How to Prep Chicken Meatballs

This post was written in a paid partnership with Manitoba Chicken Producers. As always, all opinions are my own and I only promote products and services that I use and love.

There are some recipes that are what I like to call “meal prep powerhouses” and these Chicken Meatballs & Tomato Sauce from Manitoba Chicken Producers is one of them. They’re easy to batch cook and versatile so you can serve them in different ways once you’ve made the meatballs.

Making the Chicken Meatballs

Personally, when I make these, I make a quadruple batch. You’re already doing the work and have all the ingredients, so it doesn’t take too much extra effort to roll out more meatballs.  This is a great way to get your kids involved in the kitchen too! Simple tasks like measuring, mixing and rolling can be great for young ones, while older kids could likely complete this whole recipe on their own.

To portion out the meatballs, I love using a triggered cookie scoop. This gives you a perfectly sized meatball every time. Use a larger scoop for jumbo meatballs and smaller scoop for bite-sized ones.

When rolling out the meatballs, it helps to oil your hands with cooking spray or olive oil to prevent the mixture from sticking to your fingers as you roll.

Freezing Raw Chicken Meatballs

You can freeze raw or cooked meatballs. When freezing raw meatballs, space them out on a parchment-covered sheet pan and pop them in the freezer. This step prevents them from clumping together, so you can take out as many or as little as you want for each meal.  Once they’re frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer bag.

Freezing Cooked Chicken Meatballs

If you prefer to freeze cooked meatballs (this makes for a quick reheated meal), bake them on a parchment-covered sheet pan in the oven or air-fryer. The cooking time will vary depending on the size of your meatballs. To ensure they are fully cooked, use a digital meat thermometer. Ground chicken is perfectly cooked at 165⁰F.  Let them cool completely, then spread them out on another parchment-covered sheet pan, again, separated so they don’t clump together. Once they’re frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag.

Sauces to Use for the Meatballs

I love that this recipe is neutrally seasoned with garlic, onion and parsley, so you can serve them with a variety of sauces and in different ways.

You can make the tomato sauce in large batches using my Slow Cooker Marinara Sauce recipe, but you can also use a store-bought shortcut jarred tomato sauce.

The best part about this recipe is that once you make the meatballs, you could serve them every week in a different sauce. Try them in alfredo or pesto sauce over pasta, or sweet & sour, teriyaki sauce or gravy over rice or your favorite grain.

Other Ways to Serve Chicken Meatballs & Tomato Sauce

If you wanted to reconstruct this recipe, try a chicken meatball sandwich. Serve the meatballs and tomato sauce on toasted garlic buttered buns with melty mozzarella and parmesan.

Alternatively, try serving them “naked” in a sheet pan meal with roasted veggies or add them to this Sheet Pan Gnocchi recipe and drizzle them with balsamic reduction.

Don’t forget to consider these for an easy appetizer. Serve bite-sized meatballs with toothpicks and your favorite dipping sauce.

Meal Prepping Chicken Meatballs

The key here is to do the work once, do the dishes once and have enough meatballs for several meals. Work smarter, not harder!

Let’s recap all the ways you can serve these chicken meatballs.

  • Simmered in tomato sauce
  • Tossed in fettucine alfredo
  • Drizzled with pesto and pasta
  • Served as a meatball sandwich with tomato sauce & mozzarella
  • Baked in a sheet pan meal with roasted vegetables
  • Added to sheet pan gnocchi and drizzled with balsamic reduction
  • Dipped in your favorite sauce as an appetizer

One recipe, 6 ways. Take the guesswork out of planning your meals and think of new ways that you can serve the same meal component, like we did here today. Now you have 6 new meal ideas! Which one will you try first?

Moroccan Chicken Kofta

This post was written in a paid partnership with Manitoba Chicken Producers. As always, all opinions are my own and I only promote products and services that I use and love.

Summer is fast-approaching and that means dining outside, weekends at the cottage and maybe a few camping excursions. I love the simplicity of this Moroccan Chicken Kofta recipe for all those activities.  It’s easy to prep in advance and batch cook plus, you can cook it and serve it in a few different ways.

How to prep chicken kofta in advance

This recipe comes together in two steps: Mix and shape.  Since the assembly is so quick, I would double, triple, or even quadruple this recipe since it’s easy to freeze. 

The seasonings are like those used in falafel: garlic, onion, parsley, cumin and coriander.  Other spices you will need are likely already in your pantry: cinnamon, allspice, cayenne, salt & pepper. The addition of a bit of fresh mint really adds a punch of flavor.

Once you have mixed and shaped the ingredients you can freeze the kofta individually on a sheet pan. It will be a lot easier to store the kofta if they aren’t on the skewers, so you might want to consider freezing the logs without skewers or shaping the kofta mixture into patties or meatballs.

Once the kofta is frozen, transfer it to a freezer bag to use at your convenience.

How to cook chicken kofta

Depending on how you decide to shape the kofta, you can make it on the grill, bake it in the oven or cook it in a skillet on the stove. You can also cook it over a campfire!

Food safety tip: To ensure that chicken is cooked to a safe temperature, use a meat thermometer.  Cook ground chicken to 165°F (74°C). It’s important to note that cooking times will vary depending on the cooking method and the size of the pieces.

Download a Cooking Perfect Chicken is Easy Reference Card here!

Serving suggestions

Depending on how you shape the Moroccan Chicken Kofta, you have a few options for serving it:

  • Serve patties in mini naan rounds, topped with hummus, pickled banana peppers, lettuce, tomato and onions.
  • Serve meatballs with tzatziki and grilled vegetables or on a mezze platter with a few dips, crudités and tabouleh.  You’ll likely have some fresh mint, parsley and garlic leftover from making the kofta, so tabouleh is the perfect side to maximize those ingredients.
  • Stuff logs into pita pockets with hummus or tahini sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and olives and cilantro.

Meal prep tips for Moroccan Chicken Kofta

Let’s recap some of the great meal prep tips you can apply to this recipe:

  • Low prep, in two easy steps
  • Double, triple or quadruple the batch.
  • Freeze prepped kofta raw or cooked
  • Cook it in a skillet, in the oven, on the grill or over a campfire.
  • Make it in advance.
  • Use the same ingredients in your side dishes and/or condiments.
  • Shape it in different ways.
  • Serve it in different ways.

Make sure you add this to your summer menu!

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast burritos are an easy meal to prep and freeze for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I like to make these assembly-line style to save time. Use your favorite fillings to customize them to your taste and follow the same process to make burritos for lunch or dinner.

A person holding a cooked breakfast burritos with the filling showing.

Breakfast burrito basics

You can use almost any vegetable or protein in your breakfast burritos. You will absolutely need:

  • large flour tortillas
  • eggs
  • seasonings
  • protein and veggies
  • cheese

How much do I need of each ingredient?

The guideline I typically use is 2 eggs for each large tortilla. The rest of the ingredients, you can adjust according to how big you want your burritos to be. This recipe is extremely flexible. If you don’t have quite enough eggs, add more protein and veggies to compensate for that.

Seasoning the eggs

Seasoning the eggs is an important step to adding flavor to your breakfast burritos. I like to use Epicure dip mixes, like French Onion, CCB or Garden Vegetable to add flavor. Onion powder or flakes and garlic powder are also great additions to use. If you’re using dip mixes, you’ll want to scramble the eggs and let the seasoning rehydrate in the eggs before cooking.

Prepping the toppings

You want to cook the toppings, before adding the eggs. This allows the vegetables to release their water, preventing a soggy breakfast burrito. Here are some combinations I like:

  • Broccoli and cheese
  • Sausage & peppers
  • Mushroom, peppers and real bacon bits

I also like to add pickled banana peppers to all of these combinations for an extra kick. Basically, any topping you would put in an omelet would work well in a breakfast burrito.

Assembling the breakfast burritos

Using an assembly line to prep these breakfast burritos is quick and helps ensure all your burritos are the same size. Spread out all the tortillas on the counter. You don’t need to warm them, unless your tortillas are really dry. The heat from the filling will warm them slightly, making them easier to roll.

Start by sprinkling a small layer of shredded cheese on the tortilla. You will do this again on top of the filling. Adding the cheese on the top and bottom helps seal the tortillas while they bake and holds everything in.

Then add a large scoop of filling to each tortilla. You are aiming for about one cup of filling/burrito.

Once you have distributed the filling to all of the tortillas, ensure they are approximately all the same size and make any adjustments if necessary.

Next, add the pickled banana peppers if using, then top with another layer of cheese.

Tortillas spread out on a table with piles of filling on each one.

Folding the breakfast burritos

When you are folding, move the filling to the middle third of the tortilla. Fold in the sides first, then, fold up the bottom and roll the rest.

A hand folding in both sides of a tortilla over the filling.
A person rolling up a tortilla from the bottom, with the sides folded in.

Freezing the burritos

Once you have rolled all of the burritos, line them up on a parchment covered baking sheet, seam side down, and freeze them before storing in a freezer bag. Alternatively, you can wrap them individually in plastic wrap or foil, then place them in a freezer bag, if you don’t have the freezer space to freeze them on a baking sheet first. Use this same process to roll up leftover burrito bowl fillings to have for a quick lunch or dinner.

Rolled burritos on a baking sheet.

Reheating the burritos

You can reheat these burritos a few ways, depending on how much time you have. I like to defrost them slightly in the microwave for about four minutes, before either broiling on each side until browned, or baking for approximately 20 minutes. If you don’t defrost them in the microwave, you can simply bake them for about an hour. You can also place foil wrapped burritos on a campfire or BBQ if you are taking them camping. Check out my tips for packing for camping here.

Serving your breakfast burritos

The burritos will be hot when you take them out of the oven, so let them rest for 5-10 minutes before digging in. Add your favorite hot sauce, guacamole or salsa while you eat or try my favorite, chili crisp as a spicy topping.

If you still have some toppings left after making your burritos, try this breakfast pizza for another easy breakfast option.

two breakfast pizzas side by side

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast burritos are an easy meal to prep and freeze for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Make these assembly-line style to save time and use your favorite fillings to customize them to your liking.

Course Breakfast
Keyword breakfast, burrito, double-batch, eggs
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 10 burritos

Ingredients

  • 10 large flour tortillas
  • 20 eggs
  • 2 tbsp seasonings of your choice Epicure dip mixes, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, onion flakes
  • 5 cups filling peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, bacon bits, ham, sausage
  • 2 1/2 cups shredded cheese Use 1/4 cup per burrito. 2 Tbsp. on the bottom, 2 Tbsp. on top of the filling.
  • pickled banana peppers (optional)
  • salsa, hot sauce, guacamole, chili crisp (optional)

Instructions

  1. Chop vegetables and protein you will use for the filling. If using sausage, remove from casing before cooking.

  2. Scramble and season the eggs.

  3. Cook the protein and vegetables until the water has evaporated.

  4. Add the eggs and continue stirring until cooked through and the filling is dry.

  5. Lay out the tortillas and add 2 Tbsp. shredded cheese to each one.

  6. Top each tortilla with approximately 1 cup of filling. Once you have topped all the tortillas, adjust to ensure they are roughly all the same size.

  7. Top with pickled banana peppers if using.

  8. Add 2 Tbsp shredded cheese to the top.

  9. Place the filling on the bottom third of the tortilla. Fold in the sides, then roll from the bottom.

  10. Place seam-side down on a parchment covered baking sheet and freeze.

  11. Store frozen burritos in a freezer bag.

Reheating burritos from frozen (long and lazy method)

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the burritos in the oven while it is preheating and continue baking for approximately one hour, or until burritos are browned.

Reheating burritos from frozen (standard method)

  1. Place burritos in the microwave for 4 minutes.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the burritos in the oven while it is preheating and continue baking for approximately twently minutes, or until burritos are browned.

Reheating burritos from frozen (quick method)

  1. Place burritos in the microwave for 4 minutes.

  2. Broil burritos for about 5 minutes on each side, or until browned.

Recipe Notes

The filling recipe is flexible! If you don’t have 20 eggs, add more protein and veggies to compensate for that and vice versa.