These Sweet and Sour Chicken Quinoa Meatballs are a total crowd-pleaser! Bursting with flavour and perfect for a healthy dinner, these meatballs are sure to satisfy everyone at the table.
Cook quinoa ahead of time and have it cooled and ready to go. Use 1/2 cup of raw quinoa and add 1 cup of water. Cook as you would rice.
Open pineapple chunks and drain them over a bowl so you can use the juice later.
Begin with ground chicken. Sprinkle crushed red pepper over the top of the chicken and mix it in. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken.
Add cooked quinoa to the chicken and mix it all until well blended. Roll into meatballs and coat with flour.
Place into a heated pan that has a little oil in it. Turn meatballs several times while they’re cooking, so they’re evenly browned.
While meatballs are cooking, cut green peppers and onion into bite-sized pieces.
Heat a large pan, pour a little oil into it, and cook/stir fry the green peppers and onion until they are done to your liking. I like them crisp-tender, not mushy, so only for a few minutes.
Add the pineapple chunks and stir. By now, your meatballs should be done, so push them into 1/2 of their pan and dump the green pepper/onion/pineapple mixture into the other half. Cover and keep on low heat.
Using the pan you stir-fried in, heat cooking oil until it’s very hot. While it’s heating, mix the pineapple juice (if you don’t have quite 1 3/4 cup, you can add a little water to it), ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, and cornstarch. Whisk together until thoroughly blended. Add this to the very hot oil, stirring quickly. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens and is well-blended. This will only take a few minutes.
When the sauce is done, spoon the vegetable/pineapple mixture back in and stir. You can add the meatballs to the sauce if you choose or serve them on the side. I served it over rice, with the rice on the bottom, the sauce and vegetables/pineapple next, topped with meatballs. Enjoy!