I created this chicken meatballs with rice recipe to keep up with our diet requirements during a 12-week low-carb diet program. Though we no longer abide by that, I had a lot of good takeaway lessons in nutrition. The meatballs are made with chicken breast and cooked cabbage seasoned with bezar spice mix.
During the low-carb, high-fat eating phase, we measured and cooked food according to the diet chart, which is also called Quantitative Nutrition in the diet world. Now, making chicken meatballs with veggies makes it easy for me to divide the portion between us.
This chicken meatballs with rice recipe was inspired by my Persian cabbage polo recipe but portion controlled for this recipe.
Ingredients
A lot of Indian or Arabic meatballs or koftas don't call for breadcrumbs or eggs. They are made purely with the meat and the flavours. I had oats for that week's diet chart so used a little oats flour just as insurance and it worked beautifully! I have already tried it with flax meal and chia seeds and they too work great! These meatballs are juicy, easy to cut (won't fly off the plate) and flavourful!
Here are the key ingredients I used to make these chicken meatballs without breadcrumbs or eggs:
- Produce: cabbage, onions, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves and tomato
- Poultry: chicken boneless breasts
- Ground spices: cumin powder, bezar spice mix, turmeric powder and cinnamon powder
- oats flour
- olive oil or ghee or butter
- Whole spices: black lime, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf, black peppercorns and saffron
- basmati rice
How to make it?
- shape the meatballs and pan-sear them until browned on all sides
- boil the rice in sauteed spices and meatballs
- cover and cook until cooked through
- serve with yoghurt and salad
See the recipe card for details.
Substitutions
- Cabbage: You can replace this with any other vegetables like broccoli, bottle gourd, or zucchini.
- boneless chicken breasts: You can use boneless thighs or chicken tenders
- bezar spice mix: If you don't have it, I highly recommend making my small batch recipe. Otherwise, you can use any other Arabic spice blend you have. This is not a traditional dish, so you can experiment.
- oats flour: You can use flaxseed flour
Variations
For a more traditional Arabic rice recipe, check my Bahraini chicken machboos or Sella rice chicken machboos recipe.
Storage
Highly unlikely to have leftovers but if you do, refrigerate and consume within 3 to 5 days.
Related
Looking for similar recipes? Try these:
F had no clue that these meatballs had veggies... He kept coming into the kitchen like a cat that smells meat... and when I served the Majboos and cabbage meatballs, his eyes lit up with happiness, "No veggies today!!" I didn't want to disappoint him so let him eat what he believed! 😀
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📖 Recipe Card
Chicken Meatballs with Rice
Ingredients
For the chicken meatballs: Yields 14
- 150 grams cabbage, chiffonade and cooked
- 300 grams boneless chicken, chopped roughly
- ½ medium onion, chopped roughly
- 2 to 3 green chillies, chopped roughly
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon bezar spice mix
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 2 tablespoon oats flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon ghee or butter, or olive oil
For majboos rice
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 loomi, dried lime
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 2 green cardamom
- 2 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 large onion, diced finely
- 1 medium-sized tomato, chopped finely
- ¼ teaspoon bezar spice mix
- 150 grams basmati rice, ⅔ cup, washed and soaked for 30 minutes and drained
- a pinch of saffron strands, brewed
- 11/2 cup hot water
Instructions
Prepare chicken meatballs
- Keep all the ingredients ready. Add all the meatballs ingredients except the oil into a large mixie grinder and pulse a few times until well combined. You should stir and wipe down the contents and pulse until mixed thoroughly. Transfer to a bowl and make equal-sized meatballs (approx 14)
- Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge for the flavours to marry. At this point, you can freeze it individually and then pack it in a box or bag.
- Heat some choice of oil in a pot and brown the meatballs until cooked - 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the meatballs and keep them aside. Use the same pot for making the rice.
Prepare majboos rice
- Heat ghee or olive oil and add the whole spices and saute until fragrant.
- Add the onions and sauté until almost caramelized.
- Add the tomatoes and bezar spice mix and sauté until cooked down.
- Add the drained rice and fry for a few seconds. Pour enough HOT water to submerge the rice
- Drop the meatballs carefully and bring to boil on high flame. Let it boil until there is no water on the surface.
- Reduce to the lowest flame. Sprinkle the saffron water and give a stir. Cover the pot with foil and then close with a tight lid. Keep a flat pan below this pot to prevent burnt food.
- Cook for 10 minutes and switch off the flame. Let it stay undisturbed for 8 to 10 minutes. Open and serve warm with yoghurt or green salad.
Nutrition Info
Adapted Rafeeda's Majboos recipe.
Blesy Ragadi (philippines) says
I found this very helpful. Thank you so much !