Asian Chicken Meatballs, the Best Flavor and No Filler

The best way to infuse flavor into chicken is to make it into meatballs and these Asian Chicken Meatballs are loaded with garlic, ginger, and soy, and no other fillers. The meatballs can go from a pool of deliciously rich broth to a bowl of rice drizzled with a sticky, glossy sauce to nestled into the ruffles of a butter lettuce cup. Shall we?

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• Asian Chicken Meatballs Recipe
• What You Need to Make Asian Chicken Meatballs
• How to Make Asian Chicken Meatballs
• Ingredients Notes and Resources
• Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
• Health and Dietary Considerations

What You Need to Make Asian Chicken Meatballs

For Asian Chicken Meatballs:

• Ground chicken, 1 pound
• Scallions, ½ cup finely sliced
• Garlic, 4 cloves grated
• Ginger, 2 teaspoons grated
• Tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoons
• Avocado oil or neutral oil substitute, 2 tablespoons

If you want to serve in broth as a soup:

• Baby bok choy, 4
• Shiitake mushrooms, 6-8
• Chicken bone broth, 8 cups
• Tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoons
• Kosher or sea salt
• Toasted sesame oil
• Garnishes for serving: thinly sliced scallions, chili sambal, toasted sesame seeds

Optional: Buckwheat soba noodles

I added grilled baby bok choy to the bowl, oftentimes shiitake mushrooms, and sometimes soba noodles with double the broth. With all of that, Asian Chicken Meatballs becomes a light, yet filling—God, I hate that qualifier—meal. I might stir a little spoonful of miso into the next iteration, but let's just take it one step at a time here ok?

How to Make Asian Chicken Meatballs

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the Asian Chicken Meatballs in a bowl, form into 1-inch meatballs, and sear on all sides until cooked through.
2. Pan-sear baby bok choy and shiitake mushrooms.
3. Combine cooked meatballs, vegetables, buckwheat soba if using, and hot broth and ladle into bowls
4. Drizzle each bowl with toasted sesame oil, sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients Notes and Resources

Ground Chicken. Chicken will be much leaner than pork or beef, so take that into account when buying ground chicken. Look for a mix of about half dark meat to give the meatballs more flavor. I buy high-quality animal proteins from ACA Butcher Shop, Santa Monica.

Tamari is a Japanese-style soy sauce that has little or no wheat. Therefore, tamari can be gluten-free, though not always. If you eat gluten-free, make sure to read labels. I use this organic gluten-free tamari. This brand is also great, though might be a little harder to find in-store.

Avocado Oil. is my choice for cooking. It has a neutral flavor, and has a high smoke-point making it great for stovetop cooking. I use this Avocado Oil as my every day neutral-flavored cooking oil.

Chicken Bone Broth. I highly encourage you to make Chicken Bone Broth yourself instead of whatever comes gurgling out of a $3.99 box from Whole Foods, NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT CHEAP, CHEATER SUBSTITUTE. Gosh, and to think I said that there wasn't going to be some sort of tie-into my life. Anyway, so there you go, but since not all of us are full-time food bloggers who have nothing else to do but cook everything from scratch, use a really good store-bought stock or Bone Broth. Remember that something labeled only "broth" will be much lighter in both flavor and body, and probably nutrients. "Stock" is made with bones, so it will be richer. If you can find something labeled "Bone Broth," look at the ingredients and read the label to make sure it is cooked for along time with the bones.

Toasted Sesame Oil. Make sure you get toasted sesame oil, which is darker in color and has a deeper, nuttier flavor. I use a non-GMO toasted sesame oil, this one is organic!

Chili Garlic Sauce Lee Keum Kee has gluten from the rice vinegar ingredient, or Huy Fong, which has sulfites as preservative. They taste the same to me; you pick your poison.

All other produce and herbs from local farmers' markets, or organic from Whole Foods Market

Health and Dietary Considerations

As presented, this recipe for Asian Chicken Meatballs is:

• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• keto-friendly
• paleo/Whole30-adaptable when using coconut aminos instead of tamari/soy sauce

Garlic and Ginger are at the very top of my Anti-Inflammatory Favs List

Choosing ground chicken over beef for the meatballs isn't necessarily a "healthy substitute." Red meat can, and is, healthy depending on a person's individual health needs. Chicken has a different fat content and of course, very different flavor — generally milder so it means you can use a lot of ginger and scallions to flavor the meatballs.

Bok choy is a cruciferous vegetable so it has similar nutrition profile as broccoli, cabbage, and kale

Shiitake mushrooms are a good source of vitamin D, especially in the winter, when we don't get a lot of sunlight directly on our skin.