Swedish Chicken Meatballs with Cream Sauce

There’s no need to battle through a furniture shop to serve up these Swedish Chicken Meatballs…

A few years ago, I bribed my son with IKEA meatballs to get him out of the house on a shopping trip. Since, then meatballs have been a recurring feature on our family’s supper repertoire.  

While we live but a short 15 minutes’ drive away from the nearest IKEA, there are only so many picture frames and tealight candles that a person can have in one house. So I developed this recipe in order to satisfy family cravings for Swedish suppers – without requiring a labrynth-esque shopping trip.

We prefer chicken in this house, but this recipe does work equally well with a 50/50 mix of pork and beef. I serve six meatballs per person, atop a mound of buttery mashed potato, petit pois, a dollop of cranberry sauce and a glug of a Swedish-inspired cream sauce. The quantities here are enough to feed six hungry people.

Swedish Chicken Meatballs with Cream Sauce

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• Author: Tom
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 1x

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Ingredients

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For the meatballs

• 600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 egg
• 1 medium onion, coarsely grated
• 120g panko breadcrumbs
• 2 handfuls flatleaf parsley
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• ¼ tsp ground all spice
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 40g finely grated parmesan
• 1 tsp Salt flakes
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

 

For the cream sauce

• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 25g butter
• 3tsp Dijon mustard
• 8tsp swiss vegetable bouillon powder (or equivalent of veg stock cubes)
• 500ml boiled water
• 250ml single cream
• 1 handful flatleaf parsley
• 1tbsp sherry (optional)
• Salt
• White pepper

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Instructions

1. Put the chicken thighs into a food processor with the sharp blade attachment. Blitz on high until everything is finely chopped and resembles sausage meat.
2. Transfer the minced chicken to a large bowl. Add the grated onion, parmesan, crushed garlic, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, panko breadcrumbs, 2 handfuls of finely chopped flatleaf parsley, all spice and nutmeg, salt and pepper and egg. Use your hands to squish the mixture together until everything is evenly combined. Cover the bowl, and place to one side for 10 minutes to allow the mix to come together. You can use this time to ready the mashed potatoes and petit pois for serving at the end.
3. After 10 minutes, preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7 and line an oven tray with lightly oiled greaseproof paper.
4. Use a teaspoon to take a heaped spoonful of the meatball mixture before rolling with slightly moistened hands to form the meatballs. Place on the prepared oven tray, leaving a little gap between each meatball. I find that I can get around 36 meatballs from this quantity of mix – enough for 6 hungry adults.
5. When you have used up all the mix, place the tray in the preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until the meatballs are golden and cooked through.
6. To make the cream sauce, mix the vegetable bouillon powder with 500ml of recently boiled water. Melt the butter in a pan before mixing to a paste with the flour. When you have a smooth paste, gradually add the veg stock a little at a time, stirring briskly to incorporate all the liquid before adding a bit more. You want a smooth, thickened sauce by the time all the vegetable bouillon has been added. Whisk in the cream, 3 tsp dijon mustard and 1 handful of finely chopped flatleaf parsley before seasoning to taste. I also add a tbsp of sherry at this point, but this is optional. Pour the sauce into a few jugs to allow people to help themselves at the table.
7. Serve the meatballs atop creamed mashed potato. I also like a generous helping of petit pois and a good dollop of cranberry sauce, before a good splodge of the cream sauce. A guaranteed crowd pleaser.

• Prep Time: 25 Minutes
• Cook Time: 15 Minutes
• Category: dinner, meat & fish
• Cuisine: Swedish

Keywords: swedish meatballs, swedish, sweden, chicken, chicken , dinner, supper