Norwegian chicken meatballs

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 pounds Ground chicken
4½ teaspoon Cornstarch; divided
1 large Egg
2¼ cup Chicken broth; divided
¼ teaspoon Salt (omit if broth contains salt)
½ teaspoon Freshly grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons Chopped fresh dill; divided (or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill)
4 ounces Gjetost cheese; cut into 1/4 inch dice
4 cups Hot cooked egg noodles (up to 6)

Directions

1. Beat egg; add scant ¼ cup broth and 1¼ teaspoon cornstarch. Stir until smooth. Add lemon peel and 1 Tablespoon fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried. Add salt if using. Add ground chicken to this mixture, and stir until all is thoroughly combined (mixture will be fairly "loose").

2. Bring two cups of broth to simmering in a 10- or 12-inch frying pan.

Gently drop tablespoon measures of chicken mixture into simmering broth, keeping the chicken "rounded" and separated so they become "meatballs." (I cooked about six at a time.) Turn each "meatball" once in the broth; simmer 3 to 4 minutes until cooked through. Remove cooked meatballs to a dish in a warm oven and continue until all of chicken mixture is cooked.

3. When all of chicken is cooked, prepare sauce: Mix remaining 1 Tablespoon cornstarch in 2 Tablespoons cold water. Stir into simmering broth and cook a few minutes until somewhat thickened. Add diced cheese, and stir constantly until the cheese melts.

4. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the noodles and keep them hot.

5. Return chicken balls to sauce. Place hot noodles in a large serving bowl; add chicken and sauce and mix gently but thoroughly. Sprinkle with remaining dill and serve.

Per serving: 568 cal; 207 cal (36% from fat); 34 g protein; 23 g fat (9.3 g sat); 56 g carbo; 484 sodium; 202 mg. chol Notes:

Gjetost (yay-toast) is a brown cheese made of a combination of cow's and goat's milk plus whey, cooked until reduced and a dark amber color. For those familiar with the old-fashioned laundry soap, it looks like Fels-Naptha! A product of Norway, it comes in little red 8 oz boxes labeled Ski Queen, or cut and wrapped in plastic. I found it at Safeway. It's a bit pricey ($4 for the 8 oz box), but worth every penny (and each box made two batches of this recipe).

For the broth, I used Knorr Chicken Base (found it at Costco / Price Club).

It does contain MSG (which I discovered after I bought it); we're not sensitive to it so I went ahead and used it. I think bouillon would be too salty. Homemade chicken stock would be best, of course (but who has the time?!).

I made my own ground chicken -- a snap with a food processor. I boned and skinned two large chicken breasts (and removed as much fat as possible), then cut each into about five chunks. I put half the chicken in the work bowl with the steel chopper blade and processed it in 3-second bursts. The chicken was done in a total of about 10 seconds for each batch. Beautiful! (I did this rather than buying ground chicken at the market because, as I read somewhere on the net, you never know what was in the market's grinder before the chicken, and with raw chicken a little iffy these days, if you do it yourself you know exactly what you're getting.) A nice green vegetable, a good salad, and fresh hot rolls or bread complete a superlative meal.

Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #902 by Marilyn Olander <molander@...> on Nov 12, 1997

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