As I stated in my previous post I just came up with the idea in an extraordinary set of random thoughts and a bit of good ole boredom. The pic you see on the left is the final plate of Chicken Fried Meatballs that I served to my family on Sunday night. My sisters, parents, and wife all agreed that Chicken Friend Meatballs was a GREAT idea.
So how did I concoct these franken-meatballs......It was actually quite simple just a few steps in order to ensure the meatballs were cooked all the way through yes still juicy and golden brown.
I started with the meatballs recipe I had been using all weekend which is just a basic friggin meatballs recipe. Now of course every time I cook it my measurements are the most exact. I definitely come from the school of handful of this, shake a bit of that but here is the recipe template.
1.5 lbs of ground beef (higher fat content)
1.5 lbs of ground pork
2 eggs
1.5 tablespoons of chopped fresh oregano
.5 tablespoon of chopped fresh time
5 cloves of garlic ruff chopped
1 healthy pinch of salt (its all about you. salt the way you want but i used about a teaspoon)
1/8 cup of parmesan cheese
1/8 cup of bread crumbs ( or enough to bind it based on the size of your eggs )
Canola Oil
Get a skillet and get it nice and hot with a nice coating of canola oil. We are going to toss in the raw meatballs allowing them to sear on each side very quickly so we seal in all the goodies in the meatball. Now the trick is to get the oil REALLY hot so it sears in like 45 seconds on each side and we turn the balls. WE DO NOT want them to cook at this stage we just want to seal in the juices!
Ok. Once you remove them from the oil. Turn the burner off and let the skillet sit. We are going to be using the same oil later and building on it to create the fry and more so the gravy! The more we use it the more Sabor it has. hehe.
Ok once the meatballs are out of the oil make sure to put them on a baking tray and stick that right into your freezer. The point is to as quickly as possible stop the meatball from cooking ASAP! If it over cooks it will dry out and a dry meatball is not so nice. Once they are not hot to the touch move them to the refrigerator as we dont really want them to freeze. We just wanted to stop the cooking.
Preheat your oven at this point to 350 degrees
Drop the meatballs in there for 8 mins and them quick chill them again by putting them in the freezer and following it up with a tour in the frig. At this point so grab a glass of wine and take a break as the meatballs cool. I find taking a break from cooking while you are in between steps is a great way to reinvigorate yourself for the remainder of the cooking journey.
OK. You are probably thinking to yourself at this point
"This might be a bit more work than I had expected! Should I abort this mission???"
Well I am here to tell you HAVE FAITH. The total time required for this is probally 1hr-1hr15m but it is SO WORTH IT! So carry on my munchie maven...carry on!
Ok so lets prep what we are going to be rolling the balls in.
We need the following:
3 1" deep trays
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of butter milk
1/4 cup of whole milk
1/8 cup of canola oil
1 egg
2 tablespoons of manteca (fancy for lard. don't hate it. celebrate it)
Tray 1: 1 cup of flour
Tray 2: Mix the butter milk, milk, and egg
Tray 3: Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 teaspoon of salt
Setup a baking tray with parchment paper on it so you can put the battered meatballs on them once you are done rolling them around in the goodness.
Take out your meatballs from the refrigerator. For every meatball you have put it through the following process:
Step 1: Roll in tray 1 coating the whole meatball with flour
Step 2: Dip the newly floured meatball in the tray 2
Step 3: Drop the meatball in tray 3 and absolutely COAT the meatball with the flour and salt mix
Step 4: Place on the parchment paper baking tray
Once all the meatballs are coated its back in the refrigerator to allow them to set with the batter. 10-20 minutes will do which is the perfect amount of time to once again drink a glass of wine and simply breath.
In the same pan we used before add the lard and oil and heat that puppy up to real hot. Place the meat balls in the hot oil and flip roll em around every minute or so until there is a nice even brown coating. You should NOT be frying very long. If this last longer then 10 mins you need to abort as you will have dry yucky meat balls. Its all about cooking the batter and finishing the meatball a bit.
When you take the meatballs out let them rest for 5 mins on some paper towel to dry them off then plate them.
Once you have all that wrapped follow Alton Brown's recipe for gravy in his chicken fried steak recipe that is located here.
Once your gravy is done then pour them over the meatballs to give them a nice coat and increase the moisture a bit and serve em up.
So...
Chicken Fried Meatballs
They take a while
They are delicious
They are worth the work
That my friends are Munchedia's Chicken Fried Meatballs!
