Chicken Parm Meatballs – Keto and Gluten Free
Flavorful chicken meatballs stuffed with Mozzarella, browned in olive oil, and simmered in a rich marinara sauce. How can that be bad? Serve up these chicken parmesan meatballs with zucchini pasta and lots of parm!
I’m a huge fan of chicken parmesan. I’m also a huge fan of meatballs. Put them all together and you have Chicken Parmesan Meatballs! The super pillowy chicken meatballs are full of flavor and stuffed with mozzarella cheese.
To keep these keto friendly, I use almond flour instead of breadcrumbs and I look for a marinara sauce that is low in sugar.
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN PARMESAN MEATBALLS
For these chicken parmesan meatballs, I first mixed my ground chicken with the seasonings, parmesan, almond flour, and eggs. The mixture will be quite moist.
I scooped up about 2 tablespoons worth of the chicken mixture into my hand and flattened it out. Then I put a mozzarella ball right in the center and completely covered the mozzarella ball with the meatball mixture. It was easy peasy!
I got all of my meatballs made and then I heated 1/4 cup of olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. In batches, I browned the meatballs on all sides. After each batch was browned, I pulled them from the skillet onto a plate.
After they were all browned, I removed all of the meatballs from the skillet, leaving the remaining olive oil. I then poured the marinara sauce into the skillet and whisked it all together.
I then add the meatballs back to the skillet and put it in a 350F oven for 15 minutes.
After I removed the skillet from the oven, I garnished with parmesan. I have some picky kids and they loved these meatballs!
Like these chicken parm keto meatballs? Check out my recipes for Keto mozzarella sticks, One skillet steak Diane, and Easy supreme pizza dip.
Chicken Parmesan Meatballs - Keto and Gluten Free
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Ingredients
- 1.25 pounds Ground chicken
- 1/2 cup almond flour (see my favorite on Amazon)
- 1/2 cup Grated parmesan
- 2 Large Eggs
- 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried parsley
- 12-15 Mozzarella balls
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 4 Cups Marinara sauce
- Parmesan for garnish
Instructions
- With your hands, combine the ground chicken, almond flour, parmesan, eggs, salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley in a large bowl.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoons of the mixture and flatten it in your hand. Place a mozzarella ball in the center and bring the meatball mixture up around to completely enclose the meatball. Roll it to make a uniform ball shape. Continue with the rest of the meatball mixture and set aside on a plate.
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Heat a heavy bottom skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add half of the meatballs and brown on all sides. Remove to a plate and add the remaining meatballs to the skillet to brown.
- Remove all meatballs from the skillet and pour in the marinara sauce. Whisk to combine the marinara sauce with the remaining olive oil. Add the meatballs on top of the marinara sauce and place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and garnish with parmesan if desired. Serve.
Notes
- To use these as an appetizer, bake the meatballs without the marinara. Serve with toothpicks and the marinara on the side.
- If you are having problems finding ground chicken, ground turkey is fine.
- Instead of the mozzarella balls, you could cut a mozzarella cheese stick into 1 inch pieces.
- My favorite marinara is Rao's and I have linked to it in the recipe card.
These were delicious. I was concerned that the mixture was TOO wet so I did add a little breadcrumb. Will definitely make again!
I literally just saw a baked spaghetti recipe and now this awesome meatball recipe and now I’m headed to the store to make both tonight! Yum!
These look awesome! I love a good meatball and I think the texture of the ground meat would be a lovely swap for the traditional chicken breast. In fact, I know I would like it much better!
So great to have this gluten free option. Looks like a meal the family would love.
These look super scrumptious! And so easy…I’m bookmarking and sharing this recipe fo sho!!! Thanks for posting 🙂
I love this idea so much! We’ve tried something like this before. So good!
Having a holiday party this upcoming weekend and i am so making these. Thanks!!! I’ll take pics