Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Meatball Kebabs

Let’s talk turkey chicken, shall we?

I love chicken.  It’s yummy.  It’s versatile.  It’s relatively inexpensive to buy the good quality stuff.

 

And my personal favorite way to have chicken?  Ground.  That’s right, I said it!  I like ground chicken more than just about any other chicken recipe.

I also love sneaking in vegetables via shredding or finely chopping them.  I’m sneaky, what can I say?  But especially when you’re using ground chicken for meatballs or meatloaf adding shredded or chopped veggies will pack it full of moisture and extra flavor.

 

Could you use some extra flavor in your life?  Me too.  Let’s get to it.

As much as I love ground chicken it can be fairly difficult to find in stores at times.  Luckily with the help of a food processor (or if you have a meat grinder attachment on a mixer or something) we can all have ground chicken really whenever we want!  It may not be the perfect rows of ground meat that you see in the grocery store, but you make up for that in knowing exactly how your food is prepared.

 

Grinding chicken for me begins with quality chicken breasts.  Keep a little fat on those…not a ton, but some…so that you have a little extra flavor and binding for the meatballs.  Cube the chicken in 1/2-inch cubes and, working in batches, put enough of the chicken cubes in the food processor to cover the bottom.  Pulse 3-4 times or until the chicken is diced finely.  You don’t want a paste…a few chunks are good for texture.  Remove and do another batch until it’s all uniformly ground.  Voila!  Ground chicken!

 

**if you have a meat grinder attachment I’d say follow the directions for that…although I don’t know what those directions are 🙂 **

GRILLED TERIYAKI CHICKEN MEATBALL KEBABS

• 1 pound ground chicken (again, I recommend the at-home version)
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (regular plain breadcrumbs would work well too)
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce plus more for dipping
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1/2 red onion, shredded
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pineapple, cored and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 red onion, cut into 1-inch cubes
• other optional veggies: peppers, zucchini, squash

Mix together the ground chicken, bread crumbs, teriyaki sauce, carrot, onion, garlic, egg, and salt and pepper.  Make mini meatballs by forming 1 Tbsp scoops into balls and place on a baking sheet.  Refrigerate while you turn on the grill to medium heat and assemble the remaining items for the skewers.  As a side note you don’t have to make skewers, but I found that this is the best way to get the grill marks and the grill flavor (both very important) on the meatballs!  Thread each skewer with a chunk of pineapple, a chunk of red onion, other optional veggies (if you choose) and one meatball, then repeat.  Spray the grill carefully with nonstick spray or brush with olive oil.  Gently place each skewer on the grill.  Grill for about 5 minutes on each side until the center of the meatballs are done (you can test one to make sure) and the grill marks are beautifully charred.  Remove from heat and serve with rice and extra dipping sauce!

A perfect last hurrah! for summer grilling and the beginning of football season never tasted so good!