Chicken & basil meatballs

Serve these Thai chicken chicory bites and roasted pepper skewers when you're next entertaining. Both make great low-calorie, healthy dinner party canapés

  • Prep:20 mins
    Cook:20 mins
  • Serves 24 (12 of each flavour)
  • Easy

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 29
  • fat 1g
  • saturates 0g
  • carbs 1g
  • sugars 0g
  • fibre 0g
  • protein 3g
  • salt 0.1g

Ingredients

  • 1 shallot
  • 250g chicken breast
  • 25g seeded bread
  • ? pack fresh basil leaves
  • 1 clove garlic
  • rapeseed oil, for frying
  • 12 chicory leaves, red or green
  • sriracha or Thai sweet chilli sauce, to serve
  • 1 spring onion, cut lengthways and shredded into fine strips
  • 25g salted peanuts, finely chopped
  • 2 roasted red peppers, cut into 24 chunks
  • 24 fresh basil leaves
  • 24 cocktail sticks

Tip

Nutrition per roasted pepper stick (12)

29 kcals • fat 1g • saturates none • carbs 1g • sugars none • fibre none • protein none • salt 0.1g

Method

  1. Put the shallot into a food processor and pulse briefly to chop. Add all the remaining meatball ingredients, except for the oil, and blitz to make a soft purée. Shape into 24 mini meatballs with wet hands.

  2. Heat a drizzle of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add half the meatballs and fry for 5 mins, moving them around the pan to evenly colour them. Remove from the pan and cook the remaining meatballs. Keep chilled until ready to serve. Will keep in the fridge for up to one day.

  3. To serve, warm the meatballs, if you like, at 180C/160C fan/gas 4 for 10 mins, then arrange half in the chicory leaves, top with some chilli sauce and sprinkle with the onion and peanuts.

  4. For the pepper version, thread the meatballs onto 12 cocktail sticks with the 2 chunks of pepper and 2 fresh basil leaves either side.

Suggested recipes from this collection...