These chicken ricotta meatballs are absolutely delicious chicken meatballs in a savory, creamy spinach Alfredo sauce with crispy bacon. This is an awesome, comforting meal perfect for any season, and you can even make your meatballs ahead of time to use later.
Meatballs
Everybody loves meatballs! It’s a great skill to have great meatballs in your cooking repertoire, and knowing various ways to present them helps, too. Of course, you have your classic Italian-style tomato sauce, but this recipe is more influenced by central and northern European cooking.
We’re using high quality chicken mince here with enough fat to keep the meatballs tender and flavorsome. Overly lean ground chicken, or poor quality chicken, will toughen up your meatballs. You want them to be nice and tender, soaking up the flavor and goodness from the deliciously creamy sauce. The chicken will take on the taste of the sauce, and the sauce will take on some of the chicken’s meaty flavor, too. Like all great home-style recipes, this one involves all the ingredients working together to produce something truly impressive.
Ingredients for Chicken Ricotta Meatballs
This recipe is as easy as it is delicious. You will need simple ingredients to make these fantastic meatballs.
How to Make Chicken Ricotta Meatballs
- Add the onion, garlic, parsley and sun-dried tomatoes to your food processor, pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the sides if needed.
- In a medium bowl combine the breadcrumbs with milk. Set aside to soak for 2 minutes.
- In a large bowl combine the mixture with the chicken, the soaked breadcrumbs, egg, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and salt. Mix just until combined. Don't overmix or it will be dense.
- Shape the mixture into 18-20 2.5-inch meatballs. Place the meatballs on the prepared baking sheet. Spray with cooking oil spray. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the meatballs are crisp on the outside and cooked through.
Spinach Alfredo Sauce
How to Make Alfredo Spinach Sauce
- Heat a large skillet or nonstick pan over medium heat. Fry bacon until crispy. Transfer to a plate. In the same pan, melt butter.
- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Season with black pepper and salt.
- Whisk in the Parmesan cheese and cook until melted.
- Finally, add the baby spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes or until wilted.
Can You Make Creamy Chicken Ricotta Meatballs Ahead of Time?
You can bake your meatballs before you make your sauce. It’s great and convenient for that very reason.
Once you’ve made your meatballs, it’s really easy to store them. Put them in an airtight container in the fridge and they’ll keep for about three days. You can always freeze them and allow them to defrost in the fridge, too, if you need them to keep for longer. Reheating the meatballs is easy, too. Place the thawed meatballs in a preheated oven at 350 F for forty minutes, or microwave them for two to three minutes.
What To Serve With Creamy Chicken Meatballs
These chicken meatballs are really so versatile! Because they have quite a mild - not to be mistaken for bland, mind you - flavor, they’re well suited to a variety of pairings. The classic meatball pairing of pasta, of course, is always a great option. We suggest a long, flat pasta such as fettuccine or pappardelle for this recipe.
You could also serve them over a bed of Jasmine Rice, as the rice will nicely soak up your creamy sauce. We also love this recipe served with mashed or RoastedPpotatoes, because your potatoes will go really well with the sauce. Think of it as similar to serving a stew - potatoes, and maybe even some nice homemade Naan Bread, are the classic accompaniment to such a meal.
As for vegetables, there are plenty of great choices available, too. Sauteed Green Beans or Roasted Asparagus will bring some color and vibrant flavor to proceedings.
A side of nice crusty bread to soak up the sauce wouldn’t go astray, either!
Top Creamy Chicken Meatball Tips
- You should use high quality ground chicken for this recipe. The chicken is the star of the show here, so you want it to really shine by using the best chicken mince you can find.
- Likewise, we strongly recommend that you use fresh herbs. If you can, get fresh parsley or basil. They will bring plenty of flavor and a lovely, fresh aroma to your dinner. Dried herbs are OK, too, but they don’t have the same immediacy of flavor.
- You can make your meatballs ahead of time, storing them in the fridge. That way, you just need to reheat them as you prepare the sauce, saving time.
- If you’ve made your meatballs ahead of time, and you find that you have more than you need for your sauce, you could even try using the chicken meatballs in a marinara sauce. They’re just that versatile!
More Ground Chicken Recipes
If you make this recipe be sure to leave a comment or give this recipe a rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! I will be happy to hear from you!
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Baked Chicken Ricotta Meatballs
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
These chicken ricotta meatballs are absolutely delicious chicken meatballs in a savory, creamy spinach Alfredo sauce with crispy bacon.
Ingredients
Chicken Ricotta Meatballs
- ½ cup Italian breadcrumbs or regular breadcrumbs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1.5 pounds ( 700 grams) ground chicken or turkey
- 6 ounces whole milk ricotta (approximately ¾ cup)
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- Salt as needed
Creamy Sauce
- 6 bacon strips
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ cups heavy cooking cream (35 % fat)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 5 ounces (150 grams) baby spinach
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F | 235°C. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine the breadcrumbs with milk. Set aside to soak for 2 minutes.
- Add the onion, garlic, parsley and sun-dried tomatoes to your food processor, pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the sides if needed.
- In a large bowl combine the mixture with the chicken, the soaked breadcrumbs, egg, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and salt. Mix just until combined. Don't overmix or it will be dense.
- Shape the mixture into 18-20 (2.5-inch ) meatballs. Place the meatballs on the prepared baking sheet. Spray with cooking oil spray. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the meatballs are crisp on the outside and cooked through.
- Heat a large skillet or nonstick pan over medium heat. Fry bacon until crispy. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same pan, melt butter. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Season with black pepper and salt.
- Whisk in the Parmesan cheese and cook until melted.
- Finally, add the baby spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes or until wilted.
- Add the baked meatballs and cook further for 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Chop the bacon and top the sauce.
- Serve immediately with pasta of your choice.
- Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Category: Chicken recipes
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Calories: 206kcal
- Sugar: 2g
- Sodium: 506mg
- Fat: 15g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 10g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 18g
- Cholesterol: 87mg
Keywords: ground chicken, chicken meatballs, chicken breast recipes
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Yum! Saving this to try this week!
★★★★★
This was fantastic! I made it exactly as written. Well I did add herbs to province. I made keto biscuits instead of having it over pasta. It was so very delicious.
★★★★★
Hey Regina! I'm thrilled to hear that the recipe turned out fantastic for you! Adding herbs de Provence is a wonderful touch, and pairing it with keto biscuits instead of pasta sounds like a delicious and creative adaptation. Thank you for sharing your experience!
I totally forgot that I used pork rinds for the breadcrumbs 🙂
★★★★★
This recipe looks like a great way to use ground chicken. My son and I can not consume tomatoes. Any suggestions what could be used instead? Thanks!
★★★★★
Hey, Gloria! One option is to use roasted red peppers, which have a similar sweet and tangy flavor as sun-dried tomatoes. Simply chop up the roasted red peppers into small pieces and use them in place of the sun-dried tomatoes.
Another option is to use chopped olives, which will add a salty and briny flavor to the dish. You can use either green or black olives, depending on your preference. Just make sure to chop them finely before adding them to the pan.
Oh. My. Gosh. This is probably the best meal I’ve ever, and I mean EVER, made. SOO good and absolutely perfect. Wouldn’t tweak a thing. Hearty and rich, will make it again soon.
That's wonderful to hear Ashley!!! Thank you so much for making it!
Do you keep the bacon fat in the pan when you add the butter?
Hi, Linda! If you enjoy the taste of bacon, you can leave the fat in the pan. However, if you prefer a lighter taste or want to reduce the overall fat content, you can drain some or all of the bacon fat before adding the butter.
OMG! This was totally fantastic made just as is. Restaurant quality and company worthy. Will definitely be making this one again. Thanks so much for sharing this, Tati!
★★★★★
Thank you, Sandra! I am thrilled to hear that you loved it and found it restaurant-quality. Thank you for trying it out, and I appreciate your kind words.
Truly a 5 star recipe! So tasty. I enjoyed it SO much. Had it with ribbon pasta and your green beans recipe. It looked as good as it tasted. Wish I'd taken a photo.
★★★★★
Hey Marian! Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm thrilled you enjoyed it, especially with the ribbon pasta and green beans combo. Next time, definitely snap a photo; I'd love to see your creation!
Can I use half and half instead of the heavy cream to make it lighter.
Hey, Kathy! Yes, you can substitute half and half for heavy cream to make it lighter. Keep in mind that using half and half may result in a slightly less creamy sauce compared to heavy cream, but it will reduce the overall calorie and fat content of the dish.
Omg this was so delicious, my family loved it!! I‘ll definitely be making this again 🙂
★★★★★
I'm so glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed it, Mia! It's always great when a recipe becomes a hit. Thank you for the wonderful feedback!