Chicken & basil meatballs

basil canapés chicken healthy low calorie meatballs nibbles party

N/A

24 (12 of each flavour)

Source

Ingredients

1 shallot

250g chicken breast

25g seeded bread

⅓ pack fresh basil leaves

1 clove garlic

rapeseed oil , for frying

12 chicory leaves , red or green

sriracha or Thai sweet chilli sauce, to serve

1 spring onion , cut lengthways and shredded into fine strips

25g salted peanuts , finely chopped

2 roasted red peppers , cut into 24 chunks

24 fresh basil leaves

24 cocktail sticks

Method

Put the shallot into a food processor and pulse briefly to chop. Add all the remaining meatball ingredients, except for the oil, and blitz to make a soft purée. Shape into 24 mini meatballs with wet hands.

Heat a drizzle of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add half the meatballs and fry for 5 mins, moving them around the pan to evenly colour them. Remove from the pan and cook the remaining meatballs. Keep chilled until ready to serve. Will keep in the fridge for up to one day.

To serve, warm the meatballs, if you like, at 180C/160C fan/gas 4 for 10 mins, then arrange half in the chicory leaves, top with some chilli sauce and sprinkle with the onion and peanuts.

For the pepper version, thread the meatballs onto 12 cocktail sticks with the 2 chunks of pepper and 2 fresh basil leaves either side.