Florentine Chicken Meatballs
Florentine Chicken Meatballs
Florentine Chicken Meatballs
They are light, crispy on the outside, and have a lovely gentle flavor that tastes quite luxurious. I don’t take making meatballs lightly! They have to be really good to make it on to this site. These are coated with Panko and baked which gives them a beautiful crispy outside and lovely texture inside. They are a bit of work but so well worth it. I think the most important ingredient is spinach. It should be fresh. You can use frozen but it lacks taste.
If you like you can serve with my recipe Simple Tomato Sauce or a nice creamy mushroom sauce.
These can be cooked in tomato sauce like traditional beef, pork, or veal meatballs – but then I strongly suggest you use plain bread crumbs instead of Panko.
Florentine Chicken Meatballs
These are very easy to make and well worth the effort. The original recipe called for plain bread crumbs but I think that using Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) will ensure that the out sides are nice and crispy.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo. ground chicken
- 250 grams ricotta cheese
- 250 grams fresh baby spinach
- 1 tbs olive oil to saute the spinach
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 50 grams Pecorino Cheese Parmesan will do!
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 dl plain bread crumbs
- 3 tbs hearvy cream
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 110 gr Panko bread crumbs / or plain bread crumbs 2 cups Japanese breadcrumbs / or plain bread crumbs
- 1 dl olive oil
- 1 dl rasp oil
- Make a small patty and fry to taste for salt.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Begin with the baby spinach. Regardless of what the bag says, wash the spinach to be sure there is no sand in it. Spin or dry in a towel to remove excess water. In a small pot take 1 tbsp olive oil and heat, then place all the spinach in and cover. Saute until all the spinach has wilted down. Remove and let cool.
- Take the cooled spinach and coarsely chop.
- Place all the ingredients but the Panko into a large bowl. Mix well.
- Since you're working with chicken you shouldn't just taste for seasoning. Its best to make as little burger and fry it. Then taste and see if you need to ad any addition salt and pepper.
- You can make my balls using a small ice cream scooper. Mine holds 40 grams. Thats about 2 ounces each.
- Take the mix and form it into approximately 20 small meat balls. Then roll them in the Panko using your hands to pack it on. This will give the meat balls a very crispy outside.
- Heat the oil and fry the meat balls and brown on all sides. Place on paper towel as you finish each batch to drain some of the oil off of them.
- When done place them into a pan that they will comfortably fit in and bake for 20 minutes at 190 degrees.
Notes
The original recipe called for plain bread crumbs but I think that using Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) will ensure that the outsides are nice and crispy.
Wetting your hands with water will help a lot to shape the meatballs and help the panko stick to them better.
Serve with my recipe Simple Tomato Sauce. You could also make a light cheese sauce or a nice chicken-flavored white sauce, and serve with rice or mashed potato.
250-gram bags of spinach are sold in most large grocery stores.
These can be cooked in tomato sauce like traditional beef, pork, or veal meatballs - but then I strongly suggest you use plain bread crumbs.
If you are going to cook these in tomato sauce use regular bread crumbs, Panko will soak up too much of the sauce and these will have a tendency to become slimey.
I have a recipe for traditional Italian Flavored Bread Crumbs here.
I haven't done this yet but I think that this would be a great change from Meatballs as a canape. Make them small and deep fry them for 3 or 4 minutes and serve with a spicy tomato sauce made with passata so it's smooth for dipping.
Nutrition
Calories: 717kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 31gFat: 60gSaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 273mgSodium: 385mgPotassium: 772mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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