Tomato Basil Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs
Try this Tomato Basil Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Tomato Basil Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 large egg
- salt to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- two 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 medium onion split in half
- 1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic 4 to 5 garlic cloves
- 1 large stem fresh basil sprig
- 1 pound ground chicken see jo’s notes
- 1/3 cup (25 grams) panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup (30 grams) finely grated parmigiano-reggiano chees
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- slow cooker we used a 6-quart slow cooker
- Carbohydrate 3.51062236116175 g
- Cholesterol 152.397359551691 mg
- Fat 13.8011217440592 g
- Fiber 0.753343739402731 g
- Protein 22.5258017071653 g
- Saturated Fat 3.76104635887321 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (163g)
- Sodium 1277.35500549907 mg
- Sugar 2.75727862175902 g
- Trans Fat 1.16585015407454 g
- Calories 226 calories
Step-by-step
- Make the Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce: Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, halved onion, garlic, olive oil, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and the basil sprig to a slow cooker. Stir then add salt to taste — we use between 1 teaspoon and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, depending on the tomatoes. It will be cold, but you will get a good idea of whether or not the sauce is well seasoned.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 3 hours. Remove the onion, bay leaf and basil sprig. Taste then add additional salt as needed.
- Prepare the Chicken Meatballs: The meatballs can be prepared ahead of time, see Jo’s notes below.
- Combine panko breadcrumbs and the milk in a large bowl. Wait 3 to 5 minutes until the breadcrumbs have absorbed most of the milk then whisk in the egg. Whisk in the parmesan cheese, parsley, oregano, salt, and the pepper.
- Add the chicken and use a fork or your hands to then blend the chicken and the egg mixture together. The meatball mixture will be quite moist.
- Shape into one-inch meatballs, pressing no more than necessary. This recipe makes approximately 18 meatballs.
- Cook the Chicken Meatballs: Once the tomato sauce has finished cooking and the onion has been removed, add the chicken meatballs. To add them, use a spoon or two forks to gently lower them into the sauce. Cover the tops of the meatballs by gently pushing sauce over each meatball. Cook on HIGH for 1 hour or until the meatballs are cooked through.
Relying on a slow cooker introduces a specific culinary challenge, namely the risk of dulling vibrant aromatics over hours of prolonged, gentle heat. This recipe counters that limitation by building a deeply aromatic base of canned crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and an intact onion half that stews for up to six hours on the low setting, concentrating the fruit acids and rendering the raw garlic completely sweet and mellow before any protein enters the vessel. Letting crushed tomatoes simmer alongside a whole basil sprig and a bay leaf extracts fat-soluble compounds directly into the olive oil, creating a cohesive emulsion that coats pasta far better than a watery sauce thrown together at the last minute.
Ground poultry naturally lacks the abundant intramuscular fat found in beef or pork, which means chicken meatballs demand a moisture insurance policy to prevent them from turning rubbery in the slow cooker. Soaking panko breadcrumbs in milk for three to five minutes before incorporating them creates a panade that traps hydration inside the protein matrix, ensuring the finished spheres remain tender even after an hour of high-heat cooking in the simmering tomato bath. When shaping these delicate portions into one-inch rounds, handle the mixture as minimally as possible; compacting the ground meat too aggressively squeezes out the trapped moisture pockets that keep the interior light.
Deciding when ground poultry is safely cooked through without puncturing every piece with a digital probe relies entirely on observing structural firmness and surface opacity. A fully cooked chicken meatball shifts from a soft, tacky pink exterior to a uniform pale opaque tone, and it will float slightly higher in the surrounding liquid while offering firm resistance when pressed gently with the back of a spoon. Because ground chicken carries negligible internal fat stores to buffer against overcooking, pulling the slow cooker off the heat precisely at the one-hour mark prevents the proteins from tightening past their ideal threshold.
Pairing these poultry meatballs requires balancing the heavy acidity of the long-simmered tomato sauce with components that offer structural contrast on the plate. Thick slices of crusty sourdough bread toasted in a cast-iron skillet provide a crunchy vehicle for soaking up the residual oil and tomato reduction, while a sharply dressed bitter green salad tossed in a bright lemon vinaigrette cuts straight through the concentrated richness of the grated parmigiano-reggiano and olive oil emulsion.
