Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs
I have had a serious craving for bun - if you eat Vietnamese food, you know what I'm talking about. A bowl with crisp, shredded romaine lettuce, cold rice noodles, lots of chopped dry roasted peanuts, fresh mint and cilantro, shredded carrots, cucumbers and some sort of sticky, sweet bbq meat that you pour nuoc chom over and then scarf it all down like a maniac because it's so refreshingly delicious that you can't stand it??
Okay, if you don't eat Vietnamese food and don't know what I'm talking about, go find some.
Honestly.
So my quest today was to make some but I didn't feel like tackling the bbq pork today but The Kid loves meatballs so I thought I would whip up some sort of Vietnamese meatballs out of ground chicken and do a kind of Bun Ga Nuong. The only thing I was worried about was the sticky, caramelized glaze on the outside when I found this recipe on the Food and Wine web site. It's from a cook book called Small Bites by Jennifer Joyce and although I am not interested in doing the lettuce wraps right now, these little meatball sounded perfect. I didn't really alter the recipe at all, although I cooked them for 20 minutes and next time I will stick to her 15 minute recommendation. Full of the right flavours and the sugar coating gave it the sticky, sweet mojo that I love so much about Vietnamese bbq meat.
Joyce's Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs
adapted from Joyce's Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs
1 lb ground chicken
3 tbls fish sauce
1/2 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, tender white inside part only, minced
3-4 tbls chopped cilantro
1 tbls chopped mint
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
few grinds of fresh black pepper
granulated sugar for rolling the meatballs, about 1/4 cup
mix the chicken with rest of the ingredients except for the sugar in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly but gently because if you overwork the meat, your meatballs will be tough.
Using slightly damp hands, roll the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs, put on a plate and let them sit in the fridge for half an hour or so - I found the mixture a bit wet but it set up perfectly after a rest in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 400F
Take the meatballs out of the fridge and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll each meatball lightly in the sugar and place on the parchment.
Bake the meatballs in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes, giving the pan a shake a few times to make sure you get even browning.
You can do anything with these little meatballs. They would be great as lettuce wraps (like the original recipe), in a Thai inspired sub, on rice, you could dip them in sweet chili sauce, they would even be great in soup.
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I am saving this and trying it soon! Sounds so good!
ReplyDeleteI ended up getting three meals out of these - I used them in the bun, sent a handful with nuoc cham in the kid's lunch the next day and crumbled up the leftovers, reheated them with tomatillo salsa and made tacos out of them on day three lol
ReplyDeleteJust made these as an after school snack for my kids. They are a hit. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI am glad they liked them!
ReplyDeleteThese sound great! Approximately how many meatballs does this recipe make? I might need to make some for a large crowd and need to know how many times to double the recipe. :-)
ReplyDeleteit totally depends on the size of the meatballs, of course, but this is a 1lb batch but it's usually between 2 to 3 dozen for small, cocktail sized meatballs. It depends how you are using them as well. 1 lb usually serves 4-6 as an entree in my house The recipe is really easy to double or triple for a crowd
DeleteThese look delish! Due to a seafood allergy, I can't use fish sauce. What would be a good sub? Chili sauce maybe?
ReplyDeleteyou know, you can search around and find all sorts of ideas for subbing fish sauce but I think that there is no real substitute so I would just simply leave it out. They will still be delicious without it
DeleteThanks Carole.....I think I will just leave it out
DeleteSheri, you just add in some Soya sauce instead, but Fish sauce is very salty, so readjust the seasoning.
DeleteI have not make it yet but I will make it but freeze half or 2/3 as only 3 of us eating these days.
I love to freeze cooked food so that I can have a dish within 5 mins.
For a fish sauce substitute: juice one lime, add one teaspoon rice vinegar and soy sauce in equal portion to the lime juice.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteCan these be pan fried?
I wouldn't suggest it in this case, because of the sugar on the outside of the meatballs. I would imagine if you put it into the mix you could get away with it (I have a recipe for maple caraway pork balls that I pan fry, but the maple is in the meatball mix.
ReplyDeleteYum! Just discovered your blog. I can't wait to try this recipe though I really dislike mint and coriander. I'm thinking flat leaf parsley as a sub, or perhaps basil? I'd really like to keep the flavour profile as close as possible as I love Vietnamese, but generally steer away from anything that invloves fresh herbs. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
ReplyDeletecan you replace the fish sauce with Hondashi?
ReplyDeleteYou could try it - they really are very different flavours but i would be interested to know how that works out!
DeleteSo, I just made this for the second time in as many weeks.... my picky 16 yr old and my wife absolutely love these! So glad I tried them. They will definitely be incorporated into the rotation. Thank you so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteHow much sugar? What kind of sugar?
ReplyDeleteSorry just read the recipe again. Duh!
ReplyDeleteThese meatballs look so good and so fancy! I will definitely be trying this recipe! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteDo you think it would be ok if I made the mixture the day before and then roll in sugar and bake the next day?
ReplyDeleteReduced fish sauce to 2 tbsp. But still too salty...and I love salt.
ReplyDeleteI want to make for a family reunion can they be kept warm in a crockpot
ReplyDeleteDon’t know what went wrong, the meatballs are wet. I added 1tsp more cornstarch. The bottoms were flat when I refrigerated them coz of moisture. Had to add 5 more min. to brown. I fried a few w better result but meat is dry.
ReplyDelete