An effortless upgrade for the jettest meat dumplings that you will never do

Spaghetti and meatballs are a recipe that we do not associate with chicken. The red meats, with their copious flavor and their wet fat texture, dominate this simple Italian dish. I would never have thought that exchanging it in chicken meat could provide a pleasant alternative – until I started working on this recipe. As I discovered, the chicken is not only a wonderful alternative, but its lighter characteristics also succeed in raising a simple and rustic dish like spaghetti and meat dumplings in something a little more refined.

But that doesn’t mean that the chicken does not have its own problems. By exchanging chicken, you sacrifice both flavor and texture. The chicken is generally softer compared to beef, and because it is leaner, chicken meat can be tended to be drier. Packing the chopped chicken in meatballs can also cause a pasty texture. I decided to solve these two problems (and give me an excuse to eat a ton of meatballs) by mixing a few lots of meatballs using a favorite beef meat recipe and frying a few trials of meat balls.

Pack it with panade

Never give me a hamburger with a panade (just tell me it’s meat bread and I’m fine). Papade is a mixture of bread and liquid (usually water, milk or broth) which moistens meat bread and meatballs, and prevents them from collapsing. Often, an egg is also thrown. It was an easy test, because the chicken meat balls without panades came out as expected: hard, dry and pasty. A boulette of pan -chicken meat is a happy meat of meat – perfectly soft and tender. And since the chicken is soft anyway, the panade really does not turn the flavor as it can do with the beef.

Go for gelatin

Since we started to sprinkle with gelatin in meat dishes, such as stews, Cook’s illustratedI remove this kitchen thing every time I can. Used sparingly, gelatin increases the sensation in the smooth mouth of the collagen, a protein found in the connective tissue. When it is slowly cooked, collagen melts into a velvety texture. In chicken meat meat, a few teaspoons of molten gelatin stirred in the mixture help imitate the gelatinous and lubricant texture that you get additional cartilage in red meats. Combined with the panic, gelatin helps shape the ground chicken in an incredibly tender and humid texture.

To brown or not brown

Whether on the stove or in the oven, I always golden my meatballs before cooking them in sauce. Especially with the softer flavor of the chicken, I naturally supposed that crisp brown caramelization would improve the flavor. After fighting with a splashing batch of soft meatballs sticky in the pan, I dropped the remaining raw meat dumplings in the bubbling tomato sauce. Surprisingly, overwhelmed meatballs were even more tender and tasty. The browning dries the outer shell of the meat of meat, which makes it difficult and unable to soak up the adequate flavor of the sauce. In addition, unlike beef, which becomes softer and tastier after a long cook in the sauce, chicken meatballs are better with a brief sweet cook. For an optimal texture, simmer gently until cooking is cooked (160 ° F or 71 ° C).

When I work with chicken, I often try to beat it in submission when you use it in a dish generally associated with beef. I arm the devil with all the Umami to try to transform it into a bankruptcy of red meat. This time, I allowed the chicken to spend time and be soft. Fresh aromatic herbs of parsley and basil, as well as a handful of parmesan, are all that is necessary here. For the sauce, a thick simmered pot and all day would overwhelm the chicken. Instead, a sauce cooked quickly with chopped basil maintains the lighter and cooler dish. Chicken meatballs are a surprisingly delicious variation of the old classic; They are delicious with pasta, but they also make an excellent submarine of meatballs.

August 2013

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