These chicken francese meatballs are the epitome of the classic dish, made with ample amounts of lemon zest and served in a creamy, tangy sauce.
If you read my last post, you’ll know that my brother Ben made this lemon asparagus pasta for my sister-in-law’s birthday a few weeks ago. It came out incredibly delicious, and I think all of us would have been happy to feast only on that for Julie’s birthday dinner. But as I’ve said before, whenever we make a simple pasta meal my boyfriend Gabe always asks “but what’s the protein?” So he decided to make these chicken francese meatballs to go with our lemony pasta. And they really are the perfect accompaniment for any light pasta dish; savory from tons of garlic, tangy and zesty from lots of lemon zest, and served in a creamy, slightly sweet sauce.
If you ask any Italian American, they’ll give you a very traditional recipe for meatballs, most likely passed down from their grandparents or even from generations before that. These chicken francese meatballs are not those traditional meatballs. But they are a great lighter meatball option, healthier because of the use of ground chicken, and super fresh from all the lemon juice and zest.
HOW TO MAKE THESE MEATBALLS
These chicken francese meatballs are actually super simple to make and only use a few ingredients, but they come out incredibly flavorful. We achieved that by using a few flavor packed ingredients. We made them with ground chicken, tons of garlic and lemon zest, and a whole bunch of herbs and spices. Now since chicken meatballs have a tendency to be a bit dry, the sauce is key here. We made our sauce with a touch of vermouth (for that white wine feel), chicken stock, lemon juice, a swirl of cream and a little bit of sugar, just to amp up the sweetness of the lemon juice. We also threw in some capers for a briny vibe, but I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, so those are totally optional.
Now on to the cooking. We actually cooked our meatballs in two different ways, since we were making a lot of them. I think it’s important to cook at least some of the meatballs in a pan, because you’ll use that same pan to make your sauce. The fond (all the crispy bits that get stuck to the bottom of the pan) created by cooking the meatballs in the pan will contribute to the flavor of the sauce. But if you’re anything like us, and doubling or even tripling this recipe to serve a crowd, you can fry up a few meatballs in the pan to flavor the sauce, and then cook the rest of them in the oven. We cooked ours at 400F for about 25 minutes, flipping them halfway through cooking to evenly brown them on both sides.
The result is a tender and flavor-packed, yet still light and bright meatball, the perfect accompaniment to any light pasta dish, or even served over mashed potatoes or rice.
Chicken Francese Meatballs
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- a nice drizzle of olive oil
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup sweet vermouth
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper, to taste
- capers, to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all meatball ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Use a small scoop or roll by eye into small meatballs, about 1 inch in diameter.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook the meatballs until browned and cooked through, turning every 5-7 minutes to evenly brown them.
- Remove the meatballs from the pan and set aside, but keep all the browned bits in the pan. Add the garlic to the pan and cook about 1 minute. Then add the butter and flour to the pan and cook until the flour is slightly browned, 2 minutes.
- Add the vermouth to the pan. Cook, scraping up all the browned bits stuck to the bottom, about 2 minutes. Then add the chicken stock and lemon juice to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the sauce is thickened, 5 minutes.
- Add the cream and capers (as many as you like depending on how much you like capers) and stir, cooking one minute more. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Add the meatballs back to the pan and toss in the sauce.
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