Chicken and Bacon Meatballs Recipe

When you need a change from the usual meatball, these are a great alternative. A little bacon added to the mixture adds not only a little fat to keep the mixture moist, but some smoky flavour as well. Make up a batch for dinner or serve at a party as an appetizer! You can also tuck them into sandwiches if you wish, for a fun snack for the kids.

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3/4 lb)
1 piece of bacon
3 slices of stale sandwich bread, roughly torn into pieces
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Vegetable oil

  Cut the pieces of chicken into one inch cubes, spread on a waxed paper lined baking sheet with the bacon, and place the whole thing in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

  Meanwhile, in a food processor whiz up the onion and garlic, then scrape out into a dish and set aside. Next, whiz up the bread, chili powder and cayenne pepper until you have fine crumbs. Divide the mixture between two bowls. Add the milk to one of the bowls of crumbs and give it a good stir. Set both aside.

  Combine half of the frozen chicken, the bacon, crumbs with milk stirred in, onion, garlic, Parmesan, and egg in a food processor and process it well. Add the other bits of chicken and then just pulse until it's combined so that you have some processed well, but bits of chicken throughout.

  The mixture will be wet but try to scoop out into one inch balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze for about 15 minutes, then pull them out and roll them in the reserved bread crumbs, placing them back on the baking sheet. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to about 425 F. Drizzle the meatballs with about 2 tbsp of oil, then bake for about 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. Pull them out of the oven and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top, letting it melt all over.

  Re-heat meatballs in on a baking sheet in a 350 F oven for about 5-10 minutes. 

Makes about 2 dozen meatballs

Adapted from Ten Dollar Dinners