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Chicken Albondigas

A festive, exotic chicken meatball that comes together in a snap, and is perfect for a busy night, but fancy enough for company.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Mediterranean
Prep Time 12 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 42 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Meatballs

  • 1/4 cup olive oil plus more for frying
  • 2 medium onions finely diced
  • 2 celery ribs finely diced
  • 5 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 lbs ground chicken
  • 1 cup sliced almonds plus more for garnish
  • 2 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt

Tomato Sauce

  • 1 1/2 cups basic tomato passata or puréed tomatoes
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 tbsp ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • Cooked rice for serving (see Notes below)

Instructions

Meatballs

  1. Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onions, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring until the vegetables have softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Let cool.

  2. In a large bowl combine the cooled onion mixture, chicken, almonds, paprika, cinnamon and salt. Mix well with clean hands and shape into golf ball sized balls.

  3. Film the bottom of a large skillet with oil and heat over medium-high until shimmering but not smoking.
  4. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, add the meatballs in a single layer and let cook undisturbed until they've browned on the bottom and can be easily turned over, 3-5 minutes. Continue cooking until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes total.
  5. Return all the albondigas to the skillet, add the tomato sauce (you may want an extra 1/2 cup of sauce on hand if you would like some sauce to serve with the meatballs)and stir gently to coat. Continue cooking over medium heat just until the sauce is hot and the meatballs are cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

  6. Serve the meatballs over rice topped with additional almonds, as well as any remaining sauce.

Tomato Sauce, can be prepared ahead of time

  1. Warm 2 tbsp of oil in a pot over medium heat.

  2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until they are softened but not browned, about 8 minutes.

  3. Add the tomatoes, coriander, salt and 1 cup of water.

    Cook until the sauce has thickened and concentrated slightly, about 15-20 minutes.

  4. Off the heat, whisk in the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil.

    The sauce will keep 1 week in the fridge and 3 months frozen.

Recipe Notes

I served these over saffron rice. I made my rice by sautéing 1/2 small minced onion in 1 tbsp of butter right in my rice cooker. Then I stirred in 1 tsp of saffron, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, and 1/2 tsp salt. Stirred it up and then added the rice (enough to feed two, according to the rice cooker directions) I stirred the rice to coat with the onion spice mixture. Then I added the water and covered and let the rice cooker take over! If you are making enough rice to feed four, then adjust the onion, saffron, turmeric and salt.  Cook as per your rice cooker directions.
By Michael Solomonov
Adapted from Zahav, a World of Israeli Cooking