“Boiled Chicken Meatballs” recipe – “Polpette di Lesso”

Instructions

• 1.

  Cooking the potatoes and preparing the pepper and the cheese

  • Potatoes - 550gr
  • pepper corns - 3gr
  • Parmigiano cheese - 80gr
  • Cooked ham - 180gr
  • Parsley sprigs - 30gr

  Thoroughly wash the potatoes and dry them. Pierce them and place them into a bowl, which needs to be suitable for microwave ovens. Wrap the bowl with cling-film and seal it. Then place it into the microwave oven and cook at the maximum power for 12 to 16 minutes, depending ton the size of the potatoes. Alternatively, boil or steam the potatoes. (step 1 - pic. A).
  Meanwhile, finely crush the black pepper corns and grate the Parmigiano cheese. Set aside (step 1 - pic. B).
  

• 2.

  Cutting the meats, ricing the potatoes and mincing the parsley

  • Boiled chicken meat - 400gr
  • The cooked potatoes

  Thoroughly wash the parsley, dry it gently witha kitchen cloth and separate the stalks from the leaves. Set aside. If you are using the chicken you boiled for making the stock from the "Chicken stock recipe", then scrape off all the good meat and discard all the bones and the skins. You should be able to get about 400gr of meat out of it (step 2 - pic. A).
  With a chef knife, mince the chicken meat quite finely, but do not make it into an even paste otherwise the meatballs will be hard and dry (step 2 - pic. B).
  As soon as they are ready, pass the potatoes through a ricer directly into a large bowl and add the minced chicken meat to it (step 2 - pic. C).
  With the chef knife again, mince the ham and the parsley leaves (step 2 - pic. D).
  

• 3.

  Mixing together the ingredients into a bowl

  • The chicken and potatoes in the bowl
  • The minced ham
  • The minced parley
  • The crushed black pepper
  • The grated Parmigiano cheese
  • Thyme - 3 sprigs
  • Garlic cloves -1
  • Nutmeg - as needed
  • Salt - 1gr
  • Egg yolks - 2

  Place the minced ham and parsley into the bowl with the potatoes and the chicken meat. Then add the thyme leaves to the mixture. With a zester, grate some nutmeg first, then one peeled garlic clove (step 3 - pic. A).
  Season the mixture with salt and pepper, add the Parmigiano cheese and 2 egg yolks. Then mix all these into an even and firm loaf of about 950gr.(step 3 - pic. A).
  

• 4.

  Shaping and coating the “polpette” in breadcrumbs

  • The meatball mixture
  • Eggs - 2
  • Water - 500ml
  • Salt - a pinch
  • Breadcrumbs - 220gr

  Divide the leaf into 70 to 80gr lumps. Shape these into a ball with your hands, or use a ring to shape them into regular flat disks. Then, place the breadcrumbs into a bowl and brake two egs into another (step 4 - pic. A).
  Season the eggs with a pinch of salt, then whisk them evenly with a fork. Then, while whisking, gradually incorporate from 400ml to 500ml of water (step 4 - pic. B).
  Coat each “polpetta” by soaking it into the egg wash first, then placing it into the bowl with breadcrumbs and shaking the bowl quickly, so the breadcrumbs will easily coat the meatball. You can repeat the process once more if you like a thicker crust (step 4 - pic. C).
  

• 5.

  Frying the “polpette” in sunflower oil

  • The coated meatballs
  • The hot sunflower oil

  Let the coated meatballs rest for about 20minutes before frying them. Meanwhile, let the sunflower oil get to 170ºC: you can either use a deep frier or a deep saucepan on the hobs. If so, make sure the oil if deep enough to allow the meatballs to sink completely into it (step 5 - pic. A).
  When ready, fry 3 to 4 meatballs at one, so the temperature of the oil will not drop.A couple of minutes will be more than sufficient as the only raw ingredients are the egg yolks. The coating need to be just golden: it will not brown easily as the water and egg yolk wash will not burn easily. Rest the fried “polpette” on some cooking paper, then serve immediately (step 5 - pic. A).
  

• Servings : 6
• Ready in : 60
• Course : Main Course
• Recipe Type : Classic Italian dish
• Ingredient : Black Pepper, Breadcrumbs, Cured Meat, Egg Yolks, Eggs, Frying oil, Ham, Parmigiano Cheese, Parsley, Potato, Salt, Sunflower oil, Thyme, Water, Whole eggs