Baked Chicken Meatballs

500 g ground chicken
1 medium yellow onion, grated
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp parsley, fine chopped
1 egg
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper
SIDS SALT & PEPPER to taste
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Oil, to spray

Pre-heat oven at 200°C.
Into a bowl add ground chicken, grated onion.
Add rest of the ingredients minced garlic, parsley, egg, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, SIDS SALT & PEPPER, panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
Use your hands or a spatula to mix everything.
DO NOT OVER WORK MEAT. It will result in dry meatballs. Mix until ingredients just get blended.
Using a small scoop or tablespoon, portion out meatballs. Gently roll or shape meatballs.
Spray baking tray with oil. Place meatballs directly on greased baking tray, 1-2 cm apart.
Generously spray oil on top of all meatballs.
Bake in oven for 18-20 minutes until meatballs are browned and cooked.
Tip: don’t overcook meatballs. Remove from oven as soon as you see meatballs are beginning to brown. You want meatballs to be juicy and soft. Over cooking or even leaving it for 2-3 minutes in oven once cooked will tend to dry meatballs.
Rest meatballs for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and parmesan cheese powder. Serve immediately.
Baked chicken meatballs can be served with anything! As appetizer with a sauce on side, as main stirred with spaghetti (my favourite) or any of your favourite pasta.
NOTES:
Use fresh grated onion in the recipe. Grated onion helps keep meatballs soft and juicy. Grating onion releases it’s juicy which helps soak breadcrumbs. Saturate breadcrumbs in liquids (like milk, or juices) in this recipe extra juice from onion to avoid having them dry out the meatballs.
Use panko breadcrumbs. Regular breadcrumbs will dry out the meatballs. If you can’t get panko breadcrumbs use regular sandwich bread and pulse it a few times to turn into crumbs. Sandwich bread is far more effective than regular breadcrumbs.
DO NOT OVER WORK MEAT. It will result in dry meatballs. Mix until ingredients just get blended.
Don’t overcook meatballs. Remove from oven as soon as you see meatballs are beginning to brown. You want meatballs to be juicy and soft. Over cooking or even leaving it for 2-3 minutes in oven once cooked will tend to dry meatballs.
Nutrition values mentioned are for 1 cocktail sized meatball. I used small OXO scoop and got 30 cocktail meatballs.