Tapas : Chicken Albondigas (meatballs)

We had a tapas night the other day and was looking for chicken meatball recipes for those who don't eat beef or pork. I also needed something that didn't have tomatoes or peppers due to allergies of one of the guests. Needless to say it was a bit of a challenge and I couldn't find anything that met my needs exactly. However, I did find a great chicken recipe in a Lonely Planet cookbook called "Spain from the Source" (isbn: 9781760340766) that I used the the sauce for the base of the meatballs and it worked wonderfully!  I would suggest that you check out the book as I did remove all the flour from the recipe, I tend to avoid flour whenever possible.  I don't think I needed it but I did have to change a bit of how the sauce is thickened by blending in the onions because of skipping the flour.

So a bit about the original recipe, Gallina en Pepitoria (Chicken with almonds, saffron & onions)is based on Arabic cooking. Spain had a strong moorish influence and this dish was a favorite of Isabella II in the 19th century. She would visit Casa Ciriaco, a Madrid taberna to eat this dish. Gallina is the name for a older hen versus pollo which is a young chicken. So, to bring out the flavors of the meatball to be similar to a Gallina have a larger portion (or all) of ground leg meat over ground breast meat. My ratio was 70% leg with the rest breast meat but test out what works for you. If you use all leg meat, simmer for a longer period in the sauce, I just didn't have a lot of time which is why I had the breast meat in to bring a bit of "softness" without loosing the flavor.

Gallina En Pepitoria (tapas style)

• 1 - 1/2 pounds ground chicken
• 8 - 8 1/2 fl oz white wine (dry & a bit sweet)
• 8 - 8 1/2 fl oz water (make sure to use same amount as wine)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 oz ground almonds
• saffron, pinch
• 1 onion, sliced
• salt

1. In a large bowl, take the ground chicken, minced garlic, 1/4 cup parsley.  Mix and make meatballs, bite sized (about 2 teaspoons or a tablespoon of meat)
2. In a saucepan, put the wine, water, chicken stock, bayleaf, sliced garlic,  1/4 cup parsley, ground almonds, saffron - bring to boil and let simmer on a back burner. 
3. In a fry pan, take a bit of butter or olive oil and fry up the onion so it is lightly browned.  Add to sauce pan. 
4. Using same fry pan, add butter/oil as needed and start browning up and cooking the meatballs.
5. set meatballs to the side until all done. 
6. Take the sauce, pul out the bayleaf.  Blend to a nice uniform sauce.  It should be a nice saucy consistency.  Taste for salt and add to taste. 
7. Put meatballs and sauce together.  garnish with the rest of the parsley.