Orecchiette With Mini Chicken Meatballs.

Last night Mike and I made a delicious recipe by Giada De Laurentiis ...

It is called Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs and oh my goodness was it yummy!

If interested you can Click Here To Print out the recipe. I will also post the recipe below my pictures and note the tiny changes we made to the recipe.


Just look at some of the fresh ingredients the recipe calls for


I've never used real mozzarella balls in a recipe before ... but I did last night!


Some of the yummy chicken meatballs cooking up in the pan


The tomato and chicken stock concoction brewing


Adding the chicken meatballs back to the tomato/chicken stock


Pouring the sauce and chicken meatballs over the pasta


Yummy goodness ....


And we served it with this delicious garlic bread!

This is Giada's recipe:

Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs Recipe
Giada De Laurentiis, 2008

1 pound orecchiette pasta
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon ketchup
3/4 cup grated Romano
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground chicken
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock, hot
4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
8 ounces bocconcini mozzarella, halved
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, eggs, milk, ketchup, Romano cheese, and the salt and pepper. Add the chicken and gently stir to combine.
Using a melon baller (or a teaspoon measure), form the chicken mixture into 3/4-inch pieces. With damp hands, roll the chicken pieces into mini meatballs.

In a large (14-inch) skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the meatballs and cook without moving until brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Turn the meatballs over and brown the other side, about 2 minutes longer. Add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat to low and simmer until tomatoes are soft and meatballs are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1 cup of the pasta water. Transfer pasta to a large serving bowl and add the Parmesan. Toss to lightly coat orecchiette, adding reserved pasta water, if needed, to loosen the pasta. Add the meatball mixture, mozzarella cheese, and 1/2 cup of the basil. Gently toss to combine. Garnish with the chopped basil.

And now for the tiny changes we made:

I couldn't find orecchiette pasta ... so I used pasta shells instead.

Instead of the grated ramono cheese I used grated parmesan. We had the parmesan on hand and I saw no reason to buy another product that was basically the same.

I used grape tomatos instead of cherry tomatos only because our local grocery store did not have cherry tomatos due to the tomato scare.

Mike added some italian blend spices to the sauce while simmering it.

On this recipe it never, ever tells you to add the meatballs to the sauce. Actually it never tells you to remove them either. But yes ... you add the meatballs back to the sauce once you have the tomatos and chicken broth in the pan. We found that a little confusing.

We made sure to cook the brew a little longer than the five minutes it recommends ... we did this to make 100% sure the chicken meatballs were completely done.

Again ... this is a yummy, yummy recipe!!! It's fairly easy ... and it creates a HUGE amount of food. We will be eating left overs for awhile.

Let me know if you try it!