A delicious and healthy Chicken Meatballs recipe, made with shredded zucchini instead of breadcrumbs. The zucchini keeps these tender and juicy, and also lighter and gluten free. Serve these healthy meatballs over zoodles, your favorite gluten free pasta, or steamed rice!
If you adore healthy meatball recipes, try these Asian Pork Meatballs or this Turkey Meatballs recipe.
Contents
The Perfect Healthy Meatballs
This is my new favorite meatball recipe! They are tender and juicy, and such a great comfort food.
As they simmer, the meatballs fill the house with the most comforting smells.
The best part? They are made with about 10 ingredients, most that are easy to keep on hand. They come together in about 15 minutes and are ready to serve in 30.
What You Need
- Ground chicken (if your store doesn’t sell this, try a mild chicken Italian sausage)
- Zucchini, shredded finely (this replaces the breadcrumbs – a light and healthy way to keep them juicy and tender!)
- Parmesan Cheese (this is optional – omit to make these paleo chicken meatballs)
- Almond Flour
- Onion
- Garlic
- Salt & Pepper
- Italian Seasoning
- Olive Oil (or avocado oil)
How to Make Low Carb Chicken Meatballs
Step 1: In a medium sized mixing bowl, add ground chicken, shredded zucchini, almond flour, optional parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and minced onion and garlic. Mix to incorporate the zucchini and spices evenly into the ground chicken.
Step 2: Scoop the mixture into 2-tablespoon balls, rolling between palms to make a ball shape.
Step 3: Heat a skillet over medium heat, and drizzle with olive oil or avocado oil. Once hot, add chicken meatballs. Allow to cook about 5 minutes on 1 side, then gently flip the meatballs and brown on all sides. Remove from the pan once fully cooked, in about 12 minutes.
Step 4: If desired, add marinara sauce, and bring to a simmer.
How to Serve Meatballs
Make this Low Carb: We love these served over zoodles! I leave them raw, and then add hot meatballs and sauce over the top. This way, the zoodles retain their crisp texture, but you can still have a hot and comforting dish. Stir fried cauliflower rice is another great low carb or keto option!
Keep this Gluten Free: Use your favorite gluten free pasta.
Make these Paleo: Omit the parmesan cheese, and season with additional salt. Serve them over zoodles or cauliflower rice.
Other Ideas: These healthy chicken meatballs are perfect served over your favorite grains, like rice, wild rice, quinoa or millet.
How to Make Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs
This meatball recipe works great in an air fryer! Follow the recipe, but cook them in an air fryer rather than a hot skillet.
Step 1: Preheat the air fryer to 370º F for 5 minutes.
Step 2: Add the zucchini chicken meatballs to the air fryer basket, and air fry for about 12 minutes. If you make smaller meatballs, they will cook more quickly, so check them at 10 minutes to see if they are already cooked through.
These Air Fryer Turkey Meatballs are also made using this method!
How to Store & Reheat this Recipe
How to Store Leftover Chicken Meatballs: Add the meatballs to an air tight container, and refrigerate up to 3 days. These also freeze fabulously! Add to a freezer safe container, and freeze up to 3 months.
How to Reheat Leftovers: Return meatballs to a skillet, and heat over medium high heat for about 10 minutes, or until heated throughout.
If reheating from frozen, defrost them prior to reheating.
Other Healthy Meatball Recipes
- Asian Sesame Chicken Meatballs
- Asian Pork Meatballs
- Air Fryer Turkey Meatballs
- Healthy Turkey Meatballs
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Healthy Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 cup zucchini finely shredded
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup onion finely minced
- 2 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- black pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
To Serve
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 2 zucchinis large, spiralized
- parmesan cheese to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Into a mixing bowl, add chicken and all meatball ingredients. Use a spoon to mix it up thoroughly, so the seasonings and zucchini are uniformly mixed.
- Scoop the mixture into balls (about 3 tablespoons each), and roll to form a smooth ball.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat, and drizzle with olive oil.
- Add the meatballs into the pan, giving them space so they brown without steaming.
- When one side of the meatballs have browned, use a fork to gently turn them, and brown on all sides. The meatballs will cook through in about 10 minutes.
- If desired, add marinara sauce, and cook until it's simmering along with the meatballs.
- Spiralize zucchini, and then drizzle zoodles with more Pompeian Smooth Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Toss to coat, and then serve topped with chicken meatballs, marinara, and optional parmesan cheese to garnish.
This is a great healthy recipe for meatballs! Sometimes I have ground chicken defrosting and dont know what else to make with them. I love the use of the almond flour, so I definitely want to try this for dinner this week!
This is such an inspiring recipe. I’ve never tried adding almond flour to meatballs, but they are so good, and there will definitely be more repeat in the future.
What a great idea. We don’t follow a gluten free diet, but these meatballs are now our new favourite! Very flavoursome and tender. And I loved the zucchini in them! Kept them extra juicy!
The recipe looks juicy and saucy. Perfect to my taste. Will be trying this for the coming Ramadan.
There are so many sides that go so well with these meatballs. Love how easy it is to make them!
Finally! A meatball recipe that my whole family loves, and it’s healthy. Thanks for this!
These are so delicious! I am so glad you loved them too.