Delicious chicken meatballs made with just 5 simple ingredients and flavoured with basil pesto and parmesan. Perfect for a finger food dinner for kids or even mixed into spaghetti and sauce.
Chicken is something I struggle to get my kids to eat consistently. I think it may be a texture issue but I’m always trying to find creative ways to get them to eat it without the usual meltdown that ensues.
One food my kids do love is meatballs so I decided to try out some chicken meatballs and flavour them with something they love… pesto!
For this recipe I used whole chicken breasts which I blitzed in the food processor to make chicken mince. But if you can get chicken already minced (some supermarkets sell it or ask your butcher to do it for you) then you can skip this step.
The chicken mince goes into a bowl with the other four ingredients – egg, dried breadcrumbs, pesto and parmesan and you simply mix them all together with a spoon.
I then used a tablespoon to scoop up a small amount of the mixture, rolled it into a ball and placed it onto a lined tray.
The meatballs are then baked for 15 minutes in the oven. So simple!
Texture & Taste
These chicken meatballs were a hit with my kids for two reasons I think.
Texture – Many children will have issues with the texture of meat and particularly chicken. It can be quite dry and takes a lot of chewing. Mincing the chicken will break down some of the fibres, making the meat softer and easier to eat.
Taste – By combining the chicken with a taste and flavour that they already know and love (pesto), the meatballs will appear familiar to a child and there’s a bigger chance that they will eat them!
Serving
I served these meatballs with some breadsticks and chopped carrots, cucumber and tomato. You could also add some dip too.
You can make them into fun skewers and add them to lunch boxes or take out for a picnic. The skewers are from the Eats Amazing Shop.
You can also serve these like traditional meatballs in a tomato sauce over spaghetti.
If you try my Pesto Parmesan Chicken Meatballs recipe please do leave me a comment and a star rating below. You can also share your pictures with me on Instagram. I always love to see your creations!
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Pesto Parmesan Chicken Meatballs
Prep Time: 10 mins- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 5 1x
Category: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Delicious chicken meatballs made with just 5 simple ingredients and flavoured with basil pesto and parmesan. Perfect for a finger food dinner for kids or even mixed into spaghetti and sauce.
Ingredients
- 450g / 160z chicken mince or chicken breasts
- 1 medium egg
- 50g / 0.75 cup dried breadcrumbs
- 50g / 1.75oz basil pesto
- 25g / 0.75oz grated parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c / 350f and line one large or two smaller trays with parchment paper.
- If you are using chicken mince you can skip this step but if you are using whole chicken breasts then add them to a food processor and pulse until the meat has broken down to a mince-like consistency.
- Add the chicken to a large bowl along with the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a spoon.
- Take a tablespoon size amount of the mixture, roll into a ball and place on the baking tray. You should be able to make about 28 meatballs from this, or less if you make them bigger.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or for a little longer if you make larger meatballs.
- Serve immediately with breadsticks and crudites for a finger food style meal or with spaghetti and sauce for a more traditional meatball dinner.
Notes
- Any leftovers can be cooled and stored in the fridge for up to the 2 days. These meatballs can also be frozen and defrosted overnight in the fridge.
- Pesto and parmesan are both quite high in salt so I would not serve this to babies under 12 months. You could make your own pesto without salt and try it though.
roda says
my toddler loved this. Thank you for all the recipes.
Zoe says
A new favourite in our house! Little Miss 5 won’t usually touch chicken, but she gobbled these up and even asked for more! AMAZING!!!!
★★★★★
Nancy says
Can’t wait to try this! These look fun, especially the skewers.