These Asian-flavored meatballs are coated in a delicious garlic brown sauce. Unlike being sweet like the Teriyaki Chicken, these meatballs have a more garlicky and chili flakes infused flavor and a mellow sweet after-taste. Oh and did I mention, you only need 30 mins to whip this recipe up! Again like so many Chinese dishes, this one is just as versatile as it is easy, and quick.
And like all Chinese main entrees, like the dragon chicken, this meatball goes well with rice and pasta both, with a side serving of a good old salad.
STEPS OUTLINE FOR MAKING THE SAUCY CHICKEN MEATBALLS
Ok, if you’ve ever made any kind of meatballs before, you know the drill. If you haven’t, lemme just walk you through the steps quickly
STEP 1 – MAKING THE MEATBALLS
First, we are going to start with some finely chopped veggies, like carrots, bulbs of the green onions and garlic by putting them in a chopper. Make sure you are chopping them towards the fine side. You can even chop the green shoots of the green onions, but I like to slice them by knife. Dump all your veggies, mince meat in a bowl along with some breadcrumbs, an egg and a tbsp of cream cheese. (If you are looking for a healthier alternative, you could use Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese) Then we are just gonna add all the seasonings (mentioned in the recipe card below) and proceed to the next step. Oil your palms and make the meatballs.
If you find handling the meatballs difficult these are one of the 3 things you can do: Next we are going to fry/grill/bake the meatballs. Don’t worry if the meatballs aren’t cooked all the way through as they are going to be cooked a little more in your sauce. After grilling/frying/baking, keep your cooked meatballs aside.
STEP 2 – MAKING THE SAUCE
For preparing sauce, its gonna start in the very basic curry-starter kind of a way. We are gonna add some oil to a pan and saute some chopped garlic and onions. Once they turn a really nice golden brown color, add all the sauce ingredients like the vinegar, sriracha sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, chili flakes, honey, salt and let it cook. I add half a cup of water to my sauce when I am making this as a Main Course. Skip the water if you want to make this as an appetizer.
Let the sauce cook for about 2 to 3 minutes and add in your meatballs.
Let it cook for another 5 minutes and turn of the flame. I love garnishing this with green onions and sesame seeds.
RECIPE ALTERATIONS
Use Greek Yogurt instead of cream cheese Bake meatballs instead of frying. Use low sodium organic sauces to prepare the sauce.
To create a rather spicier version of this recipe, use chili oil to prepare the sauce and up the level of chili flakes and Sriracha sauce To reduce heat in this recipe, skip the red chili flakes from the meatballs and sauce.
