Cajun Chicken Meatballs in Tasty Cream Sauce

Cajun chicken meatballs in a creamy sauce with tons of onions, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms. Serve these meatballs on top of egg noodles or with crusty bread and a salad. It is so delish! 

MEATBALLS.

What is even going on here? We’ve got cajun chicken meatballs in a creamy sauce loaded with garlic, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Side note: I just realized that this is the 8th meatball recipe I’m sharing on the blog. WHAT? How did that even happen? I seriously don’t recall making that many versions for us. But here we are!

One of my all time favorite meatball recipes is the Swedish Meatballs I shared late last year. The comfort factor is the more apparent reason why. But what else? I love how the meatballs are seared then cooked in a gravy that leaves them tender on the inside but browned on the outside. That cream sauce, it’s rich and abundant. Perfect to serve over a bed of egg noodles or with bread on the side.

The wheels in my head started churning and what came of it was way better than anything I could’ve expected – Cajun chicken meatballs in creamy gravy. Hear me out now. First, we’re flavoring the meatballs with cajun seasoning along with breadcrumbs and parmesan. Then we let them simmer in a creamy sauce. It’ll be an unforgettable meal, that much I can promise! I served these at a family dinner and judging that there were no leftovers and how everyone kept complementing the meal, I knew they were something I wanted to share with all of you.

I’ll be honest, for these chicken meatballs, I put my low carb diet on the sidelines and went in full force. I called it my cheat meal for the week, happily served myself a small mountain of egg noodles, and loaded it up with this cajun cream sauce. Since I’m already confessing, I might as well tell you I had garlic bread with this too.

There. That’s all of it.

Let’s jump right into the recipe.

The first step is the chicken meatballs. I’ve got a little trick I want to tell you about. Whenever you’re making meatballs, combine the ingredients that bind the meatballs in a bowl before adding in the meat. Why? Glad you asked! This allows all the flavors to mix evenly without the fear of overworking the meat. When you feel like you’ve done a good enough job, add the chicken and mix. You want to mix *just* until combined. If you mix the meat too much, you’ll end up with dense and drier meatballs.

The ingredients for my cajun chicken meatballs are pretty straightforward, a little chopped parsley, pressed garlic, egg, panko, parmesan, and some cajun seasoning. Make sure to use low sodium seasoning for this recipe. If you use the regular stuff, it’ll leave everything super salty. I made that mistake the first time around, so I want to ensure it doesn’t happen to you!

Then it’s as simple as searing the meatballs. Keep in mind, we don’t want to cook the meatballs all the way through because they’ll simmer in the cream sauce, so we’re searing them just until they develop a little color on the outside.

For the sauce, we’ll sauté onions, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms together before adding a little flour and seasoning and following it up with a little chicken broth and sour cream to get that creamy consistency.

This recipe makes a ton by the way! You’ll get at least 18 meatballs out of this, and it’ll feed 5-7 people.

I’m pretty confident that garlic bread needs to be a required serving ingredient because a spoonful of sauce and a meatball or two loaded onto a slice is everything. And if you’re feeling extra generous with yourself, may I suggest a cajun chicken meatball sandwich where two slices of garlic bread are involved? This is the stuff I dream about then proceed to think about while on the treadmill attempting to burn off the egg noodles I allowed myself to consume.

Let these creamy cajun chicken meatballs become a part of your weekend.

They’re begging to be made!

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Yield: serves 5-7

Cajun Chicken Meatballs in Tasty Cream Sauce

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Cajun chicken meatballs in a creamy sauce with tons of onions, garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Serve these meatballs on top of egg noodles or with crusty bread and a salad, it is so delish! 

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Ingredients

Meatballs:

• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon low sodium cajun seasoning
• 4 cloves minced garlic, divided
• ¾ cup panko
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (plus more for serving)
• 1 ¼ pounds ground chicken (or turkey)

Sauce:

• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ cup chopped onions (yellow or red)
• ½ cup minced red or yellow peppers (bell or sweet peppers)
• ½ cup minced mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons roughly chopped basil, for serving

Instructions

1. Meatballs: In a medium mixing bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of cajun seasoning, ½ the garlic, and all the other ingredients except the ground chicken. Add ½ teaspoon of black pepper and mix using a fork. The mixture will resemble a coarse breading. Add the ground chicken and mix until *just* combined. Do not overwork the meat. Roll into 18-22 meatballs. Mine were about 1 ½ tablespoons each.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs to the skillet but do not overcrowd the pan. Cooke in batches if they don't all fit. Sear the meatballs for 4-5 minutes, flipping to brown all sides evenly. Remember you want to just brown the outside and not cook them all the way through. Remove meatballs to a plate. Repeat until all the meatballs are cooked.
3. Sauce: Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan along with the remaining garlic and the onion and sauté for 2 minutes or until the onion begins to turn translucent. Add the peppers and mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms and peppers soften, about 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour and the remaining teaspoon of cajun seasoning over the veggies and push the veggies around the pan to coat evenly and cook for about a minute or until the flour starts to deepen in color.
4. Stir the mixture as you pour in the chicken broth. Lower the heat, whisk in the sour cream until it dissolves completely. Allow sauce to come back to a gentle simmer before lowering the heat and letting the sauce thicken, about 6-12 minutes. When the sauce is halfway there, add the chicken meatballs and let cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the basil before serving.

Notes

• The sauce will thicken as it sits so i'd advise leaving it a little thinner if you aren't planning on serving this right away. If the sauce thickens too much you can always thin it out with a little water or broth. Serve over egg noodles or with garlic bread and a salad.
• This recipe has only been tested with sour cream but I do think heavy cream would make a good substitute. I haven't tried it with greek yogurt so I can't say whether that would work.

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is this a good choice for you?

nutritional facts are for 1/7th of the recipe using three tablespoons of oil total.

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