Recipes for Tuesday #32: Dumpling Meatballs

Because we are not making dumplings by hand on a weeknight!

I have been on a real meatball kick lately, so here is my current favorite variation:

Dumpling Meatballs

Ingredients:

For the meatballs

• 1 pound ground chicken

• 1 pound ground pork

• 3 green onions, sliced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1” piece of ginger, minced

• 1 egg yolk

• ½ cup panko breadcrumbs (more if needed)

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp ground black pepper (or ½ tsp of white pepper)

• 2 tsp honey

For the sauce

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1” piece of ginger, minced

• ⅓ cup soy sauce

• ¼ cup honey

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 cup chicken broth (I have been loving the Aldi brand bone broth)

• 1 heaping tbsp cornstarch

Instructions

1. Start by adding all your meatball ingredients in a large bowl. There is a lot of liquid ingredients in this recipe, so if you feel like it is too loose to form into your meatballs, you can add more panko breadcrumbs and let it sit in the fridge for about 5 minutes to come together a little more.

2. I also like to make my sauce at this time so it’s ready to go, and you do that just by combining all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisking until the honey and cornstarch feel dissolved.

3. Once your mixture is ready, form into about 15-18 meatballs and set on a plate or sheet pan.

4. I like to cook these on the stove top to get that beautiful golden color on each side, but you can also bake these at 375 degrees for about 15-18 minutes if you don’t want to be constantly turning them in the pan.

5. For the stovetop method, heat a large skillet over medium heat with a few tablespoons of oil. Once the pan is hot, add your meatballs and sear for about 2 minutes before turning and repeating on each side. You may have to do a few batches depending on the size of your pan.

6. Once you have a nice sear on each side, remove them and set them aside on your plate.

   

7. Turn the heat down to low, and give your sauce another good whisk before adding to the pan to make sure all the cornstarch and honey are not clumped together at the bottom.

8. Allow the sauce to come to simmer for about 2 minutes before adding your meatballs so they can continue to cook in the sauce as it reduces. I usually add a lid here to trap some of that heat.

9. After about 3 minutes, I like to flip the meatballs so the other half cooks down in the sauce and I turn off the heat at this point. After about 3 more minutes, you should be good to go. If you like to use a thermometer to measure your meat, you are looking for about 165 internal on the meatballs.

10. Serve over steamed rice and with a veggie of your choice and garnish with more green onion and sesame seeds.

Storytime

I am just a big fan of dumplings, whether it be mandu, shumai, soup dumplings, really anything, but from having made my own dumplings before, it is not an easy task, and certainly not feasible for a weeknight meal.

My credentials:

This packs all that wonderful dumpling favor into a meatball with that incredible teriyaki style sauce and comes together in around 30 minutes. I will certainly have more meatball recipes coming in the future (there is a coconut curry one I made that is crazy good that I am still perfecting). I also made a Mediterranean inspired version that is giving CAVA in mid-Missouri, so stay tuned.

I think you could do some interesting adjustments to this one as well including serving the meatballs in a chicken or miso broth seasoned with soy sauce and black pepper with some wonton noodles to give you more of a “soup dumpling” vibe. You can also omit the ground pork from this recipe to make it a bit healthier if you’d like. I like to serve these with steamed broccoli or this wonderful stir-fry kit I found at Gerbes in the pre-cut vegetable/bagged salad section. Either way, dumplings are probably my favorite vehicle for flavor, and meatballs are a close second! Enjoy!

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And of course, my two meatballs: JD and Balto

Have a great week!
-Morgan