Mary’s Recipe of the Day: Greek chicken meatballs | The Good Stuff with Mary Berg

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hi everybody how’s it going oh my goodness hello everybody and welcome to the show we are live today fun fact I have got extra makeup here because I go really red when I’m nervous and that’s okay I am so so excited all week long I have been showing you how to make some of your absolute fave takeout eats at home and today it’s time for my final dish of the week this is my take on [Applause] takeout all right so all week again I’ve been making like classic delicious takeout dishes and I’ve been like searching for inspiration all over the place in particular this very office upstairs where we actually work to make the show and this recipe seems like it was inspired by my mom Myra BG but it’s actually inspired by someone I work with upstairs you’re going to meet her a little later on but it is going to be Greek chicken meatballs with orzo absolutely delicious it’s going to have all those flavors of kind of sort of like slovaki we’ve got a little bit of Greek salad action there’s obviously going to be some feted cheese cuz why not I’m super excited about it and it takes no time flat this is licky split cooking so way faster than going to your Greek place or ordering it in so I right I love saving time and I love saving cash so this is a perfect recipe for anyone who’s like that fantastic all right so we’re going to get started on the orzo cuz I want to do some sort of kind of starch to go in these bowls so I’ve got about a cup and a half of orzo here and orzo is like the rice of the pasta area so when you’re looking for it you find it in the pasta aisle but it kind of looks well kind of like rice whoops I’m spilling it everywhere that’s okay it’s really really tasty it’s honestly one of my husband aon’s favorite pasta shapes kind of chaos choice but it’s really really good so I’ve got a a pot of boiling water here and I’m going to add in a good amount of salt cuz like when you’re cooking any sort of pasta most of this water is going down the drain so you want to season it well so those noodles actually absorb some of that and season as they cook so I’m going to add into that water a cup and a half to two cups of that orzo give that a little bit of a stir and I just want that to cook according to the package directions it can take anywhere from like 8 to 10 minutes sometimes if you buy fancy orzo though it takes like 12 so buy the cheap stuff it’s quicker always good all right while that’s doing its thing I’m going to get to work on those meatballs so I’ve got a big here and I’m going to start off with something that I love using anytime I make meatballs and that’s something that’s called a panad and a panad is essentially breadcrumbs and some sort of liquid mixed into them just to hydrate those breadcrumbs what that does is it holds on to moisture makes them super juicy and wonderful and helps them hold together really nicely so I need about 1/4 cup of plain breadcrumbs we’re not using panko here we’re not looking for crunch we’re just looking for something that’s going to hold moisture so about a/4 cup of those go on into the bottom of my bowl now if you don’t have these breadcrumbs the ones that you get in the bakery section in that weird tub they usually like 99 Cents you could definitely just use a piece of bread torn up into little pieces that would be great but as opposed to using milk or wine or something like that I’m actually just going to use an egg as my liquid eggs are mainly water so it works really really well and that’s going to just come together beautifully so add that on into my bowl uh I was telling my friends recently I made meatballs on was it Wednesday yeah uh I’m in my meatball era I’m making meatballs all the time they’re so good they’re such a great way to get so much flavor into tiny little delicious bites so I’ve mixed that together you want that breadcrumb mixture to kind of absorb that egg but I’m going to start flavoring this up now the first thing I need is about half a teaspoon of salt that’s going to flavor all of these meatballs so add that on in then a little bit of pepper just about a pinch personally I’m I go like on and off with pepper I know that’s wild it’s not even the heat it’s just like sometimes I’m like no not feeling it I’m like adventuring into the pepper world again so add that on in then I’m going to add in some spices the first thing I need is about half a teaspoon of cumin cumin is a really great spice it’s super tasty almost a little lemony and smoky it’s really really great in Mediterranean cooking so about half a teaspoon of that as you can tell we’re cooking so everything is eyeballed feel free to eyeball then I’m also adding in half a teaspoon of dry oregano oregano is beautiful it has a really nice kind of lemony flavor to it and dried it’s not as perfumey as fresh so about half a teaspoon of that goes right on in and then for a little bit of heat I’m going in with about a/4 teaspoon of chili flakes just a little bit you can go bigger if you want to but I’m making this for someone who actually don’t know her heat tolerance so we’re going to figure it out all right now give that a little bit of a mix together just with your fork and now I’m going to add in my meat so we are doing ground chicken meatballs and the thing I love so much about ground chicken it is so inexpensive you can get a pound which is 454 G for like under $10 in fact the other today I got it for six bucks yeah so you can feed a family of four with left leftovers for like $6 which is a total dream you can’t find chicken turkey works perfectly as well now I’m going to use my Forks I’m just going to toss these together but I’ve got all those dried spices and herbs in here so I want to add something that’s nice and fresh the first thing I need is about 2 tablespoons each of some dill and some mint Dill is a classic Herb in so much Greek cooking and mint is just bright and fresh and wonderful if you wanted to you could do parsley you could do chives you could do o oregano if you like that perfumey oregano any sort of soft herb would be absolutely beautiful so just give that a little bit of a chop and then add those right on into that bowl now for even more brightness I’m also going to toss in the zest of half of a lemon this sounds kind of weird because I’m putting it into chicken but it works so so well so just rasp that right on over and I’m not using the juice the juice would actually kind of cure and cook this meat and we don’t want to do that so just that zest gives you that flavor without that acidity and then finally I’m going to add in a little bit of fresh garlic if you wanted to cuz we’re doing meatballs you could easily do this with h powdered garlic that would work wonderfully but I like that fresh little kick one to two cloves is absolutely perfect and as you can see I’m just mincing it right on in I hate chopping garlic it’s my least favorite task in the kitchen so you will see me do the amount of footage of me rasping garlic on television truly wild all right add that on in and then give that a good mix up basically when I’m mixing everything together you kind of want to toss it like the world’s weirdest salad um because it’s ground chicken it’s not as sturdy as beef so it it tends to kind of break down quicker so keep it nice and light just tossing it up just until all of those ingredients are nicely Incorporated so that is looking beautiful now I’m going to scoop these meatballs if you want to you can use your hands you can use a couple of spoons but I like to use a disher my friend Simon who makes a good meatball you use this you don’t have to wash your hands you can I mean you have to wash your hands still wash your hands obviously but you can just scoop them you don’t have to roll them now I will say it is not a meatball it is a meat dome but that’s okay cuz that is meat B adjacent in my books so all you want to do is scoop those straight onto a piece of parchment lined uh uh sheet pan if you wanted to as well if you didn’t want to toss that out you could use foil greased with a little bit of um oil that would be beautiful and I’m using about a 2 tspoon disher that’s about the size that’s perfect you get a good amount for everybody they’re big enough so they’re not kind of measy but they’re going to be totally delicious so get those all scooped you can smell those herbs oh my gosh they smell so good I’m very excited now for a little extra fat cuz chicken is really really lean I’m going to drizzle the top with just a little bit of olive oil since I’ve got that parchment this is not for sticking purposes this is just to get a little bit of golden brown action happening you can see those herbs these are going to be out of control you just need to pop them into a 400° oven for about 15 to 18 minutes just until they’re cooked all the way through then for 2 minutes pop the broiler on they’re going to get golden brown they’re going to get so delicious and it’s going to smell amazing in your house so we’ve got this orzo all cooked up and I’ve just drained it and I’m going to pop it into a bowl today we are making my Greek chicken meatballs with orzo and speaking of those meatballs I got to get out of the oven cuz they’re smelling delicious am I right yeah very exciting oh my gosh look at these cuties I love a meatball it’s like the tiniest little bite of deliciousness feel like I have my husband to thank for this he’s a real meatball man so we have got those beautiful chicken meatballs that have all the flavors of kind of chicken slovaki in there there’s garlic there’s oregano there’s beautiful mint and Dill and lemon those are going to be out of control but now I’m going to talk to you about this orzo so orzo as is cooked up delicious it’s like the rice of pasta it’s very very good and it’s really nice even if you eat it cold but I’m going to dress it up a little bit so remember that lemon I used earlier and I put half of the zest in those meatballs I’m going to use the rest of that zest right into this orzo with it still warm because that’s going to help it absorb all of that beautiful flavor so add in the zest of half of a lemon honestly my whole fridge is full of half zested lemons I find them and I’m like no clearly she only use half of it that’s fine all right now I’m going to add add in the juice of that half of a lemon as well that’s going to bring some nice acidity and almost give this kind of a vinegret situation I am feeding someone I like very much so I’m being very careful not to get Pips in there usually at home seed City I just am at them in if you find a seed you win a prize and the prize is you didn’t have to cook so there you go all right that’s looking absolutely beautiful now I’m going to add in a little oil as well and since I’m not cooking this this is where if you have that fancy olive oil you’re saving for if like someone very very exciting comes over this is when you use it since you’re not heating it you’re going to get that nice beautiful kind of peppery flavor if you’ve got a Greek olive oil even better cuz then you’re head into the island without any uh jet leg which is good all right season that up with a little bit of salt little bit of pepper as well again if you’re not feeling the pepper feel free to leave it out but you’re good to go and then uh just because you’re here and we’re doing it live today this is not in the recipe I’m going to Chuck some herbs in there um because why not herbs are the bonus they are the things that you can just add in however you want I’m just going to kind of like tear them up too and toss those right on in that’s the thing I hate it when you open up your crisper and you just have that giant puddle of muuk use those herbs with a Gusto cuz it’s going to be absolutely beautiful so give that a toss that is looking totally delish it’s bright it’s green it’s wonderful so I’m just going to transfer that on into a bowl this is enough for about four people you could do even L more if you wanted to but feel like we’re hungry today so add that beautiful orzo with those herbs that lemon the oil right on into the bowl and this is where you’re going to garnish this up almost like you’re building a Greek salad so over here I have got cucumber I’ve got Tomatoes we’re going North American style Greek salad because we do have romae lettuce in here you go to actual Greeks and get a Greek salad spoiler alert there’s no lettuce but I’m going to add some of that right on in because we’re going takeout style I’ve got those beautiful cherry tomatoes I love a cherry tomato because they are always good you never ever get a sad cherry tomato but oh boy you know you get a beef steak and it looks red and beautiful you cut into it and it’s mealy never with a cherry tomato all right a little bit of cucumber is beautiful as well I like to arrange it kind of like a palette cuz then you can pick and choose what you’re eating I’ve also got some red onion here that’s looking beautiful little bit of bell pepper you can use any color you’d like and then obviously we need some olives I’ve got calamada olives here I’ve already pitted them they are looking totally beautiful add those in as many as you’d like my mom one time ordered a Greek salad and it said it came with olives it came with one on top she complained they gave her one more not here we’re giving you all the olives then we’re going to add those beautiful meatballs right on top now if you really wanted to go big I uh didn’t put it in here but obviously there’s going to be cheese but if you wanted to go big you could even put some feta cheese into these meatballs before you bake them that would be absolutely beautiful speaking of that feta cheese we’ve got some of that for right on top looking absolutely gorgeous a little bit of those fresh herbs this is where I play this is where I’m having fun all right toss those right on little bit extra dill and then I am a sauce girl through and through so a little bit of prepped to ziki right in the middle for a little bit of creaminess and that to me looks like a feast for the eyes and A Feast for the stomach now I’ve been teasing you all day with who inspired this recipe so I would love for you to meet our amazing production coordinator Adele [Music] [Applause] oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my word okay so Adelle you love Greek food right absolutely it’s my favorite I was so excited when Adele gave her suggestion I fun fact Adele and I I’m usually here first then Adele’s here second so we’re always hanging out we almost matched we almost matched it oh my gosh andelle we’re nailing it this is so nice all right you want to give it a taste oh absolutely I’m excited going in going in we’re going to do a whole meatball nicely done of course whole meatball girl yeah yeah yeah she’s a sauce girl too good so good oh my gosh ad you got that meatball so I’m going to do your line Adelle was really excited to do this Opa Opa fantastic job it’s such a pleasure working with this lady hey Mary here what did you think drop your comments below and don’t forget to like And subscribe for more of the good stuff