The chicken parm pizza inspired this chicken parm meatballs dish at Quality Italian, a fantastic restaurant in New York. The chicken parm comes out in a large round shape on a silver pizza tray and is served slice style, just like a pizza. Except it’s a delicious, decadent chicken parm made up of heavily breaded, crispy chicken topped with sauce and a generous portion of melted cheese. My family typically gets this as an appetizer to share, and we’re rarely hungry for our mains.
One of the best things about these chicken parm meatballs is that they come with spicy honey to top your chicken parm slice. I was sceptical about trying this at first. Doesn’t chicken parm have enough flavour on its own? But something about the combination of saucy, cheesy breaded chicken topped with spicy-sweet honey is amazing.
I wanted to re-create this dish, so it’s easier to make (how do they get that chicken into a perfect circle anyway?) and lighten it up while still delivering the essential flavours. Enter – chicken parm meatballs with hot honey!
I use a combination of ground chicken, spices, egg, and a hidden vegetable to add more nutrition to these meatballs – zucchini! Zucchini is high in vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps to repair cells and boost immunity. Zucchini is also a good source of potassium, which can help control blood pressure. The chicken parm meatballs have a slightly green hue due to the zucchini. No worries, though, you can’t taste it at all!
Glazed Chicken Parm Meatballs With Hot Honey
Ingredients
Hot Honey Ingredients
½ cup honey
2 medium jalapeños - chopped
Meatball Ingredients
1 pound ground chicken (minced chicken)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 cloves garlic - minced
½ cup yellow onion - finely grated
1 medium egg
½ cup zucchini - finely grated 
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
⅔ cup Marinara sauce (tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions – pasta sauce in southern hemisphere for Italian seafood dish) - plus more for plating
⅓ cup Mozzarella cheese - shredded
⅓ cup Parmesan cheese - shredded
Instructions
Hot Honey Instructions
- Add honey to a saucepan and bring to a simmer on low heat.
- Add the jalapeños and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, let stand for another 10 minutes, and strain out jalapeños.
Meatballs Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix chicken, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, egg, zucchini, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
- Using wet hands, form chicken mixture into balls, about an inch and a half each in size.
- Place meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You should have about 21 balls.
- Bake meatballs for 6 minutes. Remove from the oven, then distribute the marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese on top of each meatball. Place meatballs back in the range for another 7 to 9 minutes until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Plate meatballs with additional marinara sauce (if desired), drizzle with hot honey, and serve!
