Overview

These chicken meatballs are great wrapped in leaves. Fairly quick, light, healthy.

Ingredients

For the meatballs

  • 70g/2½oz fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 500g/17½oz minced chicken
  • 6 rashers streaky bacon, finely chopped
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only, roughly chopped
  • 3 heaped tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil

To serve

  • mayonnaise
  • lettuce leaves

Method

  1. Place the breadcrumbs, chicken and chopped bacon into a mixing bowl. Grate the lemon zest in with the chicken and bacon, then halve and squeeze the lemon. Add the lemon juice to the mixture with the roughly chopped thyme leaves. Tip in the grated parmesan. Season the mixture with a little salt, then more generously with black pepper. Mix thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into small balls or patties. Warm the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Fry them in the oil, about eight at a time, for 4-5 minutes until they are crisp and golden-brown on all sides. Lower the heat and leave to cook through to the middle, about 6-8 minutes more. I tend to turn them no more than once or twice during cooking so they develop a crisp, slightly sticky exterior.

  3. Remove the cakes from the pan and place on large, crisp lettuce leaves, add a dollop of mayonnaise and wrap the cakes in the leaves.

Notes

Chicken

Again, I like to buy whole, skin-on, bone-in thighs for this and debone. You can blitz the chopped meat in a food processor which can help to emulsify and bind the mixture. Leaving some of the skin in the mixture adds fat and helps bind further. You can also use the skin by rendering out its fat and cooking the patties in that fat for extra chicken-y goodness.

Spicing

Citrus-y spices like sumac would work well in these too.

FODMAP adjustment

If you were trying to make this FODMAP-friendly, you can leave the bread out of this recipe and the mixture should still hold together, you may want to make the meatballs a little smaller.

References