Butter Chicken Meatballs
Everyone’s favorite butter chicken made into the most tender, most amazing meatballs! So saucy, so good. Serve with rice + naan!
Is it weird that I prefer this than the more traditional butter chicken?
I mean, it’s meatballs. It’s basically not even a competition. Meatballs trump all. Meatballs made with ground chicken, Panko, egg, cilantro and curry powder baked until tender and melt-in-your-mouth amazing, then smothered, dunked, and swimming in the sauciest butter chicken goodness.
Serve with warm, toasted naan and basmati rice to get all the saucy bits. And if you have any leftovers (which would be impossible because it’s just that good), you can make an Indian pizza. That’s what we did, and it was the best pizza of my life.
I may make this again just to repurpose the leftovers for that pizza again!
Butter Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced, optional
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
For the meatballs
- 1 ½ pounds ground chicken
- ½ cup Panko
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To make the meatballs, combine chicken, Panko, egg, cilantro, curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs, forming about 36-40 meatballs.
- Place meatballs in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Place into oven and bake until lightly browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno, if using. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in garlic, ginger, garam masala and turmeric until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream and meatballs until heated through, about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Whole family loved it! Got a “yummy” review from the toddler.
Gotta love a “yummy” review! Thanks so much for sharing, Andi!
This recipe was sooo good! Would also be great as an appetizer served with little squares of naan. Please share how you made the Indian Pizza.
This recipe was great! We tripled the recipe. I tend to double or triple Chungahs recipes as we have a fairly big family and we like bigger portions. It was great and the family loved it. The only thing I might change might be the amount of tomato sauce/ paste as it got quite sour when we tripled it. Should have cooked it down a bit more as well. Could also just be the type of tomato paste we used. Ended up adding a few tea spoons of sugar to balance it out.
Either way, would definitely make it again!
Can this be put in a crock pot after making to keep warm for a dinner party/potluck?
Really easy and delicious. I’m not a fan of ground chicken, but this recipe changed my mind.
Can this be frozen?
Laura what I do is I make the meatballs and bake them. I let them cool and place them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper and freeze them. Once frozen I put them in my food saver bag and seal them. When I want them for dinner, I defrost overnight in the frig and the next day continue with the recipe. For me this saves a lot of time. I personally do not think the whole recipe would freeze. I hope this helps.
My nephew loved it. Swapped out heavy cream for coconut milk. Great recipe
Fantastic sauce! Just made the sauce to go with our homemade paneer, added a little extra cream to suit our toddler. This was the best restaurant-quality Indian sauce we’ve ever made. Thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try the meatballs next time, and definitely going to see if you have a tikka masala recipe!
This is my new favourite butter chicken recipe! I agree with other reviewers, the sauce is excellent. I served it over brown rice and added green peas on the side. In a pinch I would just make the sauce and toss in cooked, shredded rotisserie chicken.
This is literally, hands-down, one of my family’s favorite recipes of all time. Not only is it absolutely, finger-licking, bowl-scraping delicious, but it’s NOT hard to make. It’s really a no-fail recipe. We’ve even made larger meatballs and stuck them on sub rolls! ::drool:: My motto is, “the more cilantro, the better.” Full disclosure, one time I completely forgot to add the cream at the end….. and there were still NO LEFTOVERS.
Love this! I sub ground chicken for ground Turkey. This sauce is really good on salmon too.
So tasty! We are not a huge curry/Indian spice fan family. I doubled the recipe because it looked so good, Threw caution to the wind, trusted what I read in the flavor development. My non-curry loving HB loved it! So much he enhanced a frozen piece of lasagna with the flavor flav sauce. It’s a keeper.
Fantastic! I didn’t have Panko on hand so I just toasted some random bread and cut it into very tiny squares. Also, didn’t want to turn the oven on in this heatwave so I just pan fried the meatballs in a little canola oil. Made the garam masala from scratch which was fun and saved me from buying it at the store. And best of all, my parents who absolutely do not like Indian food at all, really enjoyed it. The naan and rice were an excellent addition. A super comfort food!
Super easy and flavorful recipe. Easy to make for a beginner. Added extra vegatables, and 2% milk instead of heavy cream. Lean ground beef instead of chicken, but I bet turkey would be good too. Next time will add more spice/jalepenos. Will make again fo sho.
This is the BEST butter chicken recipe EVER!!! It will be a staple in my house. The sauce alone is divine. I doubled the recipe and replaced the cream with coconut milk. Fantastic!
I will use this sauce with paneer. I love paneer.
Thank you!
I was looking for a recipe to use ground turkey with. Don’t tell my husband I used ground turkey or ground chicken for these, but he really likes them. I gave some to my daughter for she and her husband and she immediately asked for the recipe. I really like this recipe and it’s really pretty easy. Thank you!
This sauce is unreal!! I could just eat it with a spoon. I’ve made this recipe in the past exactly as written and the meatballs are fantastic. My husband and I have been trying to eat a more plant-based diet over the last few months, so I made this last night with cubes of baked tofu and some baby spinach wilted into the sauce at the end. Served over rice with garlic naan. HOLY SMOKES, it was so good! Your recipes are always my go-to, so thank you thank you thank you!
Made this today paired with Indian flat bread and it was sooo delicious! My husband liked it so much that it would be part of our menu rotation from now on!
I make this almost once a week. My whole family loves it! My 1 year old and 5 year old love it over rigatoni!
My partner and I both had phones in hand ready to order take out when I decided to make this instead. And we were both so glad I did! Takes exactly like take out. I added a touch more cream because we like ours creamier and used an immersion blender to smooth out the pieces of onion and jalapeño. Won’t blend it when I make it again- unnecessary step. The meatballs were a good use of the ground chicken in the freezer, would prefer chicken breast or skinless thigh or shrimp. Perfect balance of flavors, not spicy and I was shocked at how easy it was to make. 10/10 -will make again!