Monday, June 01, 2009

Bouncy Chicken MeatBalls

After successfully making bouncy meatballs from beef and pork, it was time to try with chicken. The recipe is basically the same.

For those who don't eat red meat you will be pleased to know that the chicken meatballs have just as much bounce and 'spring' but with a much softer texture. Handy to have in the freezer to add to that instant noodle meal anytime.

Bouncy chicken balls
Makes 48 balls (½ Tbsp size)

Ingredients
500 gm chicken breast, cut to smaller pieces

½ cup (125ml) icy cold water
1 Tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp salt
½ Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp cornflour
1¼ tsp baking powder

dash of white pepper (optional)

chinese chicken meatballs

Method
1. Mince the meat in a food processor until a paste is form. Add 5 Tbsp water (a Tbsp of water at a time) to get a smooth paste.

2. In a separate cup, mix together the remaining water, fish sauce, salt, sugar, oil, cornflour and baking powder.

3. Remove the chicken paste from the food processor and put in a big bowl. Pour the liquid mix to the paste and stir well slowly until the liquid is absorbed into the paste (use either your hand or a fork).

4. For the taste test...microwave or boil a teaspoon of the paste. Season to taste with more salt or sugar.

5. Cover bowl with clingwrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

6. Boil a pot of water. Once the water has boiled, remove the pot from the heat.

7. Add pepper to the paste and stir to combine. Scoop the paste onto your wet hand. Push the paste through your thumb and 2nd finger by making a fist. (Best to refer to the video below for a visual). Use a wet spoon to scoop and drop it into the hot water. To prevent the paste from sticking to your hand and spoon, wet the spoon and hand with water.

8. Continue until the chicken balls form a layer in the water. Now turn on the heat but do not let it boil. Just simmer slowly without bubble....if not your chicken balls will not have 'bounce'. While cooking the chicken balls, any leftover paste should be kept in the freezer.

9. Fill a big basin with icy cold water. When the chicken balls starts to float, leave for a few more seconds. (Cut one in half to see if it is cook. The inside should not be pink). Scoop out and let it cool in the cold water.

10. After the chicken balls have cooled, use as required or freeze.

homemade bouncy chicken balls
This is a 1 minute video of the whole process of making the beef balls which is exactly the same as making these chicken balls.
Accompanying song : Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis


Note :
After the meat balls have cooled (step 10), it is better to cook/boil the balls again before eating. Further boiling after this stage will not affect its bounciness.

springy chicken yoke yuen in soup
Tip
Squeeze test : when the meatballs start floating (step 9), get one out of the hot water and give it a squeeze between the fingers. When it is ready it will be 'springy' between your fingers. If it hasn't got a good bounce yet, put it back into the water. Try another.

28 Comments:

沈伊 said...

hey ...i have been following your blog for quite a while. hehe...
By the way , how do you make your soup that is so clear and i believe is taste good too !

Also, if you make dried noodles, what is the sauces you used?? I tried soya sauce, oyster sauce but result was not good. :( and I can't seems to find anywhere that have recipe for good sauce for either wonton mee or the clear broth you made.

Thanks in advance for sharing recipe. Cheeers.

My Asian Kitchen said...

wow!! this recipe is amazing!! I'm going to try it soon!! thanks for sharing!

Sinner said...

Hi 沈伊,

The soup is actually the stock from boiling the chicken balls. When I have it with noodles, I add a little bit of chicken stock powder for a bit more flavour.

Our sauce when eating dry noodles is very simple. Recipe here. It taste just like the hawker kon loh meen. The key ingredient is the black soy sauce. Try to get the Yuen Chun brand. Makes a great difference to the taste of the mee.

Sinner said...

Hi My Asian Kitchen,

Would love to hear your feedback :)

Favbabe said...

Hey sinner,

I tried your beef balls recipe and it was a success. Gonna try chicken balls :) Looking forward to try your recipe for fishballs, if you have any in the future! :)

Sinner said...

Hi Favbabe,

So happy to hear your beef balls were a bouncing hit :)

I would love to try my hand at making fishballs but at the moment fish is just too expensive :(

沈伊 said...

Thanks Sinner !!! Living overseas with not much good food around, you are the angel send by God!! Thanks for all your kind sharing and efforts!!

gunnaget roundtoit said...

hi Sinner,
could this be done in a vegetarian form, e.g. using rice and spinach?
Great site

Sinner said...

J, not having tried this method with vegie food, I have no idea. If you do try it with rice and spinach, I would love to hear to result. Thanks for dropping by.

jadepearl said...

Oooo...yummylicious! I have to try this too.

Sinner said...

Thanks jadepearl. Would love to hear the result.

mott said...

That's fantastic!!! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Dear Sinner,

I'm blessed by your generosity in sharing your recipes.
By the way, do you have any bouncy fish ball recipe?

Thank you.
May

Sinner said...

Hi May,

Unfortunately I don't have the proper type of fish here to experiment with.

Little Corner of Mine said...

Hi sinner,

I made your bouncy chicken balls, may I have your permission to post your recipe in my blog with two links directed to your blog? I want to give you credit for your recipe.

Sinner said...

Hi LCOM,

Sure, no problem. Thanks for the credit and links.

tigerfish said...

They look like fishballs.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sinner,

I tried making chic balls today and I´m soo pleased to tell you that it´s a success! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and I didn´t know it´s so easy to make chic balls from scratch. My lil princess loves to eat fishballs but since I cannot get the right fish to make fishballs in Germany, the chic balls is a good alternative. Do you know if the normal mackerel fish (I cannot find Spanish mackerel here) can be used to make fishballs? After boiling the chic balls the 1st round, there were some scums floating on the water. So I threw the water away and boiled fresh one to cook the 2nd batch of chic balls. Was that necessary to change the water?

warmest regards,
purplegirl

Sinner said...

Hi purplegirl,

So glad your chic balls came out perfect. No need to change the water if there is scum. Just scoop out any scum but I have never needed to do that. The water will taste really good for making noodle soup later.

To be honest fish here is way more expensive than meat so have not really tried making fishballs. Can't help with the fish type - sorry. If you tell your lil princess that the chic balls are fish balls, will she believe you ? They almost look like fish balls ! lol

Anonymous said...

Alamak! I shouldn´t have poured away the water. Forgotten about saving it for soup stock later. Nevermind, next time shall remember that. Err....I will tell her it´s fish balls next time. Hehe. At this age (2), I can still get away with white lie :) Hey I´m really surprised that fishes are expensive at your end. I thought NZ is surrounded by sea and therefore seafood should be abundant and cheap.

purplegirl

Sinner said...

Wow your princess 2 yo already. Times really flies.

NZ = land of exorbitant prices !!

Amy Goh said...

Hi!

Finally tried your bouncy chicken balls. Taste great! May I check, my chicken balls were bouncy during the 'test stage' after the ice bath, they were no longer bouncy. Did I do it correctly?

Sinner said...

Amy,

Don't worry! Once you got it bouncy during the 'test stage', it will be bouncy again when you cook it again to eat later.

Amy Goh said...

Thank u for your replies! All your recipes have been GREAT! I need not alter a single bit.

Sinner said...

Thanks Amy. It is good to hear you like what we eat as well ;)

For me, it is a real time saver as I can just follow the recipe without giving it another thought. Comes out tasting the same every time ! :)

SparkleMemo said...

These chicken ball are really healthy and delicious ! luv your blog

zarifnuhin said...

dear, thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful recipes. I really fall in love with your blog. By the way, do have the recipes for bouncy and spongy fish ball, in here it's hard to find the nice fish ball. I am in saudi. thank you so much sinner

Sinner said...

Thanks zarifnuhin. Unfortunately, I haven't had much success with getting fish balls to bounce yet ! :)

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