Skinny Thai Chicken Meatballs with Peanut Sauce – healthy baked chicken meatballs with Thai flavors. All smothered in a sweet and slightly spicy peanut sauce.
Meatballs! I love meatballs, especially Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs or my Romanian Meatballs (Chiftele). So here’s why I think these meatballs deserve the word skinny in the title. Two things; lean ground chicken and they are baked. Yum!
Such simple ways to cut back on both fat and calories. You’ll also avoid a heavy sauce bogged down by cream because our spicy peanut sauce uses coconut milk. This dish will taste like it’s full of guilty pleasures but it’s really just a healthy, comforting dinner, with a little bit of spice and lots of oomf!
Skinny Thai Chicken Meatballs Recipe
This sauce is so easy but so very very scrumptious. This skinny little dish is a great introduction into the world of Thai flavors as it uses coconut milk, peanut butter, and red Thai curry paste. It may not be exactly authentic to say, but everybody’s got to start somewhere!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Meatballs
- Chicken – Ground chicken is needed for this recipe to form our little meatballs.
- Herbs – Cilantro and green onion chopped up nice and finely.
- Fish sauce – A must in a lot of Thai dishes. Don’t be afraid of the name! This sauce adds so much flavor to the dish.
- Red curry paste – Look for Thai red curry paste, this combined with coconut milk is absolute perfection.
- Breadcrumbs – This will be an important binder in our meatballs.
- Egg – A binder with the bread crumbs that will form our balls.
- Salt & pepper – To taste.
Peanut sauce
- Wet ingredients – Coconut milk and sesame oil.
- Red curry paste – Look for Thai red curry paste, this combined with coconut milk is absolute perfection.
- Peanut butter – The savory flavor key to our sauce and dish.
- Brown sugar – We need a little sweetness in this dish and brown sugar will help develop a more complex flavor.
- Red pepper flakes – Adds some nice heat to our sauce.
- Salt and pepper – To taste.
How To Make Skinny Thai Chicken Meatballs With Peanut Sauce
- Prepare your oven: Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Place parchment paper over a baking sheet.
- Make the meatballs: In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients for the meatballs together well. Form the meatballs into small 1 inch balls. Place meatballs on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes or until done.
- Make the sauce: In the meantime you can make the sauce. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan or skillet. Add the red curry paste and cook for a couple minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Finish the meatballs: Add meatballs to sauce and toss so that the meatballs are fully coated. Garnish with parsley or cilantro. Serve with a side of mashed potatoes or rice because we need something to soak up all this sauce.
What Else Can I Use In Thai Meatballs?
You don’t have to use just chicken! Other lean meats like pork, beef, or turkey work just as well. You can even combine these ground meats to make a more complex and interesting flavor in your skinny meatballs.
Storing Leftover Meatballs
This dish can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. The meatballs can be frozen cooked for up to 3 months, just freeze them spaced evenly on a cookie sheet so we can avoid them sticking together before transferring to a freezer bag and storing.
The sauce can also be frozen in an airtight container for the same amount of time. To reheat just microwave them little meatballs for 2 – 3 minutes in the microwave while heating up the sauce over the stove.
Craving More Thai Dishes? Try These Recipes:
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Skinny Thai Chicken Meatballs with Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
For Meatballs
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 4 green onions chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
For Peanut Sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste
- 14 ounce coconut milk (1 can)
- 2 tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Prep the oven and baking sheet: Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Place parchment paper over a baking sheet.
- Make the meatballs: In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients for the meatballs together well. Form the meatballs into small 1 inch balls. Place meatballs on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes or until done.
- Make the sauce: In the meantime you can make the sauce. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan or skillet. Add the red curry paste and cook for a couple minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Finish the dish: Add meatballs to sauce and toss so that the meatballs are fully coated. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.
- Serve: Serve with a side of mashed potatoes or rice.
Recipe Notes
- Can I use any other type of meat: Any ground meat would work, so feel free to switch it up. You can also combine meats like ground pork and ground beef together.
- Can I fry these: Yes! Heat about a tbsp of oil in a skillet then add the meatballs and fry until golden all around, should take about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Can I make these ahead: Yes! Meatballs usually reheat really well. If you’re making these ahead, store the sauce separately in another container in the fridge. Before ready to serve reheat the sauce either in the microwave or in a small saucepan. To reheat the meatballs just reheat them in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. After everything has been reheated, pour the sauce over the meatballs, garnish and serve.
- Can I freeze these meatballs: Yes! Follow the instructions for making these ahead, and store them in the freezer separately both in an airtight container.
- How do I store leftovers: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 to 4 days.
- Yields: Recipe yields about 24 meatballs.
Would it be better to use a natural peanut butter with no added sugar or is using something like Jif, okay??
It doesn’t matter, whatever you have on hand.
I made this using homemade red curry paste and tripled the amount called for in the recipe (we like spice). The fresh flavors of ginger and garlic were so good with the other fresh ingredients in the meatballs. They were super moist! Then the sauce rounded all of the flavors together. Next time I will double the sauce. Excellent!!!
I’ve made this a few times. I like to make extra sauce and serve it over rice noodles. Yum!
These were so tasty and tender, not to mention, easy! Will keep this recipe close for our family and share with others!
Hi Jo I love this recipe and it is one of my go to meals. In regards to the nutritional values that you have listed, what is the serving size that it relates to. Thank you
Depends on your meatball size, but it’s about 6 meatballs with sauce per serving.
This has become one of my “go to” recipes. I will use either ground turkey or chicken (whatever I can get at the time). Then I make a double (sometimes triple) recipe and bake all the meatballs. I then bag 16 each in freezer bags. Then I have a really quick and easy weeknight dinner. I make the sauce (I’m heavy on the peanut butter and curry paste) and add a ton of vegetables that I have on hand (way more than looks like will fit in the sauce because they cook down) and throw the frozen meatballs on top, cover and simmer for an hour or more. During this time I’m enjoying happy hour on our porch. We serve it with a pot of rice. Yummy!
Awesome!!
Your recipes look delicious!!!!
Thank you!
These were delish! This was the first time I have ever used ground chicken! I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful this dish turned out! The sauce was a little spicy for my kiddos but they ate the meatball! I’ll make this recipe again!
I have made this dinner for my family a few times now.
It has turned out great every time.
What more can I say ?
Give it a go tonight.
This looks awesome. Quick question, I don’t have red curry paste but I have a ton of the yellow curry powder, how much of that could I use instead (I would really rather use what I have already), I understand it won’t taste quite the same.
I would start with a tablespoon and adjust from there to your own preference for how strong you’d like the flavor to be.
O.M.G. THIS recipe! It’s so amazing. I left out the chili flakes for my kids, but I could drink the sauce and I had a hard time not just eating all the meatballs in the sauce while standing over the stove. Make this tonight!
Was good but I had to up the amount of red curry paste and chili flakes to get it to a desiered taste, we like spicey and we didn’t find it had enough kick. Added 1 extra tbsp of red curry and another 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes.
Also we turn the left overs into summer rolls with rice paper, mint leaves cucumber and leaf lettuce rapped up together
Those rolls sound fantastic. We’ll have to try those out next time if we have any leftovers!