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Jessica Gavin
August 23, 2023
5 from 23 votes
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Baked chicken florentine meatballs with homemade tomato sauce! Tender pieces of white meat combined with fresh spinach for a healthy meal full of flavor.
These chicken florentine meatballs are super tender, packed with spinach in each bite, and ready in a snap. A big pot of tomato sauce simmers as you mix, shape, and bake the meatballs. Viola! Instant appetizer or maybe a family dinner if you decide to serve it with pasta or spaghetti squash.
I have a chicken florentine and meatball obsession. It hasn’t always been this way, but ever since I married my Italian husband, I’ve been on a mission to create the perfect recipe. It’s fun to combine different flavor combinations to give you a unique, tasty creation each time. Now that I’ve got the meatball base down, I decided to add vegetables to the mix for a healthy meal!
How to prepare chicken meatballs
After receiving vigorous Italian cuisine training with Jason’s mom, Joan, and Grandma Rose, I’ve been experimenting and tweaking my meatball recipe over the years. The hubby is a tough critic when it comes to his favorite meals, but I suppose I appreciate his honesty.
I’ve realized there’s a secret when it comes to Italian family cooking, the cooks making their famous dishes don’t measure out the ingredients! They typically go by look, feel, and experience. Well, I’ve written this chicken florentine meatballs recipe down so we can all recreate the yumminess!
The meat-to-breadcrumb ratio
- 1 pound meat
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 large egg
Due to the chicken meat being so lean, a quick 20-minute bake in a 400-degree oven roasts them to perfection. To add that nice brown crust, a few minutes under the broiling turned the meatballs up a notch.
Chopped spinach goes into the meatball mixture to switch up the flavor profile, and it adds nutritional benefits. I was a little surprised at how green the meatballs looked, but they were really pretty once browned from the broiler. The spinach color stayed a lovely vibrant green, making for an eye-catching and intriguing dish.
There must be an unspoken rule that you should never, ever, EVER serve meatballs without a sauce. Or at least that’s my opinion. It’s just so much more satisfying to roll, dip, and smother each meatball in a tasty tomato sauce. Raise your hand up high if you agree!
I made a very quick and fool-proof tomato sauce as the first step so that it has time to simmer and concentrate into a delicioussauce. I always look for San Marzano canned tomatoes when I don’t have super ripe fresh tomatoes for the sauce.
San Marzano plum canned tomatoes are imported from Italy. They are special because they are picked at maximum ripeness and have a natural sweetness and low acidity that just makes the sauce irresistible.
This chicken florentine meatball recipe is very versatile because you can make it as a snack before dinnertime or serve it with lasagna rolls, bread, or salad to make it a full meal. My family usually requests these with a big bowl of spaghetti, then leftover meatball sandwiches the next day for lunch. How will you enjoy these healthy meatballs?
Recipe Science
How does using a panade help make meatballs tender?
For this chicken florentinerecipe, I added some milk to helpcreate a panadewith the panko breadcrumbs. A panade is a mixture of starch and liquid that is added to ground meat to help keep the size and shape of the meatball intact while retaining moisture and tenderness. Because ground chicken is so lean, adding a little more moisture and fat from the milk absorbed into the breadcrumbs adds a little insurance. Nobody enjoys dry meatballs, I promise!
Chicken Florentine Meatballs
Baked chicken florentine meatballs with homemade tomato sauce! Tender pieces of white meat combined with fresh spinach for a healthy meal full of flavor.
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5 from 23 votes
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time35 minutes mins
Total Time1 hour hr 25 minutes mins
Servings 12 meatballs
Course Appetizer, Entree
Cuisine Italian
Ingredients
Tomato Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup yellow onions, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 28 ounce crushed tomatoes, canned San Marzano recommended
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 large egg
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 5 cups baby spinach, finely chopped
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Tomato Sauce
Heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add garlic and onion, saute until onions are translucent, 3 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir to combine. Add tomatoes, salt and oregano stir and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
Meatballs
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a sheet tray with foil and lightly coat with oil and set aside.
In a large bowl combine chicken, egg, garlic, chopped spinach, panko bread crumbs, milk, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
Roll meatballs in 12 equal portions, about 1 ½-inches, 2 to 3 tablespoons in size. Evenly space them on the baking sheet.
Place pan in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Turn oven to broil and cook meatballs another 2 to 3 minutes, until they are golden-brown on top. Serve with sauce.
Equipment
Nutrition Facts
Serves: 12 meatballs
Calories 103kcal (5%)Carbohydrates 8g (3%)Protein 12g (24%)Fat 3g (5%)Saturated Fat 1g (5%)Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 38mg (13%)Sodium 285mg (12%)Potassium 171mg (5%)Fiber 1g (4%)Sugar 1g (1%)Vitamin A 1500IU (30%)Vitamin C 9.9mg (12%)Calcium 80mg (8%)Iron 0.9mg (5%)
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. All nutritional information is based on estimated third-party calculations. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods, and portion sizes per household.
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Jessica Gavin
I'm a culinary school graduate, cookbook author, and a mom who loves croissants! My passion is creating recipes and sharing the science behind cooking to help you gain confidence in the kitchen.
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Reader Interactions
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20 Comments Leave a comment or review
Oleg says
Hi,
Could you please add an alternative metric, since I had to convert ounces, pounds…to grams?
Used 300g of chicken, 50g spinach, 83g of bread crumbs and 43g of milk. Meatballs were nicely formed. As a result, when cooked for 20 min at 205C in the oven, meatballs were dry at the end. Do you know what went wrong?But the sauce was amazing!
Learning to cook, just shared my result 🙂
Thank youReply
Valerie says
Oh wow! These are really good!! I could have chopped my spinach a little finer, but it’s no matter. I had a pound of ground chicken in the freezer that I bought on sale without a plan and this was the perfect vehicle for it! I’m going to add this into my rotation of dinners.
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Jessica Gavin says
Thank you for your feedback! Glad to hear that the meatballs have made it into dinner rotation!
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Jeannie Bird says
Made these yesterday and doubled the recipe. Used 1 lb chicken and 1 lb turkey. Doubled the cheese and garlic. They are really great! I made the mistake of putting them into the tomato sauce in the pot and the sauce overwhelmed them since they are so fine and delicately flavored. Chopping the spinach was pretty labor-intense but I will definitely make these again – perhaps for co*cktails snacks. Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe!
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Jan says
Regarding Chicken Florentine Meatballs; can you sub frozen chopped spinach drained for the fresh spinach and, if so, would one 10 oz pkg be correct?
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Jessica Gavin says
I would use 5 ounces of the defrosted and drained frozen spinach.
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Trish says
I made these today. Sub’d feta instead of parm. Added a teaspoon of chicken base and cooked them in the air fryer. Fantastic!
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Jessica Gavin says
Sounds so yummy, how long did you cook it in the air fryer? I would love to try it!
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Lisette says
Hi. Can I substitute fresh tomatoes for the paste? Hate paste
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Jessica Gavin says
Hi Lisette- Yes, I think you could add in 1 cup diced tomatoes after you add in the garlic and allow it to reduce down to remove the excess moisture. Or you can simply simmer the sauce longer until it thickens. The paste is added to deepen the tomato flavor and add thickness to the sauce quicker.
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Sharon says
Thanks for this recipe, Jessica! I made this the other day and they were so easy to make and delicious!
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Jessica Gavin says
You’re welcome! I’m so happy to hear that you had success with the recipe 🙂
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Trang says
I made this last week, it was yummy!
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Jessica Gavin says
Thank you Trang! So glad that you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
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Molly says
How do you suggest making meatballs gluten free? I was diagnosed with celiac last week and this recipe was on my list to do before that news 🙂
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Jessica Gavin says
Hi Molly! I’m sorry to hear that you were diagnosed with celic 🙁 Not to fret, we can find substitutions! I have used 1 cup finely chopped brown mushrooms please 1 tablespoons cornstarh or arrowroot starch in the mixture to replace the 1 cup of breadcrumbs. Do not add the milk. You can also look for gluten free bread crumbs or make your own 🙂
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Dennis says
What about substituting ground pork for chicken?
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Jessica Gavin says
I think that would work great Dennis! It will be very flavorful and tender with the pork 🙂
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Bill Southard says
What do think about substituting Ground turkey for the ground chicken ?
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Jessica Gavin says
Absolutely! Go for it Bill 🙂
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