Thai Chicken Balls - Made it. (then) Pinned it.

So this post is a little backwards because instead of pinning this recipe and then making it, I am making it then pinning it for the rest of the world to enjoy. I will give credit where credit is due though. I first found this recipe on allrecipes.com and if you want to try it the original way then go here. Otherwise stick around if you wanna try my version.

Even though the title of this post is Thai Chicken Balls we will actually be making Thai Turkey Balls. I started using turkey instead of chicken because you need it to be grinded (or is it grounded? not sure) and ground turkey is extremely common and fairly inexpensive, whereas ground chicken generally requires the assistance of your butcher and a higher price tag. No thank you.

So here are the ingredients:

2 lbs of ground turkey (I have used chicken before and it is delicious, but either works)
1/3 cup Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce
2 tbs lemon juice
1 cup of smashed croutons or bread crumbs your choice
4 green onions diced into tiny pieces
3/4 cup cilantro diced (more or less depending upon your affinity for the green herb)
Olive oil

This is what the bottle of sweet chilli sauce looks like and the generic croutons that I use for just about everything that requires bread crumbs.

2 1-lb packages of ground turkey, lemon juice (I always have a bottle of the stuff in my fridge-even though I prefer fresh squeezed its more time consuming), a large bowl and cilantro

Throw it all together and it should start to look like this.

I mix everything with a large spoon so I can fold all the ingredients 

into every piece of ground turkey.

Once your done mixing it should look something like this. The consistency of the mixture will differ depending upon whether you measure in exacts or wing ingredients (like me). I line a cookie sheet with foil to place the balls onto when I am done rolling them. It makes it easier to cook them if you roll them all first then one at a time. 

I also use a cookie dropper to make my balls (I know saying the word balls over and over again just sounds wrong, but its necessary for this recipe so bear with me). Its sooo much easier then taking chunks by hand and wondering whether or not they are too small or too big. If you use a cookie dropper and are consistent with portioning them you should make 40 balls out of 2 lbs of ground turkey.

When I first started making these I always kept a medium size bowl filled with water on the counter. If your turkey mixture happens to be fairly sticky it helps to rinse your hands every few balls so that it doesn't stick and crumble.

Once your done rolling the balls they should look somewhat similar to these. If you don't have a cookie dropper then they probably won't look as neat, but not to worry they will still taste the same. 

Then I lightly coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and let it heat up. If it sizzles when you sprinkle water on it the oil is hot enough for the balls. If it doesn't, turn up the heat or give it another minute to warm up. I use a gas stove so I cook it on a medium-ish flame. 

You want to rotate the balls every 3-5 minutes depending upon how hot your stove is. Mine are usually done after 3 rotations. You don't want them to burn, but you want nice and somewhat even grill marks all the way around.

After they are done I serve them with jasmine rice and steamed broccoli, but the skies the limit for what you could serve them with. This is just our personal preference.

As a last finishing touch I splatter on a little more of the sweet chilli sauce for aesthetic reasons and it adds a little more kick since some of it goes away after grilling. Since this recipe makes 40 balls I generally cook about 20 of them and then freeze the other 20 for later. They cook just as good after being frozen and since it can be a somewhat tedious process to make the individual balls, it makes sense to freeze some for later. Seriously they are sooooo yummy. ENJOY!

I made it. Then pinned it. Because I love it!