The point of these is the freezer, not the dinner. A bag of twenty-four loose meatballs is four weeknight starts — drop them in sauce, put them in a sub, serve them on pasta — and they cost a fraction of the pre-cooked bags while tasting like something you made.
Ingredients
- ½ lb ground chicken
- ½ lb pork sausage
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- ¼ onion, chopped
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F.
- Combine everything in a large bowl. Mix until it just comes together — worked hard, the meat tightens and the meatballs go rubbery.
- Form the meatballs. A trigger scoop is worth using here: evenly sized balls finish at the same moment, and hand-rolled ones never do.
- Set them on a greased rimmed baking sheet and bake 18–20 minutes, to 165°F in the middle.
- Cool completely, then chill in the fridge overnight before they go anywhere near the freezer.
- Freeze in a bag or a freezer-safe container.
Make-Ahead & Storage
Freeze them loose, in a single layer, not touching. That is the whole reason to make two dozen — a bag you can take four out of is worth far more than a brick you have to thaw entirely. Leave the sauce out of the bag if you want to keep that option.
For portions you will reheat whole, small freezer-safe glass containers work better than a bag.
Reheating: 1–3 minutes in the microwave until heated through. For a whole bag, tip it into a pot with sauce over medium and simmer 5–10 minutes.
Notes
The overnight chill before freezing is not optional padding. Meatballs that go in warm steam inside the bag, and that moisture refreezes as the ice that causes freezer burn.
Ground chicken is wetter and leaner than beef, which changes two things. The raw mix is slack and sticky, so chill it for twenty minutes before scooping, or keep a bowl of water next to you and wet the scoop between balls. And it dries out faster, so pull them at 165°F rather than leaving them in for colour — they will not brown the way beef does, and waiting for it overcooks them.
The pork sausage is carrying both the fat and most of the seasoning now. It already brings salt, fennel or sage, and pepper, and with lean chicken alongside it there is no spare fat in the mix — so do not swap it for plain ground pork without adding salt, and do not use a reduced-fat sausage.
Sauce is a serving decision, not an ingredient. These bake plain so they can go into marinara one week and a sub the next.
Dairy-free: a dairy-free cheese and your milk alternative of choice.
Gluten-free: gluten-free breadcrumbs, straight swap.