Hoisin & Sweet Chili Glazed Egg Roll Meatballs
I have a deep love for meatballs – if you haven’t already noticed! Each one is adaptable to any flavor profile, can be crammed full of various veggies & can made low-carb & low-fat. In addition to all of those great reasons – homemade meatballs bake quickly & are a perfect “stock your freezer meal”. For this meatball, I decided it was time to replicate the yumminess of the delicious egg roll.
As you look at the ingredient list, our eyes may begin to bulge and you may be tempted to zone-out on the recipe altogether. Hang with me for just a minute & let me walk you through the process of making these. By the end of our “little talk”, I believe you will feel empowered to attempt these VERY EASY meatballs.
Here is my encouragement for you:
- most of the ingredients are simple and inexpensive to acquire
- each ingredient was purposefully added in order to maximize the flavor in each bite
- most of the effort is found in chopping and grating veggies. This can be made painless if you streamline your steps:
- wash everything at the same time
- dry everything
- line everything up next to your cutting board
- after chopping each item, immediately dump it into the bowl with the ground chicken
- keep a trash bowl next to you to collect all of the ends & skins etc
- the dry seasonings used in this recipe are versatile and should be found in your stocked pantry (if not, time to stock up & expand your horizons)
- this recipe makes enough for at least 2 meals. I recommend baking all of the meatballs at one time & freezing the leftovers for another meal ((wow, that will be a lifesaver on a busy night!))
Do you feel better yet? ((I hope so!))
For this recipe – I didn’t have any celery!! Can you even believe it?? That explains why, if you are examining my photos, celery is no where to be found. Celery is a classic egg roll flavor and a must for this recipe, so don’t be like me — include it ((please)).
Another yummy thing I will use when I serve the batch that’s in my freezer: crispy wonton strips. I think we can all agree, one of the best parts of an egg roll is the crispy, deep-fried wrapper.
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS:
When making this recipe, I recommend only glazing the amount of meatballs you will be eating. Any meatballs destined for the freezer should be glazed when they are reheated. Speaking of reheating, I would suggest placing the desired amount of previously baked & frozen meatballs in a baking dish, drizzle with the glaze on top of the frozen meatballs. Then cover the dish with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes (depending on how many and how close together they are) at 350°. For the last few minutes, uncover the dish and bump the heat up to 400° to get the glaze sticky. the end.
One more thing about my list of ingredients, don’t feel like you HAVE to use everything I listed. I used chard in place of cabbage ((because I have a TON)). I added green heirloom tomatoes in place of daikon ((because I have a TON)). I used lemongrass instead of lemon zest, which isn’t actually a necessary flavor anyway ((because I have a TON)).
I used fish sauce, sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce & hoisin because I keep those on hand all of the time…If you only have soy sauce – use it instead (2 – 3 T), the meatballs won’t know the difference & they also won’t yell at you accusing you of messing it all up (isn’t that nice of them?).
Now for the flavor. They are fun and tasty – my kiddos loved them (well, Gracie hated them – but that is understandable for a 4-year old, at least every 4-year old I have ever birthed)!
Have you checked out my other meatballs? I am still dreaming about my Chicken Tikka Masala Meatballs! Oh, and the Smokehouse Meatballs are so flavor-packed and classically yummy!
- 2 lbs ground chicken (I used a lb of each, breast & thigh)
- 4 medium carrots, shredded
- 3 celery stalks, shredded
- 1 green tomato, shredded
- 1 large green onion, chopped
- 1 large chard leaf, rib removed and finely chopped
- 1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
- 1/2 medium jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped (more if you like heat)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 T fresh ginger, grated
- 1 T fresh lemongrass, finely chopped
- 1 T sweet basil - about 8 leaves finely chopped (for this recipe I actually used cinnamon basil)
- 1/3 c fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 T hoisin
- 2 T sweet chili sauce
- 1 T fish sauce
- 1 T oyster sauce
- 3/4 t Chinese Five Spice
- 1/4 t mustard powder
- 1 t seasoned salt (I used a steakhouse blend)
- 1 large egg
- 1 sweet yeast roll
- 1/4 c buttermilk
- 4 oz panko (about 1 &1/2 c.)
- 1/2 c sweet chili pepper sauce
- 1/2 c hoisin sauce
- 1 green onion, green portion only, chopped
- deep-fried wonton strips*
- Preheat oven to 400°. Line 2 (or 3 if you have that many racks in your oven) baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, add seasonings & binders as well. Mix ingredients by hand.
- Using a 2 T retractable scoop, scoop meatball mixture and drop onto baking sheet. Take care to place the meatballs 1" apart in straight rows and columns (because it's prettier that way).
- Once the trays have been filled with meatballs place them into the preheated oven for 4 to 5 minutes.
- While the meatballs are cooking, combine the glaze ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
- After 4 to 5 minutes, remove the one tray of meatballs at a time. Using a basting brush, brush a small amount of glaze on top of each meatball. Then turn the meatballs over and glaze the underside. Place tray bake into the oven to finish cooking (5-6 more minutes). Repeat with remaining trays.
- Once cooking time is complete (approximately 10-12 minutes not including glazing time), serve meatballs over rice or noodles.
- Garnish meatballs with green onions and fried wonton strips.
- * I didn't have any wonton crisps, but they would have been the perfect garnish. Next time they will be added to this dish for just the perfect amount of crunch!
- These meatballs would be great to bake ahead, freeze & reheat. I give detailed instructions on how to reheat the meatballs in the oven. It would also be easy to reheat them in the slow cooker (just pour the glaze over them while the are slow-cooking away).