Thai Style Chicken Balls

This is another staple meal at our house that ticks all the boxes – tasty, simple and healthy (my sacred trilogy of family dinners). You can improvise and sub-out ingredients for others depending on what you have at home which saves money and saves waste.

Ingredients

2 shallots

2 cloves crushed garlic  (or you can use a good quality garlic powder like this one)

1 small carrot

500 gms chicken mince (organic is possible)

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 handful basil leaves (or thai basil)

1 handful mint leaves

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1 egg (organic if possible)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/2 teaspoon lemongrass paste (or use the real thing)

1/2 teaspoon ginger paste (or use the real thing)

1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes (reduce or leave out if your kids aren’t into it)

Season to taste

Method

Crush or finely chop your garlic cloves, thinly slice and dice the shallots, finely grate the carrot. Also chop the herbs up finely. Personally, I don’t even peel the carrots because they are going to be cooked in the oven at a high enough heat to kill anything nasty.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (or 160 fan forced)

Prepare an oven tray by putting some baking paper down and brushing it evenly with olive oil. Keep the brush out for the sesame oil at the end.

Mix all your ingredients (except the sesame oil) together well.

Spoon generous piles of the mixture onto the baking tray about a centimetre apart.

Brush or splash the top of each chicken ball with sesame oil. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until slightly browned.

Serving ideas: add fresh herbs or iceberg lettuce, baked kumera (sweet potato) or baby potatoes. Add a dipping sauce if desired such as sweet chilli or sweet soy, alternatively just splash the leaves or lettuce with apple cider vinegar (and make sure it has the live ‘mother’ culture in it. My favourite is the BRAGGS brand).

Alena // Soul Mamma is a writer, educator, ethical digital creator and mum of three little darlings living as consciously as she can muster in Freshwater near Sydney, Australia. You can join her and bumble through this parenting malarkey together with other lovely souls in the Soul Mamma Crew or find her on Instagram.