my points.
Please let me know
It should be 5 meatballs!
Recipe perfect! No changes made and they were moist and tasty!
These are delicious, moist, and easy! Keeper! (I didn’t have fresh parsley so used dried).
Made them with half ground chicken & half chicken Italian sausage and they were delicious! This recipe is a keeper.
Can this be turned into a meatloaf?
Yes that should be fine, you may just want to add a topping such as ketchup or BBQ sauce so it doesn’t dry out!
So I am gonna make these for sure. I have a question about the nutrition facts, it says 310 calories but does not state serving size.
It should make about 24 meatballs, so a serving would be 4 meatballs.
Thank you.
Only had 1LB of ground chicken so halved the recipe. Made 16 smaller meatballs. Threw in the whole egg, thinking it would not make that much of difference…but it does. Next time will do 1/2 an egg. Lol.
Made it adding Mozerella cubes in the inner meatballs, mine were made with Ground turkey. Oh my gosh! were thet ever good!!!! Yummy!
by the way, sorry about this, i served it with linguini and alfredo sauce! hmmmm mmmm good!
I made these with ground turkey. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used almond flour and arrowroot so that I could stick to my diet. The switches weren’t bad. These are excellent!
These were great! My daughter has an allergy to wheat and egg. The addition of the potato was the perfect alternative to bind. I’ve tried other recipes using oats and I couldn’t get anyone to eat them. I’m so glad I found this recipe!
I’m obsessed with these. They look incredible.
Totally craving meatballs now! I really loved how you used chicken for these! And thanks for the tip about adding olive oil! Going to try that soon!
These meatballs are delicious and moist! I feel like you helped me learn how to stop making dry meatballs! There are so many meals these will work with!
This was really amazing!! I loved it!
I should make these meatballs for my kid. I am sure he will love them!
My family loves chicken meatballs!! I love that these are bakes & have so much flavor. They’d be great with so many dishes!
I made these earlier today, but Mexican style, and they’re SO GOOD! Definitely making these again
Plz tell me the Mexican style recipe?
Love this baked, chicken version!! They have lots of flavor & are crisp & perfect!
Yummmm! These are so good and they’re also extremely versatile, thanks for the recipe!
Oh my goodness, I am craving these meatballs! Your recipe looks amazing and I love the tips you’ve added as well!
I loved these meatballs as is with your recipe but I’ll be trying some of the other suggestions you have to make them a little different depending on what mood I’m in.
I didn’t know about adding olive oil to the meatballs to keep them moist. Thanks for the tip! These look fantastic!