Chicken and Rice Meatballs

You read that right – it’s chicken and rice meatballs, not chicken meatballs and rice. That is to say, the rice is IN the meatballs! The original recipe served this with hummus, pickles, and cucumber, but I opted for broccoli slaw this time. I think this would also work well with this cucumber and onion salad or these steamed sweet potatoes with tahini butter (but next time I make them, I’ll omit the soy sauce, which I felt had no place here).


I doubled the recipe below to make a total of 41 meatballs, each slightly smaller than a golf ball. This means I needed 3 cups of cooked rice, which I got from 1 cup of jasmati rice and 1 ½ cups of water. We really liked these!

6 scallions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a 1”-piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 lb. ground chicken
1 ½ cups cooled cooked white rice
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425 °F. Gently mix scallions, garlic, ginger, chicken, rice, oil, curry, and kosher salt in a medium bowl (don’t overwork). Form mixture into 12 balls (about 1½" in diameter). Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly browned and cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.