This recipe is based on one I found in Dish magazine. Of course anything cooked on one-tray or pot always catches my eye for family food. This is not only a great meal for a quick midweek dinner it is a perfect school holiday recipe [especially if the rainy weather has set in where you live] – the kids in our cooking school classes at the store this week did a fantastic job and all their plates were clean!!
About chicken mince…. The Dish magazine recipe suggested using chicken sausages to make the meat balls but I wasn’t convinced about this because I have never found a good quality chicken sausage. They tend to be fatty, flavourless, or overly salty – even organic ones. So I made the meatballs with skinless chicken thighs chopped very very finely by hand. Don’t be tempted to use a food processor as it tends to crush the chicken into a paste making the meatballs tough and rubbery. Chopping by hand was a little bit of work but the results were great – lovely and moist… I’d really like to find an old fashion clamp-to-the-bench hand mincer. How easy and efficient would that be! Must keep my eye out for one and give it a try…In my kids classes we used the mincer attachment for a Kitchen Aide and it worked perfectly.
Ingredients to serve family of 4
- 1.5 cups fresh breadcrumbs
- Zest of one lemon, finely grated
- ¼ cup of milk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup basil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 600gm free range chicken mince
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Tomato sauce
- 1 kg tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Pasta, rice or cous cous to serve, plus grated parmesan
Sauce Method: Finely chop or grate the 2 cloves of garlic. Cut up your tomatoes into quarters (or smaller if they are very big tomatoes). Toss them in a bowl with the dried oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Tip out onto a lined baking tray, spreading them into a single layer.
Meat ball Method: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Finely grate the lemon zest. Finely chop the basil. Finely grate the garlic. Combine the breadcrumbs, egg, lemon zest, basil, milk and garlic. Stir to combine well and let sit for five minutes or so… then mix through the minced chicken. Roll mix gently to make small meatballs, about the size of a whole walnut. Don’t worry if the meatballs seem very fragile – they will come together during baking.
Place the meat balls on the same tray, tucking them around the tomatoes [see note below]. Mix the tomato paste, soy and Dijon into a smooth paste. Using a pastry brush, brush the top of each ball with the paste. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes and meatballs. Place into the preheated oven for around 20minutes till the meatballs are cooked through and the tomatoes are soft. Toss the meatballs and tomatoes through pasta with a generous grating of parmesan or serve on a bed of cous cous topped with a handful of fresh oregano leaves.
NOTE: You can blend the tomatoes into a smoother sauce – the kids in this weeks classes all preferred it this way – make this easier for yourself by separating the meat balls and tomatoes on the tray, as I have done here, so you can spoon the cooked tomatoes into a blender or blitz with a stick blender .
