In the Kitchen with Phlip -- Chicken/Feta Meatballs
I advise that this will be another
of one of my short ones of these. It was
seriously just that simple to construct and do…
Simplicity is not without cost, though. Let’s start with a cast of characters:
(Ground
chicken, chicken sausage, chipotle Panko breadcrumbs, Feta cheese, and ranch
dressing mix. In observance of my
granddaddy’s birthday last weekend, I am opting for brown eggs this week. That is $17 in supplies and I have not even
gotten to the sauces yet.)
Before doing
anything, put the chicken sausage through your mini-chopper and chop it up as
completely and finely as possible. There
is not a picture of this step in the process because it really is that simple
and a mini chopper can be had for less than $10 at Wal Mart so you should
already have one.
Now for the
easy part, EVERYBODY IN THE POOL!!!
(Yes, simple
as that. Put everything in the mixing
bowl, add a couple dashes of hot sauce of your choosing and (an option I
visited) Worcestershire sauce, then mix everything thoroughly.)
Set that aside for now, it is time to make a sauce, with the following:
(not
pictured: 1cup apple cider vinegar)
Put it all
in a small pot on the stove, adding the hot sauces (and embellishing with some
cayenne and/or sriracha to your own particular tastes). Reduce to medium/low heat and set about the
task of rolling bawls (heh heh heh), making them about 1.5-2” in size. Set the bawls down into a sprayed/greased
baking dish, then cover with the sauce.
Wrap tightly in foil and bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until your meat
thermometer shows 160° in the middle of the biggest one.
Finito:
Did someone
say "side item"?
Simple!
Start with 2 russet potatoes, slice them into 4-5 pieces, then hit them with
your apple corer to make them into medium-sized chunks. Heat up some oil on the stove and make home
fries:
While you’re
doing this, place one can of cream of chicken soup into the microwave for one
minute, and when it comes out, mix in one cup of milk and 4-6oz of shredded
cheese. Pour this over the potatoes with
some diced onions (optional) and coat completely. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top to
cover, then bake for 20-30 minutes.
Voila!:
Where I am normally the champion of the $20 meal that feeds two people for several days, this one was a bit more wasteful for what it included. I easily spent $30 or more on this one, and while the yield was twice as many meatballs as were pictured above (the rest were shared with my mother and sister - who LOVED them), it was still considerably less than I get when I use turkey as my recipe normally calls for.
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