Baked Chicken Parmesan Meatballs
Recipes developed and tested by the ChefnFood editorial team, with chef-informed notes for real home kitchens.
All the flavour of chicken parm without pounding cutlets or standing over a pan of hot oil. They bake on a sheet pan, get sauced, and go under the broiler with torn mozzarella on top. The panade is what keeps lean ground chicken from turning into rubber.
Ingredients
- Meatballs
- 2 lb ground chicken (93/7, not extra-lean)
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup whole milk
- To finish
- 3 cups marinara sauce (jarred is fine)
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
- Fresh basil
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F and line a sheet pan with parchment.
- Combine the panko and milk in a large bowl and let sit 5 minutes until the panko absorbs the liquid and looks like wet sand. This is a panade, and it's what keeps lean ground chicken from baking into rubber.
- Add the chicken, Parmesan, eggs, garlic, parsley, salt, oregano, and pepper. Mix with your hands just until combined — 30 seconds, no more. Overmixing compacts the protein and makes meatballs dense.
- Roll into 1½-inch balls, about 25, and space them on the sheet pan. Wet hands make this much easier.
- Bake 18–20 minutes, until browned and the centers register 165°F.
- Warm the marinara in a large skillet or baking dish. Add the meatballs, spoon sauce over them, and scatter the torn mozzarella and Parmesan on top.
- Broil 3–4 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and browned in spots. Watch it the whole time. Finish with basil.
Chef’s Take
Ground chicken has almost no fat, which means it has almost no insurance against overcooking. The panade solves this — starch and liquid trapped in the mix hold moisture through the bake that fat would otherwise provide. It’s the same reason meatloaf recipes call for milk-soaked bread, and it’s a hundred-year-old trick that still outperforms anything else.
Chef trick: roll one test meatball, bake it for 12 minutes, and taste it before rolling the rest. Salt levels in ground chicken and Parmesan vary a lot, and this is your only chance to adjust before committing two pounds of meat.
Substitutions
- Ground turkey behaves identically. Ground beef or pork works too and is more forgiving.
- Gluten-free: GF panko, or ¾ cup almond flour.
- No fresh mozzarella: shredded low-moisture works and browns more evenly, though it's less creamy.
- Dairy-free: skip the cheese, use unsweetened almond milk in the panade, and serve as saucy meatballs.
Storage and reheating
Refrigerate up to 4 days. Reheat covered at 350°F for 15 minutes. Freeze the baked, unsauced meatballs on a tray, then bag them — up to 3 months, and they reheat straight from frozen in sauce over low heat for about 20 minutes. This is one of the best freezer recipes in the library.
Serving suggestions
Spaghetti is obvious and correct. Also excellent stuffed into a toasted sub roll with extra mozzarella, or served over polenta with a green salad. Garlic bread is not optional in most households.
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