Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs are a majorly kid-friendly and fun twist on this classic sticky Asian dish.
PinI’m a teriyaki sauce junkie. I love using it either as a marinade or for dipping for chicken, shrimp, or grilled vegetables. I even toss it with rice as a simple flavor booster. The tough part is finding good brands that don’t rely on corn syrup to sweeten it. Frustrated with my limited bottled options, I came up with my own homemade teriyaki sauce years ago to mimic a brand with a sweet pineapple flavor that I enjoy.
PinBoth of my kids love using toothpicks to eat their dinner (who knew toothpicks could be such fun), so I thought mixing my beloved teriyaki sauce with some ground chicken and making these little meatballs would be fun for them both to poke and eat for dinner. Not only did it wind up being an entertaining dish for Kenya and Chloe — they happily scarfed down almost a double batch — but luckily we had enough leftovers to put in their lunch boxes the next day.
Toothpicks make it so much fun! Great for dinner one night and then perfect to pick up and eat the next day for lunch too!
Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 8-ounce can crushed pineapples in juice
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the pineapples, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic. Whisk in the cornstarch and cook, stirring constantly, until thick, about 2 minutes. Allow mixture to cool.
- Place the chicken, breadcrumbs, salt and 1/4 cup of the teriyaki sauce in a bowl and mix until well combined.
- Using a 1 tablespoon measure or small ice cream scoop, shape the mixture into balls.
- Place the meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes, until cooked through.
- Serve with the extra teriyaki sauce for dipping.
Notes
- To Freeze: Place uncooked meatballs on a cookie sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes, then transfer to a labeled freezer bag. Defrost in the fridge overnight and continue cooking as directed above in step 5. Alternately, bake the meatballs directly from frozen, adding 5 minutes to the cooking time.
Yes you can use agave instead!
I am making these for my fan but I have baby under a yr, can I use agave instead of the honey?
So yummy!! So easy!! We’re trying out recipes in preparation for our first year at school and these are a HIT. And just as an aside, the grocery store didn’t have any ground chicken today, so I subbed turkey – still delicious.)
chicken terriyaki meatballs
Here you go