This recipe is unusual in that spinach is added to the tomato sauce for meatballs. Just one handful of chopped spinach leaves turns the usual gravy into a more interesting dish, with small green splashes. Otherwise, the preparation is traditional – we will cook meatballs from minced chicken with rice, and tomato sauce from onions with carrots, with the addition of pasta and hot peppers for piquancy.
Ingredients:
For meatballs:
- Minced chicken – 350 g.
- Boiled rice – 4 tbsp. l.
- Onion – 0.5 pcs.
- Salt and pepper – to taste.
- Small egg – 1 pc.
- Sunflower oil – 2-3 tbsp. l.
For sauce:
- Onion – 0.5 pcs.
- Small carrot – 1 pc.
- Salt and pepper – to taste.
- Sunflower oil – 2 tbsp. l.
- Tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l. with a hill.
- Hot pepper – 1/3 pc. or to taste.
- Spinach – 1 handful.
- Water – about 500 ml.
How to cook:
1. Rinse the rice thoroughly and boil in salted water until half cooked. Drain in a colander and rinse under running water to remove excess starch. The rice should be slightly undercooked, as it will come when the meatballs are stewed in gravy.
2. Mix in a bowl rice (you will need 4 tablespoons of ready-made boiled rice) and minced meat. If you grind it yourself, it is best to mix the chicken breast with the meat from the thighs – this way the minced meat will be juicier and more tender, and not dry. For juiciness, add half a chopped onion grater, and for a bunch, beat in a small egg, salt and pepper.
3. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Dice the remaining half of the onion, chop the carrot on a coarse grater. Heat some oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion first. As soon as it softens, send the prepared carrots to the pan and continue to fry the vegetables until they turn golden. Stir regularly so nothing burns.
5. Add tomato paste and finely chopped hot pepper (the amount is freely determined by taste and depending on whether children will eat this dish). Stir quickly and fry everything together for about a minute.
6. Next, fill the contents of the pan with water – you will need about two glasses (partially the water will boil away). Salt and pepper, simmer for 20 minutes. The result should be a delicious tomato sauce of medium consistency, fragrant, slightly sweet due to carrots and with a slight spiciness. Taste and adjust to desired taste. If your tomato paste is sour, then it makes sense to add a small pinch of sugar – it will balance the taste.
7. Form meatballs. Minced meat, after standing in the refrigerator, will become thicker, but it will still be sticky and spread (however, much depends on the initial quality of the minced meat itself, how thick and dense it was). Wet your hands with cold water and roll the mince into small balls the size of a walnut, scooping the mince with a teaspoon. Heat the oil in a frying pan and quickly fry them on both sides for 30 seconds. Due to the fact that the composition contains chicken meat rich in proteins, they will quickly seize, and the meatballs will not fall apart.
8. Transfer the browned meatballs to the sauce. Stir, cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.
9. At the very end, add chopped spinach leaves, heat for no more than a minute and remove from heat.
10.
Serve hot minced chicken meatballs in tomato sauce. The output from the indicated number of products is 4 servings.
Enjoy your meal!