Chicken & Prawn Meatballs with Creamy Oven Baked Polenta
I made these meatballs a while back as an experiment and they came out so insanely good, I had to share the recipe. This is a gorgeous dish to serve friends and family when hosting or even a romantic dinner with your lover. It’s comforting but still super vibrant and full of flavour.
I feel like this recipe represents my style of cooking perfectly. I draw inspiration from many cultures, here we have meatballs and polenta, which is obviously traditionally Italian. Then I bastardise it. Sorry (Italians), not sorry. Admittedly, this isn’t something you’re going to “whip up” on a weeknight, it takes time and care. But it is an impressive dish that doesn’t take a high level of skill. No need for perfectly round meatballs, no smooth sauce, no need to spend 40 minutes whisking polenta over a stovetop. Hope you make this the next time you are in the mood to cook something special and love it as much as I do.
Chicken & Prawn Meatballs with Creamy Oven Baked Polenta
Ingredients
- 300g raw prawns, shelled and deveined
- 500g boneless skinless chicken thighs, roughly chopped
- 1 birds eye chilli, more or less to taste
- 1 heaped tablespoon ginger, roughly chopped
- 6-8 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ cup coriander leaves, stems and root, roughly chopped. Extra leaves to garnish.
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Olive oil to fry
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 800g whole peeled tinned tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons sugar, more or less to taste
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup polenta
- 5 cups water, or stock
- 250g grated parmesan cheese
- 200g unsalted butter
- ½ cup garlic chives
- ½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Using a food processor chop up the ingredients of the meatball in stages. Start by adding the chilli, garlic, ginger and coriander. Process until finely chopped and set aside in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the prawns to the food processor and pulse until they are chopped into 1-2 cm pieces, do not turn into a paste. Transfer the prawns to the large bowl with the coriander mixture.
- Now add the chicken to the food processer and pulse until chopped roughly into 1-2 cm pieces. Transfer to the same bowl with the prawns.
- To the prawn and chicken mixture, add salt and breadcrumbs, mix well and set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight if you have time.
- The mixture will still be loose, not like traditional meatballs. Roll the mixture into 3 tablespoon sized balls and fry in a large wide pan over medium heat*. Fry the balls until you get a golden colour on the outside and they are 80%-90% cooked through. Set aside while you make the sauce.
- Using the same pan, reduce heat to medium-low, add in olive oil, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seed, and sliced garlic. Sauté gently until the seeds start to splutter and then add the tinned tomatoes.
- Using your spoon, crush the tomatoes until they are in small pieces and evenly dispersed through the sauce. Add in sugar, coriander powder and salt, stir to combine and then cover and let simmer on low for 20 minutes.
- Taste the sauce and adjust with salt and sugar to taste. Return the meatballs to the pan by nestling in them into the sauce. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
- To make the polenta, preheat oven at 180C (160C fan-forced). Place a large saucepan over high heat, fill with water (or stock) and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, add in salt (if using low sodium stock or water) and pepper, stir to dissolve salt.
- Slowly add in your polenta, while constantly whisking to avoid lumps. Cover, move to a preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the polenta is soft.
- Remove polenta from the oven and whisk vigorously until it becomes creamy. Add in butter, parmesan and garlic chives, whisk well until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning if required.
- To serve, pour your polenta on a serving dish, top with meatballs, spoon over sauce and garnish with coriander.
Notes
*At this stage you can fry a little mixture and test for seasoning, adjust if needed.
