Easy Asian chicken meatballs with a sticky sauce

These easy Asian chicken meatballs are made with ground chicken and given a crunchy texture thanks to the addition of finely chopped water chestnuts. The sticky sauce takes only minutes to prepare and coats the meatballs perfectly!

If your family enjoy a dish of spaghetti and meatballs then you might like to try this Asian-inspired version. The meatballs are packed with Asian flavours and are coated in a sweet yet savoury sticky sauce. For a delicious twist on the normal beef meatballs, I've used chicken mince, and to add extra flavour and texture I've incorporated finely chopped water chestnuts into the meatball mixture.

Unfortunately, I can't take all the credit for this recipe. I took inspiration from Maggie at Omnivore's Cookbook website, from her recently published recipe for Asian turkey meatballs. While I'm not a lover of turkey, I liked the idea of the water chestnuts and thought I'd try using them with chicken instead. If you enjoy authentic Asian food you might like to check out her website!

I wasn't disappointed. The finely chopped water chestnuts added a delightful texture to the chicken meatballs. I omitted the spicy Doubanjiang that Maggie used for the sauce and added tomato paste instead. For extra stickiness, I substituted the sugar with honey.

These meatballs made a delicious and easy meal - and I've got the leftovers safely stored in the freezer for another meal.

I also baked the meatballs in the oven, rather than frying them. I prefer to do this for a few reasons:

• the meatballs stay nice and round in the oven;
• you need less oil which makes them more on the healthy side;
• you can put them in the oven and forget about them while you make the sauce.

What I love about this recipe is that these meatballs can be made smaller, skewered on cocktail sticks, and served as an appetiser with a bowl of the delicious sauce for dipping. The festive season is coming - bear this in mind for your buffet table 🙂

If you're looking for a more Westernised version of meatballs, you might like to try these barbeque meatballs instead, which are made with ground beef rather than chicken.

Just make sure you've got some pasta or rice on the side and you've got a delicious and easy meal that you can have on the table in just over half an hour.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Tips for a perfect outcome
• Serving suggestions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• FAQ
• Save for later
• Related recipes
• 📋The recipe

Ingredients

Meatballs

This recipe makes 15 golf-ball-sized meatballs (provided you portion it out correctly - I only got 14 because I didn't measure properly 🙂 ).

**You can find the exact ingredient measurements for both the sticky Asian chicken meatballs and the sauce on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

• Chicken mince (or ground chicken) - I normally buy this ready minced from the supermarket. If your supermarket doesn't stock it you can chop up the equivalent amount of chicken breast very finely with a sharp knife or whizz it around in a food processor for a few seconds. If you are using a food processor, don't over-process. You want finely minced meat, not chicken paste.
• Water chestnuts - these are readily available in the Asian aisle of most large supermarkets. They are normally sold in 225g (4-ounce) cans and come with the water chestnuts packed in water. You should drain the water away and discard it, then chop the water chestnuts finely - about the size of grains of rice. If you can't find water chestnuts, the closest in texture would be finely chopped radish, celery or even grated carrots.
• Dark soy sauce - for flavour
• Shaoxing wine - is a slightly sweet Chinese wine normally used in cooking. If you've run out (as I had when I made this recipe) you can substitute with mirin or sherry.
• Panko breadcrumbs - used to bind the meatballs. They are made from dried Japanese bread and are super absorbant. Substitute with fresh breadcrumbs.
• Cornflour (or cornstarch) - also used to bind the meatballs.
• Salt - this is for seasoning, and to your own taste.
• Oil - I used groundnut oil - you could use any neutral-flavoured cooking oil. You don't need a lot - just enough to brush over the meatballs before they go into the oven.
• I didn't include them in the photo, but you may like to scatter a few chopped spring onions or scallions over the cooked meatballs for garnish.

Sauce

This makes around 1 and a half cups (or ¾ of a pint) of sauce.

• Chicken stock - this forms the base of the sauce. If you don't have fresh chicken stock you can make it using a chicken stock cube dissolved in a cup of boiling water.
• Cornflour (or cornstarch) - used for thickening the sauce. The cornflour should be mixed with 3 or tablespoons of cold water to form a smooth paste.
• Dark soy sauce - for flavour.
• Honey - for a touch of sweetness. Substitute with brown sugar if you don't have honey.
• Shaoxing wine (or sherry 🙂 )
• Tomato puree (or tomato paste (not ketchup)) - I like the tomato flavour you get from the concentrated tomatoes.
• Rice wine vinegar - this helps balance the sweetness of the honey. Substitute with any white vingear - apple cider vinegar makes a good substitute.
• Ginger paste and garlic paste - I prefer to use paste when making a sauce so I don't get bits of garlic and ginger floating around in it. You can used very finely minced fresh garlic and ginger if you prefer.

Instructions

Meatballs

Sauce

Tips for a perfect outcome

Here are my top tips to ensure your Asian chicken meatballs always turn out perfectly:

• When adding the liquid ingredients to the chicken, mix gently but thoroughly to ensure all the liquid flavouring has been absorbed into the chicken mince.
• Likewise, when adding the dry ingredients and water chestnuts, combine thoroughly to ensure everything is well combined. Use a spatula to cut the ingredients through the mince.
• You will need approximately 2 tablespoons of chicken mince for each meatball.
• Brush the meatballs lightly with oil before baking them in the oven,
• If you prefer to fry the meatballs in oil in a frying pan you will need sufficient oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Turn the meatballs frequently with a pair of tongs to ensure they brown on all sides.
• To thicken the sauce, stir in a mixture of water and cornflour, but ensure to stir the cornflour first so it is completely mixed with water.
• Let all the ingredients come to a boil and then slowly stir in sufficient cornflour/water mixture to thicken the sauce. You may not need all the cornflour.

Serving suggestions

I served the meatballs with a plain dish of boiled Chinese noodles, but with hindsight, a dish of Chinese stir-fried noodles with beansprouts would have been much better!

Here are a few other suggestions:

• Thai vegetable fried rice
• Plain boiled jasmine rice and Chinese garlic green beans
• For extra vegetables, serve with a dish of vegetable lo mein and noodles.

Variations

Instead of serving the chicken meatballs and sauce spooned over rice or pasta, make smaller meatballs and skewer them on toothpicks. Serve with a bowl of sauce as a dipping sauce for a delicious party appetiser.

You can also vary the flavour of the meatballs and/or sauce as follows:

• Spicy - add half a teaspoon (or more depending on taste) of dried chilli pepper flakes or your favourite hot sauce for a spicy kick.
• More vegetables - add your choice of finely chopped vegetables to the meatballs. Why not mix in some finely grated carrots, celery or even chopped bamboo shoots or scallions? A handful of (defrosted) frozen peas or corn would also make a nice addition and would go well with chicken. Just remember when adding extra vegetables you might need to adjust the amount of seasoning ingredients to compensate for the extra volume.
• Extra Chinese flavour - for even more Asian flavour, why not add half a teaspoon of Chinese 5-spice powder to either the meatball mixture or the sauce?

Equipment

As I mentioned, I like to bake the meatballs in the oven. For this you will need a large baking tray lined with baking parchment or tin foil. Lining the tray first makes for easier clean up afterwards. If you don't want to line the tray you should brush it lightly with oil to prevent the meatballs from sticking.

Of course, if you prefer to fry your meatballs you will need a large frying pan.

For mixing the meatballs you will need a mixing bowl and a spatula.

And finally, for the sauce, you will need a either a frying pan or a saucepan large enough to take both the meatballs and the sauce.

Storage

I like to store leftover meatballs and sauce together in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. They can be reheated in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove until piping hot.

The meatballs and sauce can be frozen for up to three months. Allow them to cool to room temperature before packing into a suitable freezer container.

To reheat from frozen, let the meatballs and sauce defrost in the refrigerator and then reheat either in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.

FAQ

Save for later

If you would like to try these sticky Asian chicken meatballs, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Related recipes

Visit my Asian-inspired recipes page for other delicious recipes. Here are a few you might enjoy:

📋The recipe

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