These Chicken Pesto Meatballs are made with ground chicken, delicious pesto and parmesan cheese! They make the perfect easy weeknight dinner!
This recipe was originally published in August 2019 – I’ve since updated the photos and added additional blog content. Enjoy!
If you didn’t know, baby Jack has been in our life for 7 months now! And I am 100% in a season where I want to have quick and easy recipes. And these Chicken Pesto Meatballs absolutely fit the bill!
Why You’ll Love These Meatballs:
- You get to use store bought pesto! Yes, I do have an amazing delicious cashew pesto recipe on the blog, however, there are many days during the week I don’t have the energy to whip out the food processor and make a sauce from scratch. I wanted to make this recipe as easy as possible!
- These meatballs are baked in the oven so you won’t have a huge stovetop mess OR need to keep a constant eye on these…instead it’s SO simple and you get to go catch up on your favorite show while these are baking!
- The ground chicken makes them super juicy, moist and just so easily poppable into your mouth!
- Did I mention they are also filled with parmesan cheese?! Hello cheesy goodness!
- They are super versatile – you could load them on top of a buttery bed of pasta OR serve them as an appetizer for game day!
Ingredients You Need for Chicken Pesto Meatballs:
- ground chicken – such an underrated protein! It’s inexpensive and makes these meatballs so juicy!
- egg – the egg helps bind the ingredients together!
- panko breadcrumbs – just a little bit of breadcrumbs help give these some texture
- pesto (homemade or store-bought) – store-bought is the easier route..but the classic pesto flavors in this meatball are the real MVP.
- freshly grated parmesan cheese – So much flavor and the cheese gets melty and delicious inside!
- fresh basil – because who doesn’t love fresh herbs?!
- fresh garlic and onion – highly recommend using fresh instead of powdered because it adds SO much flavor to these meatballs
- salt and pepper – of course, a staple for any good meatball!
How to Make Chicken Pesto Meatballs:
These meatballs couldn’t be easier to make! First, go ahead and preheat your oven to 400. Next, prepare a baking sheet with either aluminum foil or a silicon mat. Set this aside for now.
Get everything prepped for mixing into meatballs. Finely mince the fresh garlic and onion. Chop the fresh basil and grate about ¼ cup of parmesan cheese!
In a large bowl, add in 1 lb of ground chicken, panko breadcrumbs, 1 large egg, pesto, garlic, onion, basil parmesan and salt and pepper. Use your hands (or a wooden spoon!) to mix all of this together to combine. I highly recommend using your hands to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.
Once everything is mixed together, begin making meatballs! I used a tablespoon to measure mine out and roll them with my hands. Place them on a silicon mat or parchment paper. My mixture yielded about 15 medium size meatballs.
Once the meatball mixture has been used up, place your meatballs in the oven and bake them for about 20-25 minutes! If desired, once done, place them on broil for 1-2 minutes for an extra crispy top! SO good! Just be sure to keep an eye on them though…you know how broiling can go!
And the meatballs are done!! Eat them by hand, place them on top of pasta…the world is yours!
My Favorite Way to Eat Chicken Pesto Meatballs:
While the Chicken Pesto Meatballs are cooking, make some fresh al dente linguine pasta. Once it’s done cooking, add a pat of butter, about 2 tablespoons of pesto and salt and pepper.
Mix until buttery and pesto-y delicious. Add the chicken meatballs right on top and enjoy! SO good!
How to Store Leftovers:
For leftovers, store cooked chicken meatballs in a tightly sealed tupperware container in the fridge for up to 2 days. To reheat, simply pop in the microwave or into a toaster oven until heated through.
Hope you enjoy this recipe, y’all. I’d love to hear if you’re ready for Fall or want Summer to stick around a little longer in the comments below. XO!
Did you enjoy this recipe? Here are a few more you might like:
Pesto Sweet Potato Hash with Crispy Egg
Thank you so much for following along here, friends! Want to see more? Be sure to follow ourbalancedbowl on Instagram and tag me with your photo if you end up making a recipe! You can also post a photo of your recipe to the Our Balanced Bowl Facebook page! Like a recipe that you saw? Follow me on Pinterest here! I always love to see your re-creations! If you do make a recipe, it would make my whole day if you were to rate and comment so I can get your feedback! Lots of love! – Haylie
Chicken Pesto Meatballs
These Chicken Pesto Meatballs are made with ground chicken, delicious pesto and parmesan cheese! They make the perfect easy weeknight dinner!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup yellow onion, finely minced
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup pesto (homemade or store-bought)
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400. Next, prepare a baking sheet with either aluminum foil or a silicon mat. Set this aside.
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Finely mince your fresh garlic and onion. Chop the fresh basil and grate about ¼ cup of parmesan cheese! (If you don’t like small chunks of onion in your meatballs, I would omit them completely or use onion powder in place!)
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In a large bowl, add the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, pesto, garlic, onion, basil, parmesan and salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix all of this together to combine.
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Begin making the meatballs! I used a tablespoon to measure mine out and roll them with my hands. Place them on the baking sheet. My mixture yielded about 15 medium size meatballs.
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Place your meatballs in the oven and bake them for about 20-25 minutes! If desired, once done, place them on broil for 1-2 minutes for an extra crispy top!
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Serve with fresh buttery pasta! If desired, mix freshly cooked pasta with 1-2 tbsp of pesto, 1 tbsp of butter, add salt and pepper to taste. Add the freshly cooked chicken pesto meatballs on top. Delicious! Enjoy!
Wow, these chicken meatballs sounds delicious.
Thank you so much, Jeff! I truly appreciate that 🙂
Haylie, these look so delicious and full of summery flavor! Meatball perfection!
Thank you so much, Kelly! I love how Summery this recipe is too! 🙂
Most often I don’t go for meatballs because I am not a big fan of the marinara sauce. This is so clever to add pesto. why didn’t I think of it. I have to try this for sure.
Yay! Thanks so much Kankana! 🙂
Adding pesto is such a great idea! I usually make honey garlic turkey meatballs, but I need to try making a batch of these. They would be great to have stashed in the freezer for meal prep!
Ooooh those honey garlic turkey meatballs sound delicious too!!
Wow! I am so excited to make these for my family! We are big meatball people! Big! 🙂
Oh yes! Meatball people are my kinda people! 🙂
Super easy! Perfectly juicy and my hubs was a huge fan! I’ll be adding this to the routine.
Thank you so much for making them, Leslie! XO 🙂
Homemade meatballs are the best and these look spectacular! No going wrong with chicken and pesto if you ask me! I can’t believe how fast the summer is going by either. The fall is my fave season so looking forward to that…though, not the snow that follows, lol.
Oh yes!! Homemade meatballs are the bomb! And ooooh, we usually only get a couple rounds of snow here…still not looking forward to the super cold. Love Fall though! Thanks for commenting, Dawn! XO
Great recipe they turned out great my family loved them.
Yay!! That makes me so happy, Ameenah! 🙂 So glad you and your family loved them!