Orange Chicken Meatballs
on Apr 26, 2017, Updated Nov 04, 2020
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Orange Chicken Meatballs
- Yield: 3-4 servings 1x
Ingredients
Scale
Meatballs
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup shredded carrots (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup finely chopped green beans
- ¼ cup shredded cabbage (roughly chopped)
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Orange Sauce
- 1 cup orange juice
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup coconut aminos
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 pitted date, soaked in hot water to soften
- 2 teaspoons arrowroot powder + 2 tablespoons cold water (combined)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a small skillet over medium high heat and add in sesame oil. Then add in carrots, green beans and cabbage and cook down just until softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a medium bowl combine ground chicken, egg, almond meal, coconut flour, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt and pepper. Then add in the veggie mixture and stir until combined.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop chicken into balls on the pan. Use a cookie or ice cream scoop to do this as the mixture will be too moist to roll in your hands. (It makes 12 balls)
- Bake for about 18 minutes or until cooked through.
- While meatballs are in the oven, combine orange juice, apple cider vinegar, coconut aminos, garlic powder, ground ginger and the date in a blender and blend on high until the date breaks down.
- Powder the sauce mixture into a medium skillet over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, add in arrowroot & water mixture while whisking vigorously to combine. This will thicken the sauce. Lower the heat.
- Once meatballs are done, transfer them from the baking sheet to the pan and coat them with the sauce.
- Serve over Cauliflower Fried Rice!
Notes
- I used bags of pre shredded carrots and cabbage!
- If you want to eliminate a step and make it less sweet you can remove the date from the recipe and add all sauce ingredients straight into the pan instead of blending!
This is on my menu for this week! I’m so excited. I know my guys are gonna love it!
Yay!! I know they will love it too! 🙂
I can’t find any mention of the Kale/spinach sitting underneath the dish. How was this prepared?
Underneath is just some kale with cauliflower fried rice on top!
Kelsey are you using the juice of a fresh orange for your Meatballs. That would be my preference.
You can use either!!
My husband and I made these tonight. I used ground turkey, still so delicious!!!
Love it!! So glad turkey works too!
THESE ARE SO GOOD!! I made them with your cauliflower fried rice. The tip about using a scooper for the meatballs was very helpful 🙂 Already looking forward to lunch tomorrow so I can eat more!
Awesome!! So glad you liked everything!!
Looking forward to trying this! We also have the chicken pad thai on the menu for this week. I love everything I have tried from you!
Awesome!! Enjoy!!
Great dish; thank you! My husband really likes too and he usually won’t eat my healthy food. I made it twice. I think next time I’m going to add some orange zest to the sauce; maybe like 1 tablespoon.
So glad you liked it!! 🙂
Can you clarify if I can use almond flour or is almond meal preferred? Thank you!
You can use almond flour!!
Do you know if this would be Whole 30 compliant?
Yes it is!
My husband and I loved these meatballs! Really easy and quick to prepare. The flavor reminded us of spring rolls. Also, I wasn’t the best instructions follower and didn’t see that I was supposed to sauté the veggies before mixing them in, so I just mixed them in as is. And it was totally fine! They weren’t crunchy or anything. Could be a good time saver for anyone if needed!
Good to know!