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Meatballs in sour cream sauce in the oven

Oven-Baked Meatballs in Sour Cream Sauce

Incredibly tasty, tender, juicy, and light — perfect for any day of the week! These oven-baked meatballs in sour cream sauce are made with chicken, so they suit anyone counting calories or eating light. Leave out the pepper and use low-fat sour cream, and they're gentle enough for a toddler over one year old!

Maria

Recipe author

Meatballs in sour cream sauce in the oven

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Ground chicken

600

Milk

Eggs (small)

Onion

White bread (1 slice)

Vegetable oil (for searing the meatballs)

Ground black pepper

Salt

Broth (chicken, vegetable, or water)

300

Sour cream (15%)

250

Corn starch

Ground black pepper

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 43 % 9 g

Fats 43 % 9 g

Carbohydrates 14 % 3 g

132 kcal

GI: 67 / 33 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make oven-baked meatballs in sour cream sauce? Start by gathering the ingredients on the list. These meatballs are light, so they use lean ground chicken — but you can use other kinds of ground meat too. For the leanest meatballs of all, skip the store-bought ground meat and make your own: take a couple of chicken breasts, trim off all the fat, and run them through a meat grinder or pulse them in a blender.
Step 2:

Cut the crusts off a day-old slice of white bread, soak the crumb in the milk until it swells, then squeeze it out well.
Step 3:

Finely chop the onion. You can add it to the meat raw or sautéed — I added mine raw.
Step 4:

Combine the ground chicken, egg, soaked bread, onion, salt, and pepper. If you like, you can also stir in chopped parsley or dill, a pinch of paprika, or a seasoning blend for meatballs or ground-meat dishes. Use a small egg here — a large one can make the mixture too loose.
Step 5:

Mix the meat thoroughly until smooth. Chill it in the refrigerator for 30–40 minutes so it firms up and the meatballs hold together while cooking. If they still won't hold their shape after chilling, mix in a couple of tablespoons of semolina — it will soak up the excess moisture.
Step 6:

While the meat chills, make the sauce. You can use any broth — chicken, beef, or vegetable — or plain water if you don't have any. My sour cream is 15%, but use whatever fat content you prefer.
Step 7:

Whisk the corn starch into 50 ml of cold broth. If you only have potato starch, use half as much — it thickens more strongly than corn starch.
Step 8:

Pour the starch-broth mixture into the cold sour cream and stir well. Add the rest of the broth along with salt and pepper, and stir again. The sauce is ready.
Step 9:

With wet hands, roll the meat into meatballs no bigger than a walnut.
Step 10:

Sear the meatballs in vegetable oil for about 4–5 minutes until lightly golden, turning them to brown all sides. It's important not to overcook them at this stage — they'll darken further and toughen up in the oven, and you want to keep them tender and juicy. We sear them because the meat is very delicate, with no binder like rice, and it would fall apart in the oven without this step.
Step 11:

Arrange the meatballs in a single layer in a baking dish. For this many, a large dish with low sides works best — it leaves a little space between the meatballs and holds all the sauce, while still keeping the meatballs almost fully submerged.
Step 12:

Pour the sour cream sauce over the meatballs. Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F (180°C) for 25–30 minutes. Enjoy!

Keep in mind that every oven is different, so the temperature and baking time may vary from what's listed here. For reliable results with any baked dish, it helps to know the quirks of your own oven.
All cooking oils are good only up to a certain temperature — the smoke point — beyond which the oil starts to burn and form harmful compounds, including carcinogens. It's worth learning how to gauge frying temperature and pick the best oil for the job.
Since everyone's sense of salty, sweet, bitter, spicy, sour, and hot is different, always season to your own taste. When trying a seasoning for the first time, remember that some are easy to overdo — chili pepper, for one.