Chicken and zucchini meatballs under a feta sauce

Name: Chicken and zucchini meatballs under a feta sauce
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 3 large zucchini (about 1½ lb); 1 large shallot, halved; ½ cup panko; 1 ½ tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp red pepper flakes; 1 lb ground chicken (or ground turkey); 2 tbsp mint, chopped, plus more to finish (or basil, parsley or dill); ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing and drizzling; 3 tbsp lemon juice (from 1 large lemon); 4 oz feta; salt, pepper

Half the meatball is grated zucchini, which is the only reason a chicken meatball has any business being this juicy.

At a Glance

Time

45 min

Serves

Story

Ground chicken is lean to the point of rudeness and turns to sawdust the moment it overcooks. Grated zucchini fixes it from the inside: it is mostly water, and as the meatballs roast that water steams them from within instead of running out. This is the same reason a Greek keftedes leans on soaked bread and grated onion. Wet hands are the other half of the trick, since the mixture is loose and will glue itself to dry ones.

Ingredients

3 large zucchiniabout 1½ lb
1 large shallothalved
½ cup panko
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lb ground chickenor ground turkey
2 tbsp mintchopped, plus more to finish (or basil, parsley or dill)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oilplus more for greasing and drizzling
3 tbsp lemon juicefrom 1 large lemon
4 oz feta
saltpepper

Method

One vegetable, used two ways, on one pan. Two of the zucchini are grated into the meatballs and the third is sliced and roasted beside them, which means the side dish never needs a thought.

The sauce is barely a sauce. Feta broken into lemon juice and oil with raw shallot through it, spooned over while everything is hot.

Heat the oven to 425°F. Cut 2 of the zucchini into ½-inch slices, put them on a plate and salt them. Leave them there, they will weep a little and roast better for it.
Grate the remaining zucchini over a large bowl on the large holes of a box grater, then grate half the shallot in with it. Add the panko, cumin, ½ tsp of the pepper flakes and ½ tsp salt, and toss with your hands. Add the chicken and the mint and toss gently until just combined. Work it hard and you get a bouncy meatball, which is a different and worse thing.
Grease a sheet pan. With wet hands, roll the mixture into 16 meatballs, about 2 to 3 tablespoons each, and set them on one side of the pan. Drizzle with oil and roast 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, pat the sliced zucchini dry and toss it with about 1 tbsp oil and some pepper.
Chop the other shallot half into a small bowl with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt, and let it sit. Ten minutes in acid takes the raw bite off a shallot and leaves the flavor.
Add the sliced zucchini to the free half of the pan, shifting the meatballs over if you need to. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through and the zucchini is golden underneath. Broil a few minutes if you want them browner.
Break the feta into the shallot and lemon, add the ¼ cup oil and the remaining ½ tsp pepper flakes, and stir, breaking the feta up a bit as you go. Season.
Spoon the feta sauce over the meatballs and zucchini and scatter over more mint.