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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I made these and they were beyond damn delicious!! I could easily eat these 3 times or more a week. The flavor is so incredible!!
I am intrigued about the Indian Pizza for the leftovers How do you make that? Naan, sauce, meatballs…. and….???? Please I really would like to know. Thank you!
Making this again tonight. Will be the third time in a month. I can’t get enough and thankfully it’s a fave of my 3 picky eaters. Going to get naan from a local restaurant and serve with riced cauliflower for myself, rice for the rest of the family and some roasted broccoli.
Do you happen to have the nutritional information for this? Is it posted and I didn’t see it?
Best butter chicken recipe yet. Even with replacing the heavy cream with 2% milk, it was absolutely delicious.
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Really enjoyed these – did 1 lbs turkey, 1/2 lbs pork since that was what we had in the house. Blended in the food processor for a smoother texture. These were delicious and my kids loved them. Also used full fat coconut milk since we’re dairy free. Really enjoyed these!
That was damn delicious too! (I cooked the peanut butter noodle recipe as well)
How did you repurpose into a pizza?
I made this for my wife and I and it was delicious! I substituted coconut milk for the heavy cream (my wife is currently dairy free) and added freshly sliced mushrooms to the sauce (simply because I had extras that I wanted to use). Additions aside, it turned out great!
This was so good. Like some of the other reviewers, I was at a grocery store that didn’t carry ground chicken, so I used a combination of ground turkey and ground beef. Turned out great. We served ours with naan, rice, and green beans. Many in my family stirred the green beans into the sauce. Delicious recipe. Thank you!
Made this last night. Great Recipe!
Oh my gosh, these are absolutely delicious. We will definitely be making these again.
I just made these, exactly as written. Already ate 2 meatballs from the pan! Delicious. Tonite with rice and naan, I know it will be over the moon.
Will definetly be made over and over.
Thanks for all of your great recipes…
OMG SOO GOOD! I cut the leftover meatballs in half and stores them in the sauce and they were even better the second and third day!
Also subbed parsley for cilantro because I hate cilantro haha worked perfectly! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Made this last night and my husband and I both LOVED it. The only issue was keeping my husband away until it was done. The aromas of the spices filled the house in such a delightful way he could barely stand it! Great recipe.
This recipe was amazing! Next time I make this I will add more jalapeños or maybe a Serrano pepper. Just wondering if there is a way to see the nutritional information on your recipes? Calories, carbohydrates, etc.? Thanks!
Another winner! Flavors are really good. I served with naan bread, rice and peas. We just used the naan to sop up all the delicious sauce that wasn’t soaked up by the rice. For a variation on this, I may toss diced chicken in curry powder, salt and pepper and cook it before adding it to the sauce – and of course sprinkle some cilantro on top. Yum, yum! Can’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!
I made this tonight and it was really good! My only suggestion is to put the actual measurements of salt and pepper in the ingredients list for the meatballs. I was following the ingredients list and it only says “to taste”, so I just sprinkled some in. Later in the directions, it gives 1tsp and 1/2 tsp as the amounts. I wish I had seen that sooner, I definitely should have added more salt, so they were a bit bland.
Other than that technicality, it was great! I’ll definitely make it again with the right amount of salt.
Very tasty!
I accidentally bought ground turkey♀️ Can it be used as a substitute for ground chicken? Thanks!
I couldn’t find ground chicken anywhere, so I decided to try ground turkey & it was a hit. My teenage son even loved it!
There in the oven. Looks great. I used regular bread crumbs. I always have panko. I’ll let you know how they turn out. I didn’t get the amount of meatballs that you got. Mine were tiny. Lol I got 27. I’m sure that it will be fine. Smells delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Can I use regular breadcrumbs. I ran out of panko