Tropical spaghetti: Firecracker chicken meatballs on a bed of rice noodles topped with my favorite mango salsa.
🍝🌶🥭 AKA my tropical play on a classic spaghetti dinner. 🍝🌶🥭
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This recipe is a "have a back-up glass of water ready and milk ready at all times" kind of meal for sure. It packs heat in the meatball sauce and within the meatballs themselves...so yeah that IS a spicy meatball!
It turns out having a jalapeño plant means you are going to have a lot of spicy dinners over the summer. Which I'm honestly ok with now that I'm grown up. When I was younger I hated anything with a kick, now I am weirdly addicted to the hot sensation of spice in food...Plus I have so many tropical salsas that I adore, which adds a nice layer of cool to the heat. Clyde the jalapeño has been working hard during this Pandemic summer and I sure am proud of him.
Firecracker Chicken Meatballs
On rice noodles and drizzled in my go-to mango salsa
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked rice noodles (OR 1 cup cooked jasmine rice)
For The Meatballs:
1 lb ground chicken (Or ground turkey)
2 eggs
1 small jalapeño diced and deseeded
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbs green onions (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
For the Firecracker Sauce/Glaze:
1/2 cup Hot Sauce
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 a jalapeño (or less depending on heat preference) deseeded and minced
For the Mango Salsa:
1 ripe mango (diced)
2 Roma tomatoes (diced)
1/2 a jalapeño (deseeded and minced)
1 tbsp dried cilantro
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 lime (juiced)
1/2 a red onion (diced)
Method:
For The Firecracker Sauce:
1* In a saucepan combine and mix all of the sauce ingredients.
2* Heat the ingredients on a medium-high heat on your cooktop.
3* Bring the mixture to a boil.
4* Reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 8-10 minutes allowing the sauce to thicken into a sort of glaze.
5* Remove your sauce from the heat and set aside to use later.
For The Mango Salsa:
1* In a large bowl combine, toss, and mix all of the ingredients together (after chopped, minced, diced, or juiced.) This one is a pretty simple recipe, it just requires a lot of prep/chopping time.
2* Set this aside for later.
*3*Start preparing your rice noodles or rice as this will take some time to cook.
For The Meatballs:
1* Preheat your oven to 450° F
2* Prepare two baking/cookie sheets by lightly greasing them with cooking spray.
3* In a large bowl add all of the meatball ingredients together and mix using your hands (to avoid over-mixing and prevent your meatballs from being dry).
4* Using your hands (messy I know, but that is the fun of cooking really) roll out your meatballs. They will be about 3 tbs in size.
5* Place your meatballs on the cookie sheet just like you would cookie dough, leaving space in between each of them.
6* Bake your meatballs for 12-15 minutes or until they are cooked through (reaching an internal temperature of at least 165° F).
7* Allow your meatballs to cool for about 2-3 minutes on the baking sheets. Transfer your meatballs into a large bowl or container.
Putting it All Together Now:
1* Poor your firecracker glaze on top of the meatballs and toss/stir to coat each meatball.
2* Plate your rice noodle or rice, put the meatballs on top of this, and then drizzle your mango salsa on top of this.
Et Voila!
A few Lil. Notes:
If you are just one uni. student this will make about 4-5 servings, so you will have leftovers perfect for freezing or an amazing meal to share with your roomies and neighbors!
I used panko bread crumbs, but any breadcrumb will work. It is simply a binding agent in the meatballs. If you don't have any bread crumbs around you can crush up some crackers (such as Rits or Club Crackers). Or you can chuck some bread into a food processor (sounds weird but totally works).
I served mine with some lemony sautéed spinach mainly because it was a request from my mom. It sounds like it wouldn't really go with this meal but it added a great refreshing component to the meal. Any vegetable would work! If you want a veg. side of course.
For the Salsa, I find it is best to get a mango that is ripe but not too squishy. An overripe mango is challenging to dice up for the salsa.
Clyde The Jalapeño.
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