Chicken meatballs with ginger and miso

I am a bit behind on the blogging recently! I actually made these meatballs last week when I had a hankering for nabemono, a Japanese hot pot dish.


Here's the cast--I couldn't find ground chicken so I substituted ground pork.


Everybody gets thrown into the bowl together.


Since I was cooking the nabe later in the day, I covered the mixture and put it in the fridge for a few hours.


When I was ready to cook them, I lined a rimmed baking sheet with parchment, rather than rolled them in oil on the pan--since they were going into a broth, I didn't want them to be oily.


The trick is making them about the same size. I have issues with this.


I think I did a decent job!


I baked them at 425F for 10 minutes--I wanted them to be firmed up so they wouldn't fall apart in the cooking liquid but not quite cooked through so they would absorb some of the broth's flavor, too. It's such a fine line here.


I poached all the ingredients separately. Aren't they pretty? We had bean sprouts, too.


I gave the meatballs a quick poaching until they were heated through--just a few minutes.


And, of course, the meatball is partially hidden under the veggies. It's there, I promise.

Though I did like the meatball in the hot pot, I think the ginger-miso flavor would have been even more pronounced if I had just baked and served them. The liquid stole some of their intensity. Next time!

Here's the promised link:

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