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Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs are a majorly kid-friendly and fun twist on this classic sticky Asian dish.
I’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.
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Both 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.
I have ground turkey in my freezer and I am going to try it this weekend. My toddler is not a big meat fan so I always try different ways to get him to eat protein. This should be a fun try. Thank you for all your awesome recipes!
Can’t wait to try the sauce. It sounds really good
Thanks!
Yes you can! Freeze for up to 4 months, defrost in the fridge overnight and heat up in the microwave or toaster oven!
Can you freeze the cooked meatballs. I only have 1 toddler and he doesn’t eat a lot!
I just entered this recipe into Livestrong for the nutrition and using extra lean chicken it came out to:
NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size: 7 1/2 meatballs (assuming I made 30 meatballs and this served 4 people)
Calories 246
Total Fat 0.78g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 65mg
Sodium 1114.63mg –> I entered the salt as just a “dash” and not the full amount in the recipe
Total Carbohydrate 28.77g
Dietary Fiber 1.06g
Sugars 9.06g
Protein 28.75g
would love to see nutritional values for the recipes.
Yes I think that would work great!
I love this recipe!!!! Would ground beef work too?
I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’ve heard that coconut aminos make a great soy sauce substitute!
Love this recipe! But, my son has a soy allergy – anything I can substitute for the soy sauce?
Store in an air tight container in the fridge for about 1 week!
How long does the teriyaki sauce keep and how do you store it?
Keep the liquid!
Do you drain the pineapples or keep the liquid for the sauce?
Lunch is served at room temperature!
I’m curious when you do them for kids’ lunches the next day are they reheated or just eaten cold? Thanks!