Baked Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Dill Yogurt Sauce
Feb 19, 2017, Updated Mar 20, 2021
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Baked Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Dill Yogurt Sauce – Tender, juicy, perfectly seasoned baked chicken meatballs topped with a delicious garlic and dill yogurt sauce.
I made us some baked chicken meatballs that are so incredibly good, you guys!
Baked Chicken Meatballs
These chicken meatballs are tender, they’re seasoned well, and, most importantly, they’re not fried! To go with it all, I’ve got this yogurt sauce that is creamy and luscious and garlicky, and it is always a major food feature on our dinner table.
Hi Hi Hello! My dear friends, how are you? Happy Sunday, by the way! I hope it’s a great one!
Also, I know why I’m here today, and I know why you are here, too: because we want to eat something new! Or a spin on the usual tomato sauce and meatballs deal. No worries. You’ve come to the right place, boo!
Trying to rhyme and clearly, I’m no poet. Let me stick to what I know: FOOD!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN MEATBALLS
This bowl contains every ingredient for a happy Sunday with Chardonnay on the side. And what if I tell you that it can come together in just about 30 minutes? WHAT A GIFT, right?! Let’s talk about how you need to try it. Today.
Meatballs are the answer to my whiny kids that won’t try anything new. For whatever odd reason, if it’s shaped in a ball, they’ll try it! If they can dunk it in ketchup?? EVEN BETTER! So, because they refused to eat my Garlic Yogurt Baked Chicken a couple of weeks ago, I made these meatballs and what do you know? They loved ’em!
- My secret here is a perfect mixture of ground chicken, dried herbs, panko crumbs, onions and garlic. Pretty straight forward and to the point.
…and baked to a browned perfection.
- While in the oven, I prepare an amazing yogurt sauce with a good amount of garlic, a nice dose of fresh dill, yogurt, and a bit of olive oil to thin out the yogurt. Sometimes, I use water to thin it out and you can try that, too. The sauce shouldn’t be thick, but rather smooth and pourable, but not necessarily thin. Something between thick and thin, but NOT totally thin. DOES this make sense?!? Shoot me an email if you’re having trouble.
Top this hug-in-a-meatball with the prepared yogurt sauce, a little more dill for garnish, and a glass of Chard on the side. Dinner served.
ENJOY!
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TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS USED IN THIS RECIPE
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Baked Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Dill Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
FOR THE CHICKEN MEATBALLS
- 1 pound lean ground chicken
- 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 garlic cloves, , minced
- 3 tablespoons finely diced yellow onion
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- fresh ground pepper, , to taste
FOR THE GARLIC DILL YOGURT SAUCE
- 3 garlic cloves, , minced
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, , or to taste
- fresh ground pepper, , to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, , chopped + more for garnish
- 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine chicken, panko bread crumbs, garlic, onion, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper; mix and stir until thoroughly combined.
- Form the mixture into 1-1/2 inch meatballs.
- Transfer the meatballs to previously prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.
- In the meantime prepare the yogurt sauce.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine garlic, salt, ground pepper, dill, yogurt, and olive oil; mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly. I always find that it needs a tad bit more salt.
- Remove chicken meatballs from the oven and let stand couple minutes.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and top spoon yogurt sauce over the meatballs.
- Garnish with chopped fresh dill and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
p.s. To my earlier comment, sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Of course, I only made 8 balls! I made a 1/2 recipe. Feel welcome to alter that, or I will try to edit it once it has been approved.
Helen.
Hello! I’m going to serve chicken meatballs on Good Friday to my grown family, and my sibling (10 of us). And I had intended to experiment with 2 or 3 recipes. Lucky me, this is the first one I tried and it was very very good! So no experimenting will be needed! My husband and I had them for supper this evening and we loved them.
I worried since there was no egg, but it was moist enough, and held together just fine. I also worried about using raw onion – yet it became nicekly tender in the oven. I used 1/2 lb of ground chicken from a vendor at our farmers’ market – she sells Mennonite chicken. She has said that her usual mixture is 1/2 white, 1/2 brown meat, but I plan to use all dark meat for the dinner party, and have pre-ordered it. I always buy my chicken from her. I only had gf crumbs on hand and that was fine. I will buy panko crumbs.
I followed the recipe exactly (rare for me, too), except I didn’t use the garlic powder. Just the minced garlic. Well, I lie, I did add a dash of Hungarian paprika. I didn’t even increase the dry herbs and I’m glad I didn’t. They were JUST RIGHT.
And I shaped this amount into 8 balls, not 16. When I make it for our party, I will use 3 lbs of meat for us 9 meat-eaters. With the larger amount, I can process my onion to make it more finely chopped.
A tip – I’d want the best quality chicken I cud find b/c the taste is pretty much all about the chicken, and I’d want for it to be very fresh. I’d want to use a instant thermometer in order to not overcook them!
I’m probably going to serve these meatballs with Colcannon or Rumbledthumps (potato and cabbage dish). Something I can make ahead and slide into the oven. I plan to make the meatballs the day before and refrig them. I hope that’s OK? Thanks, Katerina. These are the bomb. Helen – southern Canada.
Is there a substitute for panko/breadcrumbs to be gluten free? Maybe can just skip?
Yes, you can use gluten free breadcrumbs. I actually use these GF Panko crumbs . (Affiliate link)