Chicken Balls (Ebelskivers)

For about a year, my 4-year-old had been wanting chicken balls for dinner. She created this idea that you could form chicken into balls and dip them in "white ketchup." For a while, every time we went out to eat she asked me if they could make chicken balls for her. Finally, I found a recipe for chicken meat balls. She told me that she liked them, but I could tell she wasn't truly satisfied. Then I got an email from my sister-in-law with this recipe for Chicken Ebelskivers with a buttermilk dipping sauce. I made them for dinner and my kids LOVED them!! The next day, my 4-year-old asked me when we were going to have chicken balls for dinner again. You may be asking, "What are ebelskivers?" They are these fun spherical Danish pancakes. You have to have an ebelskiver pan to make them. I have the Williams Sonoma nonstick pan and I love it. Ebilskivers were already a breakfast favorite around here and now they are a dinner favorite too!


Chicken Bites (Ebelskivers)

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups whole milk (I used 1 ½ cups skim milk + ½ cup nonfat plain yogurt)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
8 ounces chopped, cooked chicken breast meat
5 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley (or 5 tsp dried)
1 shallot, finely chopped
Buttermilk Dressing

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and , using a wooden spoon, stir until well blended. The batter will be lumpy.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Fold about one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then fold in the rest just until no white streaks remain. Gently fold in the chicken, parsley, and shallot, taking care not to deflate the mixture.

Brush the wells of the ebelskiver pan with some of the remaining melted butter and place over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add about 2 tablespoons of the batter to each well.

Cook until the bottoms of the pancakes are lightly browned and crisp, 3-5 minutes. Use 2 short wooden skewers to turn all the pancakes and cook until lightly browned on the other side, about 3 minutes longer.

Transfer the finished pancakes to a platter and keep warm in 200 degree oven while you repeat to cook more batches. Serve right away with the buttermilk dressing for dipping.

Buttermilk Dressing
3/4 cup mayonnaise (I substituted some of the mayonnaise with nonfat plain yogurt)
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 ½ tablespoons chopped Italian parsley (or 2 1/2 tsp dried)
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, parsley, cheese, and dried onion until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 8 hours, to blend the flavors.
Makes about 1 cup

Wowing the In-Laws

I got this recipe from Laurel (thanks for pre-screening it for me). I meant to make it earlier, but didn't get around to it and the chicken needed to be cooked the night my parents-in-law came into town, so I went ahead with it. Actually, I was a little embarassed that it looked so fancy. I couldn't stop giggling as I put everything on the plates! Seriously, it was an easy recipe and had a ton of great mexican flavor, which always does well in our house. The pinenuts made the breading extra crunchy. Another bonus is that since each piece of chicken is only a half a breast pounded out, you can fool yourself into eating less (it's satisfying enough for sure). Anyway, here's the recipe:
Chicken
1/2 c. buttermilk
2/3 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2 to 1/2-inch thickness
Corn or Olive Oil for frying

Green Chili Sauce
2/3 c. chicken broth
1 c. medium to hot bottled green salsa
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Garnish
1 Thinly sliced avocado
Sour Cream
Cilantro

Pour buttermilk into a shallow dish. Combine cornmeal, chili powder and salt in separate shallow dish. Stir in pine nuts. Place chicken in buttermilk and turn to coat. Dredge chicken in pine nut mixture, pressing mixture firmly into chicken to coat.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken breasts, sauteing until cooked through, about three minutes per side. Make sure that chicken is not overly crowded. If necessary, turn the heat to medium low if the pine nuts are browning too quickly. Transfer chicken to a plate covering it loosely with foil.

Add broth to drippings in skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to scrapte up browned bits. Stir in salsa and cream, simmering until slightly reduced, about three minutes, or desired thickness. Stir in cilantro.

Plate chicken, spooning sauce over each piece and topping with avocado, cilantro and sour cream if desired. I added some mexican rice underneath the chicken and served it all with some fresh cut-up veggies (a salad would have been nice too).