asian chicken meatballs with teriyaki glaze

Michael is well into his last year of school now and, as of this week, I am officially a full-time employee. I’m delighted that I got a job, especially in this really difficult market, and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity. My only sadness is that being employed 40 hours a week seriously cuts into cooking and project time.

I’ve gotten over the worst of the sadness and now feel a sense of adventure at trying to plan meals that are easy for me to make when I get home or are make-ahead that Michael can pop into the oven or heat on the stovetop. It’s a really fun challenge, and I think it’s been great for me.

This is one such meal.

I got the idea that it would be fun to try to make stir fry a little differently. We’ve really fallen in love with the flavors we use for our pork potstickers and I wanted to find a light, tasty way to incorporate those same flavors into a different meal. Thus was born the idea for mini Asian meatballs.

These are made with chicken breast, which keeps them lighter. I like to grind my own ground meats in my food processor fitted with the metal blade, but if you don’t have a food processor, you could absolutely buy ground chicken or turkey breast. We served the meatballs with my favorite sesame teriyaki sauce made into a glaze and a quick stir-fry of bell peppers and zucchini. You could easily use your favorite frozen or fresh stir-fry blend of veggies, or cook up some rice to serve everything over.

For make-ahead, you can blend everything for the meatballs together the night before and keep the mixture in the refrigerator. Then all you need to do is form the meatballs and cook them on the stove. Alternately, you can cook the meatballs and freeze them. When you’re ready to use them, just thaw in the refrigerator and heat up in a saute pan with the teriyaki glaze.