Protein Packed Chicken Parmesan Florentine Meatballs
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Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 3/4 cup ground rolled oats (like breadcrumb texture) *I ground mine to a coarse mixture. Do not grind to a flour. To make gluten free, use gluten free oats
- 1/4 cup Syntrax Medical Unflavored Protein Powder
- 2 tablespoon sweet yellow onions, minced
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon basil (dried) or 1 teaspoon fresh, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Montreal Steak Seasoning
- 1 large whole egg (or 3 tablespoon egg whites)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach leaves, pulsed in the food processor (should render almost 3/4–1 cup)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (you don’t want the powdery stuff. You want it either grated or even pulsed to little chunks. You want texture.)
- 1/2 cup grated mozzarella
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups Marinara Sauce, divided
- 10–20 fresh mozzarella slices (it depends on how big your slices are. They should be 1”wide by 1-2” long)
- Olive Oil for misting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F, setting rack to upper third part of oven.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
- In a large bowl, add the chicken, oats, protein powder, onion, oregano, steak seasoning, egg, Worcestershire, salt, black pepper, parmesan and 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup marinara sauce.
- Shape into 2” round meatballs (can make 1” for appetizers). I find it’s best to lightly wet my hands to shape these and you don’t really ‘roll’ them but rather toss them from hand to hand in a twisting motion to form the ball. The mixture is wet and very tender.
- Spray the foil pan with cooking spray.*note: you can pan-sear these first in a sprayed non-stick skillet for ~3 minutes per side to get that browned sealed exterior.
- Place the meatballs about 1” apart (they don’t really spread) on the pan.
- Spray/mist each meatball with extra virgin olive oil. It’ll help them ‘brown’ and get that great pan-seared exterior.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temp is 160 (yes I know they aren’t up to temp yet). *Note: if you pan seared them then only bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and turn on your broiler.
- Top each meatball with 1 tablespoon of sauce.
- Top with a slice of cheese and place back in the oven.
- Broil for 3 to 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden.
- Heat remaining sauce in a small saucepan and serve on the side.
Notes
If you make these as appetizers, make the meatballs 1″ round.
You can make these as sliders for parties.
I personally love these in lettuce cups and then use the lettuce as the ‘bun’.