I haven't made meat balls in a while, and after cooking a luxurious traditional Indian Fathers' day meal for Head Chef today, which he enjoyed with gusto, I was all cooked out but realising that my weekly food preparation has yet to be done, I scoured the mid-month contents of my freezer and came up with a few interesting finds, chicken strips being one of them, hence, this recipe is inspired by my chicken strips find, my Indian cooking know-how and a teeny bit of inspiration from Ms Sarah Wilsons' I Quit Sugar, whose recipes are adding to my growing cookery repertoire - if you can call it that - adding coconut flakes to the minced chicken added the extra flavour to this as per this recipe, makes it an interesting and tasty mix.
What I learned from Ms Wilson is that even chicken breasts and boneless chicken thighs work amazingly well in this recipe - and if you have a food processor or blender, then you add the chicken breasts and the rest of the ingredients except the oil to the food processor, and blend all until smooth! I am not sure why I never thought of this marvy method before - takes the load off trying to source the minced chicken, or using a mincer and I always have at least 3 chicken breasts in my freezer!
This is an easy recipe, which may be adjusted to suit your seasoning and fresh herb(s) taste. What I found, is that in creating smaller meatballs, the cooking is relatively quick and versatile - these meatballs can serve as a main meal with low carbohydrate vegetables, a protein snack in between meals too. They also make excellent Hors d'oeuvre's.
Meatballs or Kebabs as known to SA Indians is a quick to prepare favorite made with minced beef or lamb, with large handfuls of fresh coriander, often fresh mint leaves too, sometimes ginger but always garlic, green chilli and various masala's using egg to bind. This is generally serve in a tomato gravy or as I know it tomato chutney - roti is a traditional accompaniment.
I served these really delicious tasting, coconut-infused meatballs with a brocolli and cauliflower mash, using the same recipe as this cauliflower mash.
Ingredients
600-650g chicken fillets breasts or thighs or minced chicken
1 carrot grated
2 cloves garlic,fresh
1/2 cup preservative and sugar free dessicated coconut or coconut flakes
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp curry powder or masala, preservative free, sugar free
1/2 tsp Himalayan or sea salt
Additional seasoning and spices as preferred
2-3 green chilli's for additional pungency, if preferred
Handful of fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley to taste.
Coconut oil for shallow frying
Here's How
- Add all the ingredients, except the oil, if using chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs, even a combination of both chicken cuts, into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- If using minced chicken, add all ingredients into a large bowl, and mix well.
- Using your hands, especially the palms, break of portions of the minced chicken mixture, rolling to form about 24 small meatballs as smaller meatballs cook quicker.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough, that a meatball sizzles as soon as it hits the pan, add more meatballs and fry. You may have to fry these in batches.
- Cook for about 2-3 minutes then roll the meatballs over and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add a lid to cover the pan and cook for a further 8-10 minutes. Remove and drain off any excess oil on absorbent kitchen paper.
- Serve warm, with vegetables and / or salad of your choice
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