Chicken Parm Bites

The theme for this round of the recipe swap is Game Day, so any food that would be good to eat while watching the game on the weekend. I’m not a big sports spectator, but I think getting together with people to share food is always a good idea! I got this recipe for Chicken Parm Bites from Coleen at Does Not Cook Well with Others . I was really excited to make this because who doesn’t like meatballs? And chicken parmesan is always a winner.

These meatballs are a little tricky to put together, but I have made many cookie recipes where you wrap the dough around some sort of filling. Meat is a little harder to work with than cookie dough! I found that this worked best if you dried the mini mozzarella balls, otherwise I just couldn’t get the meat to stick together. I only made 14 meatballs, as I didn’t want to risk not completely sealing in the mozzarella.

My meatballs took a little longer to cook, maybe because they were a little bit bigger. They are fairly light in color, so it’s a bit hard to tell when they are done. With the cheese in the center, they remain very moist and I think they would be ok even if you baked them too long. We had these for dinner and enjoyed them so much! (They kind of look like they are covered with coconut; don’t know what to say about that.) Thanks Coleen and thanks to Sarah at A Taste of Home Cooking who organizes the recipe swaps. They are a lot of fun and I always get to try something different.

Chicken Parm Bites

1 tablespoon oil

½ cup chopped shallots or onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound ground chicken

1 ¼ cups panko bread crumbs, divided

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon salt

14-16 fresh mini mozzarella balls

Marinara sauce, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the shallots until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a few minutes.

Place the ground chicken, ¼ cup of the panko, oregano, basil, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the shallots and garlic. Mix together until evenly combined.

Divide the meat into about 16 equal-sized pieces. Take one mini mozzarella ball and shape one piece of the meat around it, sealing the mozzarella in completely. Repeat with the remaining meat and mozzarella balls.

Roll the meatballs in the remaining panko and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve the meatballs (on toothpicks if you’d like) alongside the warmed marinara sauce.

Recipe from Does Not Cook Well with Others