Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower

Chicken Meat Balls with Riced Cauliflower Meal Prep Counting Macros

Homemade Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower, a delicious protein packed, low fat recipe!

Are you on a weight loss journey? Sick of all the flavorless foods you might be eating to stick to your weight loss goals? Stop eating foods that taste like cardboard and start enjoying delicious low fat, high protein recipes. Like these Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower! Stay on track in enjoy tasty food!

Meat balls are extremely versatile, you can eat them alone, as an appetizer, as a sandwich, or as a main ingredient to a dinner recipe. If you love meat balls you are going to love these homemade chicken meatballs with riced cauliflower.

Meatballs are also great for meal prep, and even better for anyone counting macros.

How to make Homemade Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower:

Equipment:

  • Large Bowl
  • Large Saute Pan

Ingredients:

  • 3′ cloves’ Fresh Garlic,’ diced’ 
  • ½’ cup’ Yellow Onion,’ diced (about’ ½’ an onion)
  • ½’ cup’ Jalapeno,’ diced
  • 1′ tbsp’ Fresh Oregano
  • 10′ oz’ 98% Lean Ground Chicken
  • ¼’ cup’ Panko Breadcrumbs
  • ¼’ tsp’ Black Pepper
  • ½’ tsp’ Red Pepper Flake
  • ½’ tsp’ Reduced Sodium Chicken Base,’ optional
  • ¼’ cup’ Dubliner Cheese,’ white cheddar cheese, freshly shredded’ 
  • 1′ tsp’ Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2′ cups’ Riced Cauliflower,’ frozen
  • 4′ cups’ No Salt Added Diced Tomatoes,’ (about’ 2′ 14.5 oz cans)
  • ½’ tsp’ Garlic Powder
  • ½’ tsp’ Black Pepper
  • 2′ tbsp’ Tomato Paste

Instructions:

  1. In a large bowl combine: diced garlic, onion, jalapeno, oregano, ground chicken, panko, black pepper, red pepper, chicken base, and cheese. Mix together until everything is well combined.’ 
  2. Using your hands or a spoon, create 1 inch meatballs. You should be able to make 12 meat balls.’ 
  3. Heat a large saute pan to medium- high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the oil to the pan and place the meatballs in the pan.’ 
  4. Cook the meatballs for 2 minutes, then turn them. Continue to cook for 10 minutes turning the meatballs every 2 minutes to brown all around.’ 
  5. After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to medium. Then add the diced tomatoes to the pan. Season with the galic powder, black pepper, and add the tomato paste. Stir together, aranging the meatballs in the sauce. Then cover with a lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes, stiring about half way thru.’ 
  6. While the meatballs and sauce is coking, heat up your cauliflower. Place the frozen riced cauliflower in a bowl and microwave until all the water is absorbed. This should take 2-3 minutes.’ 
  7. Serve by plating the riced cauliflower, topping with your meatballs and sauce. Or portion out into your meal prep containers.
Chicken Meat Balls with Riced Cauliflower

NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:

This chicken meatballs with cauliflower rice is a wonderful recipe for meal prepping. You can store each serving in the fridge for up to 1 week and eat it as it fits your meal plan.’ Additionally, this is a great freezer friendly recipe, you can store this dish in the freezer for up to 6 months.

When its time to reheat; if coming from the fridge, simply place in the microwave with a lid loosely covering your container. Cook for 60 seconds, stopping to mix up the cauliflower half way through.’ 

If you froze these meatballs you will want to, heat them in the microwave for 3 minutes, or on the stove for 3-5 minutes, until warmed through.

NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:

PROTEIN:

The main source of protein in this recipe is the chicken, making this recipe super easy to increase or decrease the amount of protein per serving. 

  • Every 1/2 ounce of chicken has 4.4 grams of protein. 

This allows you to either make slightly larger meat balls, or increase the amount of ground chicken you use and make more meat balls and have a larger serving.

CARBOHYDRATE:

The tomatoes and riced cauliflower in this recipe is what provides most of the carbohydrates. However, as you can see there are is not a lot of carbs in this recipe, because cauliflower is a low carb ingredient.

Making adjustments to the tomatoes will either leave the dish a littler dry or too wet, so I would not recommend making adjusts to the tomatoes.

However, if you are looking to increase the carbs in this recipe you could increase the amount of cauliflower used. Or you could choose to swap out the cauliflower for another carbs, like rice or bread.

  • For every 50 grams (1/4 cup) of riced cauliflower there is 2.4 carbs.’ 
  • For every 45 grams (1/4 cup) of dry basmati rice there is 31.9 carbs.
  • Or put these meatballs and sauce into a sub roll. The carbs will be based on the type of roll you decide to use.

FAT:

This recipe is extremely low in fat. The only way to increase the fat would be to swap out the type of meat you use in these meatballs.

You could choose to use:

  • Ground turkey
  • A higher fat cut of chicken
  • Ground beef
  • Ground pork

All of which will adjust the fat in the recipe, but will be totally dependent on the type of meat and its individual fat content based on the cut of ground meat.

When making adjustments to the macros in this chicken meatballs with riced cauliflower recipe, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Italian
Keyword: Counting Macros, Meal Prep, Meat Balls
Servings: 3

Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower

Equipment

  • Large Bowl
  • Large Saute Pan

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a large bowl combine: diced garlic, onion, jalapeno, oregano, ground chicken, panko, black pepper, red pepper, chicken base, and cheese. Mix together until everything is well combined.
  • Using your hands or a spoon, create 1 inch meatballs. You should be able to make 12 meat balls.
  • Heat a large saute pan to medium- high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the oil to the pan and place the meatballs in the pan.
  • Cook the meatballs for 2 minutes, then turn them. Continue to cook for 10 minutes turning the meatballs every 2 minutes to brown all around.
  • After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to medium. Then add the diced tomatoes to the pan. Season with the galic powder, black pepper, and add the tomato paste. Stir together, aranging the meatballs in the sauce. Then cover with a lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes, stiring about half way thru.
  • While the meatballs and sauce is coking, heat up your cauliflower. Place the frozen riced cauliflower in a bowl and microwave until all the water is absorbed. This should take 2-3 minutes.
  • Serve by plating the riced cauliflower, topping with your meatballs and sauce. Or portion out into your meal prep containers.
Chicken Meat Balls with Riced Cauliflower

Macro Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Chicken Meatballs with Riced Cauliflower
Amount Per Serving
Calories 300 Calories from Fat 48
% Daily Value*
Fat 5.3g8%
Saturated Fat 0.8g5%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 45.8mg15%
Sodium 293.3mg13%
Potassium 268.6mg8%
Carbohydrates 29.4g10%
Fiber 6.1g25%
Sugar 13g14%
Protein 29.4g59%
Vitamin A 29.5IU1%
Vitamin C 126.4mg153%
Calcium 23.8mg2%
Iron 17.4mg97%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Looking for other Low Fat Recipes? Here are some of my all time favorites:

Are you on a Ket Diet? Check out some of my favorite Low Carb Recipes:

If you are on a weight loss journey it is important to have a well stocked pantry, one that will allow you to make easy healthy recipes, without much effort!

Here is my detailed checklist for keeping a well stocked pantry. Check it out and receive a printable version!

Pantry Staples Master List, The Ultimate Guide to Stocking your Pantry with Healthy Ingredients. Picture of a pantry Shelf with spices in glass jars.
The Ultimate Guide to Stocking your Pantry with Healthy Ingredients
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