How to Make Chef John's Grilled Chicken Meatballs
Learn how to make Chef John's delicious grilled chicken meatballs with this easy, step-by-step video! Perfect for a healthy and flavorful meal, these meatballs are packed with protein and grilled to perfection. Follow along as Chef John shares his expert tips on seasoning and grilling techniques to create juicy, savory chicken meatballs. The ideal fit for BBQs, family dinners, appetizers, or meal prep, this recipe is sure to become a favorite in your rotation.
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00:00 Hello! This is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Grilled Chicken Meatballs!
00:07 That's right! We are making the rarest of all the grilled chicken offerings. And
00:12 that's because unless you know a certain technique, these are virtually impossible.
00:16 So I'm gonna be showing you this semi-secret method, which not only
00:20 produces something very delicious and interesting to eat, it also eliminates
00:24 having to worry whether you're over cooking or under cooking your chicken.
00:27 And to get started, we're gonna need one pound of the finest, freshest ground
00:31 chicken you can find, which of course tends to be very lean, which is why we're
00:35 gonna toss in a little bit of sesame oil for flavor and richness. And that little
00:40 bit of fat is gonna improve the texture. And then we'll also add a little bit of
00:43 soy sauce, plus a touch of mirin, which is a sweet Japanese cooking wine. And that's
00:50 sold right next to the soy sauce. And then we'll season this up with a little
00:53 bit of salt, plus it's good friend freshly ground black pepper, followed by
00:59 a few shakes of cayenne, just to stay in shape. And then I guess it's optional, but
01:04 I also like to throw in a handful of sliced green onion, which not only adds
01:08 some visual interest, but flavor-wise really works nicely with all these other
01:12 ingredients. And then we'll finish up with some very finely minced or crushed
01:16 garlic, plus last but not least, a little bit of plain breadcrumb. And once we have
01:21 everything in here, we will take a fork and we will thoroughly, but very gently,
01:25 combine all this together. And I'm not sure if you noticed, but when I was
01:29 adding the ingredients, I was trying as best I could to distribute those evenly
01:33 over the top, so that there wasn't a lot of one thing in one spot, which might
01:37 require some extra mixing to get it all evenly blended in. So just a little bit
01:42 of a tip for when you're doing these kind of things, to help prevent over
01:45 mixing, which can lead to tough meatballs. But having said that, this is a very
01:50 forgiving mixture, and even if you do over mix it a little bit, it's gonna be
01:55 fine. So just relax. And once that is mixed, I like to cover it and pop it in
02:01 the fridge for at least 30 minutes, just to give it time for those flavors to
02:05 mingle, and for those breadcrumbs to hydrate. So that's exactly what I did. And
02:10 while our chicken mixture is chilling, we can prep our pan by lining it with foil,
02:15 and then brushing some oil over the top. And I just use regular vegetable oil
02:19 here, but if you wanted to sneak on a few more drops of sesame oil, I would have no
02:24 problems with that. Right, that is just you cooking. And then once chilled, we'll
02:29 pull out our chicken meatball mixture, and divide it into 16 equal portions.
02:33 Which, if you want it to be perfectly exact, you have to weigh how much mixture
02:37 you have, and then divide by 16, and then measure that exact amount on the scale.
02:42 But through experience, if I use this sorbet scoop, that actually gives me 16
02:47 fairly equal portions. But no matter what you use to divide that up, once portioned,
02:52 we will take some water and wet our hands, since as you know, damp hands make
02:57 smooth balls. And we'll go ahead and give these a brief rolling in our hands. And
03:02 if you moisten your hands and fingers when you're working with ground meat, it
03:05 will not stick, and everything's a lot easier. And then once we have damp
03:10 handled our meatballs, and then made sure they're evenly spaced on the pan, we will
03:14 move on to the most important step in this whole technique. And that would be
03:18 to bake these in the oven, until they're just cooked through. Oh don't worry, we're
03:23 gonna grill these later. But by cooking them ahead at this point, once we do get
03:27 to the grill, everything's gonna be way faster and easier. So let's go ahead and
03:32 pop those into the center of a 400 degree oven, for about 15 minutes, or
03:37 until our chicken meatballs look like this, and spring back to the touch.
03:42 And if they feel soft and mushy, put them back in for a little longer. And if you
03:45 want to check with a thermometer, you should go to about 145 to 150 internal
03:49 temp. And that's it, once successfully baked, we will simply let these cool,
03:54 before we wrap them up and pop them in the fridge, until we're ready to grill.
03:58 Which for me was actually the next day. So yes, you can make these well ahead of
04:03 time, but in any event, once we're ready to grill, we'll go ahead and put these on
04:08 some skewers. And if you're using the bamboo ones like me, you want to soak
04:12 those in water ahead of time of course. Although these are only gonna be on the
04:16 grill for a few minutes, so if you do forget, you're probably okay. But
04:20 generally, wet wood works best. Oh and I do like to skewer these through the
04:25 flatter side, which is just gonna give us a little more surface area on the grill.
04:29 And if I said it once, I've said it a hundred times, more surface area equals
04:34 more flavor. But anyway, that's gonna be up to you. I mean you are after all Vlad
04:39 the Impaler, of the meatball positioning you prefer. But as long as you get four
04:45 on each one, and you're skewering each one the same way, these are gonna be just
04:49 fine. Oh and don't press them too tightly together, they should just be barely
04:53 touching. Which again is a surface area thing. And that's it, once those are set,
04:58 before we head to the grill, I like to mix up a quick little sauce to glaze
05:02 these with. Which is simply a little bit of ketchup, to which I add a couple
05:07 spoons of hoisin sauce, plus a nice spoon of freshly grated ginger. And then we'll
05:12 finish up with a little splash of rice vinegar. And then we'll take a spoon and
05:16 give this a quick mix. And once we have everything stirred together, it'll be
05:21 ready to brush onto our grilled chicken meatballs. But as you'll see, only at the
05:25 end of the grilling process. So stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, we'll
05:29 grab some tongs and our meatballs, and head out to a properly prepared charcoal
05:34 fire. Which means our coals are glowing red, and are nice and ashy. Right, never
05:40 under any circumstances grill meat on charcoal that's still on fire. Right,
05:45 that's why your dad's hot dogs and hamburgers taste like gasoline. But
05:48 anyway, we'll place our chicken meatball skewers down. And because we pre-cooked
05:53 the meatballs, these are only gonna need about three or four minutes per side.
05:56 Right, all we're doing here is heating these through, and giving them a little
06:00 bit of nice smoky charring. And it's not that cooking raw chicken breast on a
06:05 grill is that hard. But if you don't have a lot of experience, it can be a little
06:09 bit stressful. Since you don't want to make anyone sick with undercooked
06:12 chicken. And you also of course don't want to serve dry overcooked chicken. So
06:16 the beauty of a method like this, is that we avoid all that. And like I said, all we
06:21 really need to do is heat these through. And since we are cooking on charcoal,
06:25 once we flip those over, we can always do a little rearranging. Since some spots
06:30 might be hotter than others. And ideally all these skewers are getting about the
06:34 same amount of heat. So don't be afraid to observe and adapt. But anyway, like I
06:40 said, we'll give each side about three minutes. At which point we'll flip those
06:44 back over. And we'll give these a nice generous brushing with our glaze. And
06:49 while I do, this would be the perfect time to remind you that the ingredients
06:53 in this glaze, as well as the ingredients in the chicken meatball mixture, can be
06:57 tweaked and adapted as you see fit. Right, the purpose of this video is to show you
07:01 how to actually grill chicken meatballs. Using a very easy foolproof method. Which
07:06 will work no matter how you flavor things. And while I really did love how
07:10 these came out. I also love it when you experiment. Especially with food. And the
07:16 reason we're doing this right at the end of the grilling process, is because a
07:20 glaze like this will burn and turn black very quickly. So what we're gonna do is
07:24 paint it on this side. And then flip these over. And we'll cook that glaze
07:29 only as long as it takes to brush the other side. Alright, maybe just like 30
07:33 seconds or so. And that is pretty much it. As soon as we have that brushed on, and
07:38 the other sides had about 30 seconds facing the heat, we will flip these over.
07:43 So this side can get about 30 seconds. Before we pull them off the grill and
07:47 head back inside. And I should mention, we can just glaze these after they're
07:52 cooked. So if you don't trust yourself, and/or you drink a lot of beer when you
07:57 grill, and you think you might go too long here and burn them, just don't even
08:00 try. And just apply it when these are cooked. Although if you can do it on the
08:05 grill like this, it's definitely gonna taste a little bit better, and a little
08:08 bit smokier. But anyway, once those are done we'll head inside. And we'll brush
08:12 even more glaze over the top. Okay, nobody's ever eaten grilled chicken
08:17 meatballs and said, "these are good, I just wish they weren't so glossy." So do
08:22 not be shy with the glaze. And that's it, these are now ready to serve up any
08:26 which way we want. Which for me is gonna be on this nice Asian style slaw.
08:30 Alright, above and beyond this being a perfect pairing flavor-wise and texture-
08:34 wise, it just makes everything look so enticing. So I served those up and grabbed
08:39 a fork, and went in for the official taste. And that my friends, truly was an
08:44 incredible meatball. Alright, these things are moist and tender and succulent. And
08:49 if you use all the same ingredients we did, they're gonna taste amazing. And not
08:54 to brag, but the only way you're gonna be able to accomplish this, is by using the
08:58 old bake ahead and chill method. Which as I mentioned, takes all the guesswork out
09:02 of the grilling step. And since these do only need a few minutes on the grill,
09:06 they're perfect to put on last, once all the hamburgers and hot dogs and ribs or
09:11 whatever has been cooked. So if you're into a fairly stress-free chicken
09:15 grilling experience, this is definitely something you're gonna want to add to
09:18 your summer cookout rotation. Oh, before we wrap this up, let me give you one
09:23 quick alternative serving suggestion. And that would be to serve these sandwich
09:27 style, on a nice crusty roll or piece of bread. Oh yeah, now that's a sandwich most
09:33 of your guests will not have had before. And they'll remember you making it for
09:37 them, for a long, long time. But no matter how you serve these grilled chicken
09:42 meatballs, they are easy to make, completely stress-free to grill. But most
09:47 importantly, they're delicious, gorgeous and not just some plain old grilled
09:52 chicken breast. So for all those reasons and more, I really do hope you give these
09:57 a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a
10:02 printable written recipe and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy!
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