Tired of the same old meatballs? These chicken spinach meatballs are a spin on the traditional and perfect with all your favorite pasta dishes.
Spaghetti Night Switch Up
There are some meals you can always count on to make everyone happy. At our house spaghetti night, taco night, and pizza night rotate frequently through our menu plan. For spaghetti night I usually make the same ground beef meatballs, so this week I decided to switch things up and try something new.
Chicken & Spinach Meatballs
The new meatball features some of the usual suspects like basil, Parmesan cheese, and garlic, so the switch-up came in the form of ground chicken and spinach. Using a pound of ground chicken and a 10-ounce box of frozen spinach I was able to make 18 decent sized meatballs– we had some for dinner and I froze the rest to have on hand for those busy days when dinner needs to be ready in a hurry. Since it was spaghetti night we had ours over, well, spaghetti. However, I think these would make great sandwiches, as well. Overall, the chicken spinach meatballs were a nice change from our old stand-by meatballs.
More Dinner Recipes
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Chicken & Spinach Meatballs
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
These chicken meatballs are easy to make and full of flavor!
Scale
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 10-ounce box frozen spinach, thawed, drained and chopped*
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together until just combined. Form the mixture into golf ball sized balls and place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper. Bake at 360 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Notes
For the spinach: Be sure to thaw completely and then wrap it in a clean dish towel to wring out all the excess moisture before chopping.
- Category: Main Courses
Nutrition
- Calories: 193
- Fat: 10.4g
- Carbohydrates: 4.8g
- Fiber: 1.7g
- Protein: 20.6g
erin says
September 6, 2018 at 9:54 pmHi,
Have you ever made these meatballs without breadcrumbs? or with a substitution?
April says
September 7, 2018 at 11:12 amHi Erin – I haven’t made these without breadcrumbs, so not sure how they would turn out. You could leave them out, but the meatballs might not be as tender.
Licia says
June 4, 2018 at 8:47 amSounds fabulous, just curious could I salute the onion first, col it down and add to meatballs? We have a “picky” onion eater, if she even thinks it is not a soft cooked onion she puts her nose up…Thanks going to make this with my san marzano marinara
★★★★★
April says
June 4, 2018 at 11:10 amI haven’t tried cooking the onions first, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!
Jacqueline DiNuoscio says
May 9, 2018 at 10:24 amI love this twist on a classic dish! So much healthier and packed full of flavor!
★★★★★
Marjory says
May 9, 2018 at 9:21 amThese little meatballs really switch things up! Love the recipe. BTW spaghetti, pizza and Taco Tuesday are the favorite nights at our house too!
★★★★★
Julia says
March 8, 2018 at 11:47 amCan you use fresh spinsuch?
April says
March 8, 2018 at 5:48 pmHi Julia, I haven’t tried this with fresh spinach, but I think it will work. You will need approximately 1 pound of fresh spinach to get the same amount as frozen. I think for it to work best you would need to cook it down first in a pan with a little oil and then let it cool before making the meatballs. Not sure how it will work if you just add the spinach to the meatballs raw.
Valerie says
October 17, 2018 at 4:00 pmI love this recipe! Made it many times. I make a big batch of mixture & freeze portion sizes. I Make the meatballs on day I want them. I also have also only used fresh spinach. Chop it up a little bit to your liking.
April says
October 18, 2018 at 5:53 pmSo glad you like the recipe!
Deana says
December 26, 2017 at 11:23 pmI notice one picture shows these in a tomato sauce. Is this a recipe or just a picture showing how they can be used? It looks delicious!!
April says
December 27, 2017 at 7:32 amHi Deana, the recipe is just for the meatballs, but they are delicious with tomato sauce (I just used my favorite jarred sauce for that photo).
Jameen says
July 30, 2017 at 5:39 pmI made it and they came out awesome! Add Worcestershire sauce!
Definitely a keeper!
Thank you ☺️
★★★★★
April says
July 31, 2017 at 12:22 pmThat’s great! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Deborah says
October 5, 2016 at 2:41 pmI want to adapt this to a meatloaf (as a whole loaf or individual meatloaf ‘cupcakes’ how long would you suggest I cook this in an oven?
April says
October 5, 2016 at 6:12 pmHi Deborah, for a whole meatloaf I recommend baking at 350 for 45 min to 1 hour or until the internal temperature is 160ish degrees. Let it rest at least 10 minutes – the internal temperature will raise to 165 degrees while it rests. For smaller “cupcakes” you should only need to bake an additional 10-15 minutes, depending on how big you make them. I haven’t tried this, so just giving you my best recommendations 🙂
Christina says
March 13, 2016 at 9:33 pmI just made these for meal prep, they came out delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
April says
March 14, 2016 at 5:42 amYay! So glad you enjoyed them Christina — thank you for letting me know 🙂
Diane says
September 10, 2015 at 11:25 pmApril, I love the delicious look of these healthy meatballs. Spinach, chicken and cheese are great with spaghetti sauce. Nice work!
April says
September 11, 2015 at 4:07 pmAw, thanks!
Byron Thomas says
September 9, 2015 at 2:09 pmThese look so healthy and delicious, and that red sauce is so vibrant. YUM!
Brian Jones says
September 9, 2015 at 4:34 amI have never made chicken meatballs and usually use a combination of pork and beef but these sound utterly delicious, the addition of spinach is inspired, love it!
April says
September 9, 2015 at 7:18 amI love beef meatballs, but these are a nice change – a little lighter and healthier 🙂
Karen @ Karen's Kitchen Stories says
September 9, 2015 at 12:34 amI’m definitely trying these! They sound and look delish!
Tracy @ Served From Scratch says
September 8, 2015 at 11:06 pmI love these! What a great alternative to beef meatballs.
Chrissie (thebusybaker.ca) says
September 8, 2015 at 10:29 amThis recipe is perfect for my family as we don’t eat a lot of beef. Definitely pinning this recipe to add to our meal plan!
★★★★★
April says
September 10, 2015 at 7:36 amI hope you enjoy them, Chrissie!
Whitney @ That Square Plate says
September 8, 2015 at 1:07 amThese sound and look amazing! I’ve never made chicken meatballs, but the combo sounds spectacular! My boyfriend would love them too! Yum!!
★★★★★
Renee says
September 8, 2015 at 12:21 amYummy! Spaghetti and meatball night! I love the change in the meatballs, I bet they were delicious!!
April says
September 8, 2015 at 9:28 amThey’re a nice change from classic meatballs – a little bit healthier, but still tasty 🙂
Rosemary @anitalianinmykitchen says
September 7, 2015 at 3:28 pmThese meatballs sound delicious, can’t wait to try them.
Tina Marie says
September 7, 2015 at 2:01 pmThese look amazing!
★★★★★
Sara @ Life's Little Sweets says
September 3, 2015 at 12:22 amI actually really want to try this, I cook a lot of chicken on week nights for my family and this would be a nice way to change things up.
Kim | Mom, Can I Have That? says
July 29, 2015 at 3:41 pmYum! These are right up my alley! I love changing up the meat in a classic to make it new. What a great recipe. Thanks!
Simply Life says
September 6, 2009 at 4:47 pmSo creative and it looks delicious!
FoodTravelDiva says
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Anderburf says
September 4, 2009 at 1:10 amThis looks really good! I just got some organic pepper and Himalayan sea salt from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I think I’ll try them both out in this recipe over the weekend. Thanks for sharing!
Jessie says
September 3, 2009 at 1:28 pmwhat a wonderful idea! very creative and I love that you used spinach in the meatballs.
mathildescuisine says
September 3, 2009 at 2:10 pmVery creative and innovative meatballs, I love the combination of chicken and spinach
Ruth says
September 3, 2009 at 8:19 amExcellent recipe! I love Spinach and Im going to try this!
Diana Bauman says
September 3, 2009 at 11:43 amLove it!! Your pictures make me want to dive right in!
Debi (Table Talk) says
September 3, 2009 at 12:40 amI look forward to making these with my daughter–this is a healthy weeknight dinner everyone at the table will enjoy.
Nicole says
September 2, 2009 at 11:28 pmComing from an Italian family, we also frequent meatballs in our menu. i will have to try this to switch things up!
tastyeatsathome says
September 2, 2009 at 4:00 pmThese look really delicious. Now, if I can just convince my family to eat spinach… 🙂
Divina Pe says
September 2, 2009 at 1:19 pmThat’s a really nice change from a meatball to a chicken ball and they’re baked. Best of all, it sounds and looks really tastey without the added calories.