Chicken Parmesan Meatball Skillet

If you follow me along on here you know I’ve always been weary of a chicken meatball. But, ever since I made my Pesto Chicken Meatballs, all bets are off. As long as you don’t over cook them – chicken meatballs are fantastic!! I’m on a kick with them, what can I say.

Now, Chicken Parmesan is one of my all time favorite comfort meals. It was my favorite meal to order out at Italian restaurants – until I discovered my lactose allergy. Now, I just look in envy every time someone orders it out. Thankfully, my mom makes a MEAN chicken parm so I wasn’t THAT deprived as a child HA.

I had the idea for these meatballs after we fell in love with our pesto meatballs. I suddenly wanted to put everything in meatball form! So, I went to my childhood favorites and the chicken parm meatball was created. It’s the perfect flavors of a traditional chicken parmesan in one simple bite. We served these with a loaded salad and it was perfect. They would be amazing over some spaghetti!

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 min	20 min	30 min

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground chicken breast
  • tip of the day – always try and buy ground chicken BREAST so you know its only the good stuff in there!
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cub grated parmesan (I swear by Go Veggie and/or Follow Your Heart)
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (or 3/4 tsp garlic powder)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• OPTIONAL: fresh parsley or basil for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, parmesan, Italian seasoning, half the garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Mix until combined.
2. Roll into 1 3/4 inch balls and place onto the baking sheet (if you don’t have cookie scoops I HIGHLY recommend this set. The medium one is perfect for these!)
3. In a large (oven safe) skillet, heat half of the olive oil over medium heat. Add meatballs and brown on all sides, 5ish minutes. Transfer to a plate.
4. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the remaining olive oil to the skillet. Warm the olive oil, add the remaining garlic and cook for one minute. Stir in crushed tomatoes, sauce and crushed red pepper flakes.
5. Bring to a simmer, add the meatballs back in. Top with mozzarella and bake until the cheese is melted and the chicken is no longer pink (should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F). I’d say 10-15 minutes.
6. Remove meatballs from the oven, garnish with some fresh parsley or basil and serve over the pasta/zoodles or alongside a salad! Top with (yes, more) parmesan cheese and enjoy!