Chicken Parm Meatballs are the easiest way to enjoy the flavors of Chicken Parm! Only use one baking dish, and in about 35 minutes you’ve got chicken meatballs smothered in cheese and tomato sauce with only one pan to clean up! Serve these with pasta, or on bread for a chicken Parm meatball sub!
Recipe at a Glance
Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes
Cook time: 34-35 minutes
Notes: Go for a high quality pasta sauce, it’s a main ingredient so you want the flavor to be the best it can be!
The Trick to Moist Meatballs
No one likes a dry meatball. So how to you help keep them moist and tender? It might be surprising, but it’s one secret ingredient that you have right now. You can this in full supply, and it doesn’t expire.
Water.
Yupp! Adding 1/4 cup of water to the meat will help keep them moist and totally not dry. I love this since I never run out of this. Don’t you hate when you’re cooking your way through a recipe and you realize you’re out of the important ingredient? That won’t happen here! Just go to your faucet, get your water and mix it into the meatball blend.
What to serve with the meatballs
Think of these meatballs the same what you’d serve Chicken Parm! These really are Chicken Parm in a meatball form. Here are some ideas of what to serve these with:
- Pasta, any kind! A side of angel hair, spaghetti, penne, even orzo would work.
- Make a chicken parm meatball sub by putting these on a roll, add an extra slice of Mozzarella or Provolone cheese.
- Add these to soup! You can add these to minestrone or lasagna soup.
Cooking Tips
- Adding the water to the ground chicken mixture makes sure the meatballs stay moist, but it also means the mix might be more wet than you’re used to. If you feel it’s too wet, add more breadcrumbs a little at a time until it’s easier for you to work with.
- When the meatballs are under the broiler, watch them closely! Things can burn very quickly under a broiler. 4 minutes was perfect for my oven.
- Use a high quality pasta sauce for this. It’s a main ingredient and you really need that flavors to be the best they can be.
If you like chicken meatball recipes you’re going to love my Chicken Piccata Meatballs!
Chicken Parm Meatballs
Wan the easiest way to enjoy the flavors of chicken Parm? Chicken Parm Meatballs bake in a pan with the tomato sauce, then cover with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and broil until browned. Serve with pasta or on a roll for a chicken parm sub!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 20 meatballs
Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 and 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 jar of good pasta sauce
Extra Parmesan cheese for sprinkling over the top
Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, salt, and pepper and mix well to combine.
3. Take your baking dish, and pour in the jar of pasta sauce. Then, take the ground chicken mixture and form them into meatballs, I was able to make 20 meatballs. Place all the meatballs into the pasta sauce baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. Once it’s done baking, remove from the oven. Cover the top with the Mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some more Parmesan cheese overtop. Place under the broiler for 4 minutes until it’s browned and bubbly. Always watch food under the broiler very closely! Things can burn quickly. Serve with pasta or on bread for a chicken parm sub!
Notes
You really should use high quality pasta sauce for this. The sauce is a main ingredient, and you want to make sure you’re getting the best flavors to complement your homemade Chicken Parm Meatballs!
I made this keto by using almond flour instead of breadcrumbs and using a low carb pasta sauce( Raos). I did find I had to use more than1/2 cup of the flour to keep the meatballs together. Refrigerated the meatballs for about an hour before baking to keep them together. Served with spaghetti squash. Absolutely delicious!!
So glad you enjoyed, and were able to make some modifications!
Made this last month and served with risotto…my sons braces were tightened that day so we needed soft foods….repeating it tonight, just because it was so good!
I love that you made with risotto! That sounds amazing.
Making tonight..it has become a staple at our house. Tonight with gnocchi!
yeay so glad this has been a hit for you!!
Made this tonight and made my homemade sauce. It came out delicious. The meatballs were nice and tender. I just didn’t broil the cheese. I just baked it longer.
so glad to hear you liked it!!
Have you done this with ground beef?
I haven’t, but I think that would be good too!
Really getting excited to make this – I’m getting my shopping list together – one Q. how much pasta sauce as there are various sized jars? Thank You
I would buy a 28oz jar! I love Rao’s pasta sauce and they come in 28oz jars.
Can I make the meatballs and freeze
Yes you can, they are best eaten fresh but you can freeze these and thaw them out when you’re ready to eat! They might be a bit drier though after freezing and reheating.
I love this recipe & am making some freezer meals for an upcoming tight schedule. Would you freeze the meatballs cooked or uncooked. Seems easy enough to throw them together with sauce day of. Thank you.
PS – dropped this off to a family with a new baby and they were thrilled with it!
I’m so glad you like these! You can freeze meatballs either way (cooked or uncooked), I just don’t have cooking instructions for frozen meatballs.
Made them this week. I did a a couple tablespoons of Greek yogurt in place of water and added chopped spinach. Keyo folks could use pork rind panko. They were delicious!
so glad you liked them, love that you made them your own! 🙂
I could not get my meatballs to form into smooth balls. They were bumpy from being so wet. Were yours the same? Also, what fresh herb did you sprinkle on the top at the end?
At the end of the photo that’s just some parsley! Also, my meatballs are never totally smooth, there’s definitely some texture. You can pop the mixture in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to help it firm up a bit before rolling the balls and that can help get a smoother surface.
Spray your hand with olive oil cooking spray when forming the meatballs. I also use a cookie scoop to make sure they are all about the same size.
Good tips!
My favorite go to !! I make a batch almost weekly – freeze together, pull them out for a quick lunch or dinner!! Absolutely love them!! I have girls at work doing the same!!!!
That’s amazing!! So glad to hear it!
We just finished dinner and they were delicious. We are doing keto so I just swapped the breadcrumbs for pork rinds and only used 1/4 cup. Used Rao’s also. My husband said these are really good what did you to wrong? 😂. He actually said they were good 2 times. So moist. Just had with steamed zucchini. It’s a keeper.
I’m so glad you liked it! And that’s awesome you were able to enjoy this as a keto version too! Thanks for the kind words 🙂
These were great! I prepared recipe in reversed order at first. Sautéed the chicken meatballs first in a cast iron skillet, then added sauce prior to baking. The little bit of crust on the meatballs made a huge difference!
I’m so glad you liked them! Adding that little crust sounds delicious!
This was so good and will now become a go to for me. I used Panko breadcrumbs instead of the regular breadcrumbs. It was absolutely delicious.
Yeay!! Glad you liked!
Made for second time tonight. No changes to recipe needed, perfect as is
so glad you enjoy this recipe!
When doubling the recipe the ingredient amounts do not change when you click x2 other than 2 pounds chicken. Is this correct? .
No that’s not right, everything should be doubled. I’m going to reach out for some tech support to see why the recipe card plugin isn’t working right. Thanks for letting me know!!
Just finished making/eating these!!! A M A Z I N G!!! We had some ground chicken my parents gave us and I’m so glad I found this recipe! This will definitely become a recipe we use on the Reg!
yeay so glad to hear it!! Enjoy!
We have made this recipe many times. It is so tasty and fast. I have started to grind and measure out the chicken for this recipe. I then freeze the amount I’ll need for each dinner. I’m so glad that I found your recipe.
this is amazing! So glad you like!
Delicious! The whole family loved it and my 7 year old claimed that this recipe was better than an actual chicken parm I made that was breaded and air fried. Love the trick of adding water. They were very moist.
that’s amazing!! So glad your family loved it! 🙂
Could by chance give serving size, calories, and macros?
I don’t have nutritional data for recipes, but I’d say a serving size is 4 meatballs 🙂
I loved this recipe! My husband loved it as well. I served it with spaghetti squash and it was so yummy. I was wondering if you could put these in a crockpot? Would you bake them like normal and then just put them on warm?
so glad you liked! I wish I could help more, but I don’t use a crockpot so I don’t really know how they would cook up in one 🙁
These are a keeper. Followed exactly! My family loves when I make this.
so glad you all liked them! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I will be making these tonight in my cast iron skillet and having them as subs for dinner.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy!
Found some clean-ish already prepared chicken meatballs at Costco to use for our busy weeknights. Came across this recipe and making tonight. I love Raos – it’s my go to for a good and clean marinara. Will be serving with spaghetti noodles, homemade bread and salad.
Great! Hope you enjoy it!!
This was really good! I made as per the recipe except I used milk instead of water, and accidentally mixed the parmesan into the meatball mix. It worked out really well! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
I’m so happy you liked this! Glad everything worked out lol 🙂
These were good! Didn’t take long at all to prepare, and made a lot of food! We had with a little Angel hair pasta and salad. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception that I did brown the meatballs a bit before putting into the oven. Used Rao tomato basil for the sauce.
so glad you liked these!
My family loves these! We make them for dinner on a regular basis. I do soak the breadcrumbs in milk instead of water and we use either Raos or Newmans Own sauce.
thanks for sharing, so glad you and your family love these!
Just finished eating this. I used Rao’s Arrabiata sauce! So delicious. Just ate it with warm Italian. Read and butter.
thanks for sharing, so glad you liked this!
Any thoughts for an egg substitute? My son is allergic to eggs 🙁
I’m sorry, but I don’t. I Googled and there seems to be a few recommendations, but I’ve never tried any of them to see if they actually work or not.
I made this this evening, easy to make and was this ever delicious!!! My hubby said “Honey you outdid yourself with this recipe! This is so good!” I doubled the recipe so we had leftovers. I also made the meatballs larger.
That makes me so happy to hear! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, these were easy and so delicious! Like several others, I refrigerated the meatballs before they baked and they were not crumbly, perfect texture and simply delicious!
Thanks for sharing, glad you liked them!!
I made these last night using 2 slices of gluten free bread soaked in 1/4 cup of milk in place of the water and bread crumbs and browned them in a pan before baking in a casserole with about 2 cups of cooked GF pasta and the remainder of ingredients. Delish!! Thank You!!
so glad you liked them!! Great ideas to make them GF!
Made these tonight – the meatballs were so tender! We enjoyed them.
Used 32oz jar of tomato w/ basil pasta sauce by Michaels of Brooklyn
so glad you liked them! Thanks for making them!
These were delicious and so flavorful, the whole family loved it!
thank you for making them! Glad you liked!
Did you cover it for the first 30 minutes of baking in the oven?
No I didn’t!
I made this today and served it over Parmesan risotto and served with a side salad. SO good!! Thanks for the recipe!
thanks for making this and glad you liked it! Parmesan risotto sounds like the perfect side dish for this.
Can I prep this the day before (ie:make an assemble the meatballs) and bake it the next day? Thank you!
Yes! make the meatballs and keep in the fridge but just add the sauce right before baking.
Freeze 2 together!!