Chicken Parmesan Meatballs in a Tomato Cream Sauce

I'm baaaaaack!!!  Sorry friends for being MIA.  My heart just wasn't into blogging this past year and I wanted to focus on other things in life.  One of those things was getting back to reading.  Before I had kids, I was always reading a book and I've really missed it.  I've read some great ones like The Pearl That Broke It's Shell and some not so great ones.  Right now I'm reading Charlotte's Web.  My son is in Grade 1 and his teacher is currently reading it to the class.  I've never read it so I thought it would be a good time and then my son and I can have our own book club 😉

So for my first post back from months of inactivity is for Chicken Parmesan Meatballs in a Tomato Cream Sauce.  Most days I cook Indian food for dinner, but we also love all types of cuisine.  This recipe was a big hit, especially with my boys.  We enjoyed it with a baguette and a simple salad.  I've tried it with pasta, but since we eat whole wheat pasta, the flavour of the pasta took away from the flavour of the sauce.  For the cream, I substituted sour cream.  To make the meatballs, I used a trick I learned from watching Rachel Ray.  I used a medium sized cookie scoop to scoop up the meat and drop it into the sauce...no messy hands!!!!  Using this method means you won't have the perfectround shape but to us it doesn't really matter, as long as it tastes good!

Parmesan Chicken Meatballs in a Tomato Cream Sauce

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Meatballs:
1 lb ground chicken (I used chicken breast)
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan
3/4 tsp dried basil
3/4 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg

Sauce:
one 28 oz tin of whole tomatoes, drained
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
pinch of sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
5 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Meatballs:
In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients, except the chicken.  Add the ground chicken and mix well.  At this point, you can form into meatballs and set aside.  I usually don't do this.  When I'm ready to cook the meatballs, I use a cookie scoop to drop the meatballs into the sauce.  This method will result in meatballs that are not perfectly smooth but I like the convenience of this.

Sauce:
To prepare the sauce, puree the tomatoes in a blender.  I used my immersion blender.  Heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and cook until it softens.  Add garlic, tomato paste, chilli flakes, sugar, salt and pepper.  Stir and cook until fragrant.  Add the pureed tomotoes and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.  Mix in the sour cream.  Add the prepared meatballs, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for about 10 minutes.  Flip meatballs over.  Cover and continue to cook until meatballs are cooked through.  Stir in Parmesan.