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Asian-style Saucy & Spicy chicken meatballs recipe

February 7, 2019

Sauce, spice and everything nice, these were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little meatballs. (Plz tell me you are PPG fan…pretty plz). This Spicy Chicken Meatballs recipe originally came into being for a dinner party I was hosting last summer. Since then it has been perfected and eventually, added in my food rotation for every month.

These Asian-flavored meatballs are coated in a delicious garlic brown sauce. Unlike being sweet like the Teriyaki Chicken, these meatballs have a more garlicky and chili flakes infused flavor and a mellow sweet after-taste.

Oh and did I mention, you only need 30 mins to whip this recipe up! Again like so many Chinese dishes, this one is just as versatile as it is easy, and quick.

3 ways to serve these Meatballs

Skip the sauce and you have a great grilled/fried appetizer to add to your menu
Keep the sauce very thick, and add toothpicks to each balls and you have a starter
Keep the sauce liquidy, and you have a main course staring right at ya.

And like all Chinese main entrees, like the dragon chicken, this meatball goes well with rice and pasta both, with a side serving of a good old salad.

STEPS OUTLINE FOR MAKING THE SAUCY CHICKEN MEATBALLS

Ok, if you’ve ever made any kind of meatballs before, you know the drill. If you haven’t, lemme just walk you through the steps quickly

STEP 1 – MAKING THE MEATBALLS

First, we are going to start with some finely chopped veggies, like carrots, bulbs of the green onions and garlic by putting them in a chopper.

Make sure you are chopping them towards the fine side. You can even chop the green shoots of the green onions, but I like to slice them by knife.

Dump all your veggies, mince meat in a bowl along with some breadcrumbs, an egg and a tbsp of cream cheese.

PRO TIP: The cream cheese is added to make the meatballs soft even if they get overcooked.

(If you are looking for a healthier alternative, you could use Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese)

Then we are just gonna add all the seasonings (mentioned in the recipe card below) and proceed to the next step.

Oil your palms and make the meatballs.

If you find handling the meatballs difficult these are one of the 3 things you can do:

You can add another tablespoon of breadcrumbs so your mixture will become easier to handle.
You could keep your meatball mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes and then try making the balls.
You can use an icecream scooper to scoop out evenly sized balls on to an oiled baking tray and flash freeze it. Take it out and perfect the shape of the balls by hand.

Next we are going to fry/grill/bake the meatballs.

Don’t worry if the meatballs aren’t cooked all the way through as they are going to be cooked a little more in your sauce. After grilling/frying/baking, keep your cooked meatballs aside.

PRO TIP: You can freeze the meatballs after cooking them and use them at a later date.

STEP 2 – MAKING THE SAUCE

For preparing sauce, its gonna start in the very basic curry-starter kind of a way.

Asian-style Saucy & Spicy Chicken Meatballs Recipe

We are gonna add some oil to a pan and saute some chopped garlic and onions.

Once they turn a really nice golden brown color, add all the sauce ingredients like the vinegar, sriracha sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, chili flakes, honey, salt and let it cook. I add half a cup of water to my sauce when I am making this as a Main Course. Skip the water if you want to make this as an appetizer.

Let the sauce cook for about 2 to 3 minutes and add in your meatballs.

Let it cook for another 5 minutes and turn of the flame. I love garnishing this with green onions and sesame seeds.

RECIPE ALTERATIONS

HEALTHIER MEATBALLS

Use Greek Yogurt instead of cream cheese
Bake meatballs instead of frying.
Use low sodium organic sauces to prepare the sauce.

ADJUST SPICE LEVELS

To create a rather spicier version of this recipe, use chili oil to prepare the sauce and up the level of chili flakes and Sriracha sauce
To reduce heat in this recipe, skip the red chili flakes from the meatballs and sauce.

spicy asian chicken meatballs pinterest pin

How to make chili oil

January 28, 2019

Giddy up folks, in this post I am going to blabber a bit about my favorite condiment, The chili oil and where to use it.

If you are brown person, or…just generally a person, you already know and love Chinese food. I mean, I have had my share of disagreements with Burgers and Pizzas, but I have yet to meet a soul who doesn’t like Chinese food! (And..if you are here…I am assuming you aren’t that soul either)

So, Chili oil is an aromatic, spicy, staple when it comes to Chinese/Sichuan cooking. Its a condiment made with chili peppers and of course, oil. It adds that really bold flavor to Asian food. If you are familiar with Indo-Chinese cuisines, then you know this oil is a must in your house!

Click here if you wanna gather some more intel about this awesome oil.

But Chinese cuisines isn’t the only place this oil comes in handy. In fact, this oil makes a lot of appearances in many of recipes and foods. It just adds that character to otherwise seemingly boring food. One of the popular recipes on the blog, called Dragon Chicken, is also made with chili oil.

Where can you use Chili oil?

If you are new to cooking, or new to Chinese style of cooking, fear not, here’s a list of ways you can introduce Chili oil to your cooking:

Let’s start with the obvious shall we? Use it in Chinese and Indo-Chinese Cuisine
Add a tsp of chili oil to Marination of all kinds
Use it as an oil rub for baking fries or veggies.
Just drop spoonfuls on top of eggs
Drizzle it over your regular salads and bring some heat to it.
Add it to your pastas
Use it to make these Saucy Meatballs
Use the oil while making dips for nachos!
Blend a little chili oil while making hummus and make a kick-ass hummus dip
And last but not the least, use as the basic oil for regular curries too!

It’s literally a 10 minutes recipe guys! Once you’ve made this oil, it is definitely going on your shelf of permanent condiments!

3 INGREDIENT CHILI OIL

Here are the only 3 things you’ll need to prep this condiment.

HOW TO PREPARE THE OIL

Heat Oil in a wok/pan at high flame, like you would do for deep frying. Once the oil is all heated up, turn the flame off.

how to make chili oil — Add the red chili powder

Now stir the oil a little bit and then we are going to let the oil cool down. Once it comes to room temperature, cover it and let it sit overnight to get a really nice chili infusion situation going on.

straining chilies in a strainer to get chili oil — After about 12 hours or more, strain your oil in a glass jar

Some recipes and chefs prefer leaving the chili bits in the oil for as long as they store it. I personally prefer the clear oil because I don’t add the emulsion of peppers in my cooking. It’s totally up to you to strain and store, or store the oil as it is.

Now that you have your jar of liquid heat ready, you are ready to conquer Chinese cuisines! Or just use it in the ways mentioned above! Here’s a kick-ass Dragon chicken recipe that you make using Chili oil!

Or you could improvise, and use this oil to make these awesome pasta recipes.

More Pan Asian Recipes

Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!

How to make chili oil

A simple way to make chili oil at home, which is an essential in many Chinese cuisines

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin

Course: Dips & Condiments

Cuisine: Chinese/Indo Chinese

Cook Time: 5

Total Time: 5

Servings: 1 cup

Calories: 2003kcal

Author: Wajiha

Ingredients

▢ 1 cup oil any oil that you use for cooking
▢ 1 tbsp red chili powder
▢ 1 tbsp crushed red chili flakes

Instructions

Add oil to wok or pan and heat it for 3 to 4 minutes at high flame
When you see your oil is hot enough to deep fry food, turn off the flame and add red chili power and chili flakes.
Give the oil a good stir and let it cool down to room temperature.
Cover the oil once it cools down and let it sit overnight.
The next day, transfer the oil into a glass jar using a strainer to filter out the chili flakes and powder.
Store and use when needed

Notes

The shelf life of this oil is long. Store it in a glass jar with an airtight lid, and it can last for over a year.

Nutrition

Serving: 1servingCalories: 2003kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 225gSaturated Fat: 17gPolyunsaturated Fat: 64gMonounsaturated Fat: 142gTrans Fat: 1gSodium: 131mgPotassium: 156mgFiber: 3gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 2372IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 26mgIron: 1mg

Can’t wait to see your remakes! Tag meon IG with your pictures @butteroverbae

Shahi Tukda Recipe | Pakistani/ Indian Bread Pudding

January 24, 2019

Shahi Tukda or Shahi Tukra literally translates to a “Royal Piece”. And as the name implies, it quite literally is royal in every regard. Rich in calories, taste, aroma and dare I say looks, this recipe would make you think its a difficult one to make. In reality, this is one of the simplest desserts from the lands of India/Pakistan and literally takes about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

It’s right on the list of top fav. Pakistani desserts, which btw also includes Rasmalai and Gajar ka halwa.

shahi tukda recipe | Indian pudding recipe

This rich and royal dessert is also known as Double ka meetha and a lot of people know Shahi tukda by this name. But, enough background, let’s get started!

INGREDIENTS FOR SHAHI TUKRA RECIPE

I am trying out this thing, where I put up all the ingredients in a collage for you guys to see. Let’s see how you guys like it. So the ingredients are pretty simple and pantry friendly. (ok maybe not Saffron but the rest is) Let’s dig right into a little step by step.

STEP BY STEP PLAY FOR SHAHI TUKDA RECIPE

STEP 1 – FRYING THE BREAD

Start by cutting the crusts off the bread and cutting each slice into 4 triangles. (I mean this is THE official cut, but you know, go crazy)

Ideally, in the authentic shahi tukda recipe, this bread is deep fried in oil or ghee, however, I prefer to shallow fry each batch of bread in around 1 tbsp of ghee. Most of the calories in this dish comes from the deep frying and when we skip that, viola! We’ve successfully cut down half the calories from our entire dessert. (And it doesn’t even taste any different)

I just add 1 tbsp of ghee to a non-stick fry pan and add the bread slices. I flip the bread almost immediately so that both sides of the bread are evenly coated with the ghee. .

Then I just fry the bread on both sides until it turns golden brown. Then I repeat the process for all the slices and pile them up in a plate.

STEP 2 – MAKING THE RABRI/CUSTARD

shahi tukda recipe | Indian bread pudding

In the same frying pan, add 5 cups of milk. (Obviously make sure that your pan has that much capacity, or just go with a different pot)

Add in your saffron strands, green cardamon powder and sugar and let the milk cook at medium to low flame for about 10 minutes.

(A pan with a large surface area works best for this, as the milk will reduce quickly.)

After about 10 to 15 minutes, your milk would have reduced by 20% or more and turned a light yellow color because of the saffron strands added to it.

This is a good point to check the sugar level in your milk and add more if needed.

Remember, the sweetness will get diluted slightly when it’ll be paired with the bread, so you want to keep this pretty sweet.

STEP 3 – ASSEMBLING

Take out the dish you want to set up your Shahi Tukdas in. Now start adding the fried bread slices to the boiling milk.

Let the bread soak in the milk for about 2 to 3 minutes and flip the bread over and give another 2 minutes. Remove the slices and start dishing them out on your serving tray or dish. Repeat the process with all the bread slices.

The bread will be soft at this point, so use a flat spatula or a flipper to pick them up.

After you’ve repeated the process with all the slices, you will be left with a thick little mixture of the milk. Add half a cup of cream to this mixture and let it cook for another 2 minutes.

Turn off the flame and pour this remaining thickened milk all over your Bread slices.

And TADA you’ve made it! Now just sprinkle some nice slices of almonds and pistachio all over it and you are good to go! I like adding grind up pistachios more so that’s what I top my Shahi Tukdas with.

Serve them up hot if you like. Or you could cover them up with a cling wrap, refrigerate them and serve them up later.

Ideally, they taste best at room temperature. So I always take my tray out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving them. And lastly, they can stay for up to a week in the fridge!