Everything you love about chicken teriyaki rolled up into an easy-to-make chicken meatball! You’ll start with a homemade teriyaki sauce, then a tender ground chicken meatball, then baked until perfection. The recipe also includes the most important cooking tip for getting perfectly moist and tender chicken meatballs!
INGREDIENTS
Here’s what you need to make these teriyaki chicken meatballs this week! I’ve broken it down into what you’ll need for the actual meatball and what you’ll need for the teriyaki sauce.
MEATBALL INGREDIENTS
- Ground chicken. You can use ground chicken or ground chicken breast. For this recipe I used ground chicken.
- Panko. This will help the texture as well has prevent the meat from drying out.
- Egg. To bind the mixture and help it keep it’s circular form.
- Seasonings: Ground ginger, garlic powder, salt.
- Teriyaki sauce. From the recipe below, this is what will really help keep the meatball perfectly tender!
TERIYAKI SAUCE INGREDIENTS
- Soy sauce. You can use low sodium soy sauce if you want.
- Water.
- Dark brown sugar. I always use dark brown sugar, but if you only have light brown sugar that will work fine too.
- Honey.
- Oil.
- Garlic cloves.
- Ground ginger.
- Cornstarch + water. For the slurry! A slurry means when you combine cornstarch with water and add to another liquid to help it thicken up. This is crucial to getting a slightly thicker teriyaki sauce instead of a watery one.
SOY SAUCE SAUCE VS TERIYAKI SAUCE
Think of soy sauce as one of the building blocks to teriyaki sauce. While soy sauce exists as a single ingredient all on it’s own, teriyaki sauce is made with soy sauce being one of the components. Teriyaki sauce also includes spices, sweeteners, and made a bit thicker.
THE SECRET FOR THE BEST CHICKEN MEATBALLS
No one likes a dry meatball. So how to you help keep them moist and tender? Unlike ground beef meatballs that have a higher fat content helping them to stay moist, ground chicken doesn’t have that. In order to prevent a dry meatball you have to add back liquid. In some of my other recipes I’ll use water, ranch, or BBQ sauce. But here you’ll use 2 tablespoons of the cooled teriyaki sauce into the ground chicken mixture. I promise this is the game changer!
Second, not so much a secret but I always mention having a handy dandy digital meat thermometer. Takes away all of the guesswork of whether or not the meat is fully cooked!
STORAGE AND REHEATING LEFTOVERS INSTRUCTIONS
This recipe will make about 19-20 meatballs depending on how large you make them. So you might end up with some leftovers! Store any leftover teriyaki sauce and meatballs in separate containers in the fridge. For whichever method you choose below, I recommend cutting the meatballs in half first. This will help prevent them from getting too dry as you’re trying to get the center hot.
Oven method. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Add the meatballs to a baking sheet or dish lined with foil, drizzle over extra teriyaki sauce, then bake for 10 minutes.
Stovetop method. Add the meatballs, extra teriyaki sauce, and a splash of water to the pan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
Microwave method. Add the meatballs and extra teriyaki sauce to a plate or bowl and microwave for 1 minute or 90 seconds until hot all the way through.
For me? I need the instant satisfaction of the microwave for a quick leftover lunch!
For more teriyaki recipes, try some of these blog favorites!
Chicken teriyaki burgers
Orange chicken teriyaki meatballs
And for more chicken meatballs you’ll love these!
BBQ chicken meatballs
Chicken piccata meatballs
Chicken parm meatballs
Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs
Everything you love about chicken teriyaki rolled up into an easy-to-make chicken meatball! You’ll start with a homemade teriyaki sauce, then a tender ground chicken meatball, then baked until perfection.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 19 – 20 meatballs
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Bake
Ingredients
For the teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons of cornstarch mixed into 2 teaspoons of water (this is called a slurry)
For the meatballs
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons of the teriyaki sauce, cooled
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
1. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper then place a cooling rack on top and spray with cooking spray.
2. Start by making the sauce. Add the oil to a pan and heat over medium heat then add the grated garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add in the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, honey, salt, and ginger and whisk to combine. Whisk in the slurry, then cook over medium heat for 8 minutes to allow to thicken. Remove 2 tables of the sauce and set aside to cool. At this time, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
3. In a large bowl combine the ground chicken, panko, egg, salt, ginger and garlic powder and mix to evenly combine. When the 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce is cool enough to handle, pour this over the mixture and mix one final time to combine.
4. Form the meatballs, I was able to make 19, and place them on the baking sheet.
5. Spoon a little extra teriyaki sauce over each meatball (I recommend splitting the sauce into separate bowls so you don’t accidentally touch the spoon to the raw chicken the back into the sauce causing cross contamination). You should not use all the sauce, you need some for the end of the recipe.
6. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and spoon a little more sauce over each, then bake for 5 more minutes.
Serve with a drizzle of extra teriyaki sauce and enjoy!