Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

Plump juicy chicken meatballs smothered in a terrific homemade Teriyaki sauce, based on my mother’s authentic Teriyaki Chicken recipe. Would you serve these Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs as a meal or pass them around at a party?

Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

These Teriyaki Meatballs are a total crowd pleaser. The sauce for this recipe is based on my mother’s real-deal Teriyaki Chicken recipe (you will be surprised how easy it is – less than 15 minutes start to finish, NO marinating!).

All I did was add cornflour / cornstarch as thickener and water to thin it out to make it more saucy.

My mother is a bit of a food snob when it comes to western twists on Japanese classics. Once she watched a celebrity chef butchering a classic Japanese tempura recipe and she was so indignant that she wrote into the cooking show to inform them how wrong it was. BA HA HA!

So while she was somewhat doubtful as she went about making these Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs for the recipe video, she grudgingly agreed they were very tasty. *Eye roll* Mothers!

Chicken Meatballs

I love chicken meatballs as a leaner alternative to beef meatballs. But because chicken is leaner, you need to ensure the meatballs are cooked well so they do not become dry and tough.

The trick to really juicy chicken meatballs is to cook the chicken meatballs until they are just cooked inside. This recipe makes it easy because these meatballs are cooked until golden on the outside but still raw on the inside, then simmered in the Teriyaki Sauce to finish cooking through. By simmering in the sauce, this helps keeping the chicken meatballs nice and juicy!

Serve these plump juicy chicken meatballs over rice or noodles – anything to make the most of all that delicious Teriyaki Sauce!

I’ve also served these as a starter – piled them onto a platter with toothpicks, then passed them around.

If serving this as a meal, try this with a fresh leafy salad on the side tossed with Asian Sesame Dressing. – Nagi xx

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Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs recipe video! Starring my mother – appropriate because the Teriyaki Sauce is her recipe, and it’s a proper homemade Japanese one, not a westernised one (albeit I’ve had to adjust it to make loads more sauce for this recipe without it being too salty!).

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Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

Author: Nagi

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 15 mins

Total: 35 mins

Mains

Asian, Japanese, Western

5 from 28 votes

Servings4

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Recipe video above. Soft, plump, juicy meatballs smothered in a homemade Teriyaki sauce! The sauce for this recipe is based my mother's authentic Teriyaki Chicken recipe. Serve these as a meal or pass them around at a party.

Ingredients

Teriyaki Sauce:

• 1 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch
• 1/4 cup / 65ml soy sauce , all purpose / ordinary (Note 1)
• 1/4 cup / 65ml cooking sake , or sub with Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry (Note 2)
• 1/4 cup / 65ml Mirin (Note 2)
• 1 tbsp white sugar (brown also ok)
• ¾ cup / 180 ml water

Meatballs:

• 500 g / 1 lb chicken mince (ground chicken) (or pork or turkey)
• 1 egg (preferably small 50g / 1.4 oz)
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or ¾ cup normal breadcrumbs)
• 1 garlic clove , minced
• 1 ½ tsp cooking sake , or sub with Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry (Note 2)
• ½ tsp salt

Cooking:

• 1 tbsp oil
• Sliced green onions / scallions , for garnish (optional)
• Sesame seeds , for garnish (optional)

Instructions

• Place Meatball ingredients in a bowl.
• Place cornflour in a bowl with 1 tbsp of the water, then mix until lump free. Then add the soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar, mix.
• Add 2 tsp of Teriyaki Sauce into the Meatball bowl.
• Add remaining water into the Sauce and mix. Set aside.
• Mix Meatball mixture with your hands. Measure out 1 heaped tablespoon and roll into balls. See Note 3 for tips if mixture is too sticky.
• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add all the meatballs and cook, rolling to brown all over, for 5 minutes. They will still be a bit raw inside.
• Turn heat down. Give the Sauce a quick mix then add it into the pan. Bring to a simmer then cook for 2 - 3 minutes or until it thickens into a glossy sauce that coats the meatballs.
• Serve over rice, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds if desired.

Recipe Notes:

1. I use Kikkoman which is a Japanese brand sold at major supermarkets here in Australia, and also at Asian stores. It is different to soy sauce labelled dark, light or sweet. It’s in between dark and light soy sauce.

Best sub would be equal parts mix of light and dark soy sauce. Otherwise just light soy sauce will be fine. I do not recommend using just dark soy sauce - flavour is too intense.

2. Cooking sake and Mirin are two types of rice wines that are essential to Japanese cooking. Nowadays, both are readily available at major supermarkets here in Australia and of course at Asian stores (better value!). To achieve a truly great Teriyaki flavour, I can’t offer a decent substitute for Mirin. However, the sake can be substituted with dry sherry or Chinese cooking wine.

Unfortunately, I can’t suggest alcohol free substitutes for Teriyaki sauce. The rice wines are too essential for the flavour. NOTE: The alcohol evaporates when cooked. 

3. Chicken mince can sometimes be very wet. Depends which part of the chicken is used, quality of chicken (older mince can get watery, fresh mince is not as wet, meat from the butcher is typically less wet than from supermarkets). Three tips to help make your mixture manageable to easily roll into balls:
a) refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up;
b) spray / rub hands lightly with oil (works better than water) before rolling balls; and
c) in emergencies only, add more breadcrumbs!

4. BAKING: My default method of cooking chicken meatballs is on the stove because I like the caramelisation (beef and lamb have more fat so they get a nicer browning when baked). To bake, for best results, spray a rack with oil, roll the balls and place on the rack and refrigerate for 30  minutes. (These 2 tips help keep them round when baked) Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven at 180C/350F for 18 - 20 minutes (assuming you make them 1 rounded packed tablespoon per recipe) - any longer than they will start to dry out. Reduce the water in the Sauce by 1/4 cup and simmer in a saucepan for 5 minutes or so until it thickens. Once the meatballs are baked, toss them in the sauce or just pour it over when serving.

5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 251gCalories: 463kcal (23%)

Keywords: Chicken meatballs, Teriyaki Meatballs

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