These Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs from The Skinnytaste Cookbook become an instant favorite in our household. The first time I made them, Mr. B told me at least three times, “These meatballs are fantastic!” I have to agree.
My rule of thumb for buying a cookbook is that it must contain at least five recipes that I cannot live without trying AND it must offer some intangible something – innovation, technique, cultural insight, or even nostalgia – that I cannot already easily find on my shelves or on the internet.
The SkinnyTaste Cookbook far surpasses my cookbook buying parameters.
This post may contain affiliate links, but don't worry - they won't bite.
The SkinnyTaste Cookbook is the début cookbook of Gina Homolka, the personable and creative author behind Skinnytaste, a wildly successful, award-winning food blog. A home cook who has taken low-calorie cooking to a new level, Gina started “skinny-fying” her favorite recipes when she joined Weight Watchers and became dissatisfied with the dearth of truly tasty meals that fit into the plan.
As she began tweaking her own favorite dishes to lower the fat and calorie content, she uncovered her secret formula for success: if you put a healthy spin on dishes you already love, you’ll feel satisfied as you slim down.
In our opinion, one of the best recipes in the bunch is this one, for Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs. It's been a family favorite from the first time we made them.
Not only will this meatball recipe satisfy your savory cravings, but the technique can be applied to making any number of other stuffed meatball flavor combinations.
Easy Pizza Hack for Perfect Meatballs
Using this simple pizza cutting technique, you can easily divide your meatball mixture into relatively equal portions.
Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- Cooking Spray or oil mister
- 1 ½ lbs. lean ground chicken Try Isernio 95% Lean
- ½ cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 large egg
- 1 large clove garlic minced
- ⅕ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ounces sliced deli ham cut into 12 strips, each about ¾" wide
- 2.2 ounces reduced-fat Swiss cheese cut into approx. ¾ inch cubes
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- ¼ cup white wine or additional chicken broth
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup 1% milk
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
Meatballs
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a heavy baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, egg, garlic, and salt. Mix thoroughly, and then divide into 12 equal portions. [See "Meatball Hack"]
- Roll each 1/12 portion of the ground chicken mixture into a ball. Set aside. I usually put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to make the mixture set a little better before trying to form it into balls.
- Put a cube of cheese on one end of one strip of ham and roll it up with the cheese in the middle. Place the ham-covered cheese cube on one side of a prepared meatball and form the meat mixture around it so that the ham-n-cheese is now in the middle of the meatball.
- Transfer prepared meatballs to baking sheet and bake uncovered 18-22 minutes, or until no longer pink in center.
Sauce
- Make the sauce while the meatballs are finishing in the oven.
- In a small bowl, combine wine, broth, milk, and mustard. Set aside.
- Melt one tablespoon butter in skillet over medium-low heat. Sprinkle in one tablespoon flour and whisk until it begins to smell slightly nutty, about a minute.
- Add liquid mixture all at once and whisk constantly. When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, salt and parsley.
- When meatballs have finished in the oven, transfer to skillet and toss with prepared sauce.
Notes
Breadcrumbs - The original recipe only calls for ¼ cup of breadcrumbs, but I found that the meatballs were far easier to form by adding an additional ¼ cup. Weight Watchers SmartPoints [2018]: 1 serving = 9 Smartpoints (Calculated on WW Recipe Builder)
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
Our thanks to Skinnytaste publishers for generously allowing us to share this recipe as part of our review. Recipe Instructions, etc. have been rewritten to avoid copyright infringement.
More about The Skinnytaste Cookbook
The Skinnytaste Cookbook features 150 deliciously inviting recipes, and most are accompanied by a beautiful, well-styled photograph.
Recipes range from old family favorites like Fettuccine Alfredo to unique innovations like Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs. Instructions are easy to follow, and each recipe also includes detailed nutritional information.
Small things set this cookbook above the rest. Notably, many recipes include suggestions for brands that Gina has found work best. However, unlike so many others, these recommendations do not smack of paid endorsement, but rather simply some friendly advice from one cook to another.
Likewise, eating style is one of the things I try to be mindful of when I develop and share recipes, so I was both impressed and appreciative that each of Gina’s recipes includes a color and letter code just below the title that allows home cooks to easily determine whether the recipe is gluten-free and/or vegetarian. There are also codes for quick meals, freezer-friendly meals, and slow cooker meals.
Gina also offers practical, realistic advice about creating a healthy kitchen and lifestyle: plan ahead, take charge, dump the junk, and fall in love with real food. All things we know already, but within these pages, Gina give her readers a plan of attack. A road-map for success.
At the risk of sounding too kumbaya, I found Gina's book empowering. Whether you are a cookbook collector or you haven’t bought a new cookbook since the day AllRecipes hit the internet, The Skinnytaste Cookbook is well worth the investment.
Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. • Be sure to PIN and print this recipe!
Jean Nightingale says
The flavors were really great and it is a fairly easy recipe to prepare for any night of the week! I served the meatballs in a bowl, over zoodles, ladling the sauce over the entire dish. Yummy!
I will say, mine came out a bit tough, and I am wondering if I over handled the meatballs while making them? Did anyone else have this issue of being slightly tough and does anyone have any recommendations for me? Thanks!
Renée ♥ says
Thanks so much for your feeedback!!! You might want to back off on the breadcrumbs just a little and see if that makes them less tough. I've found that the amount of breadcrumbs I use depends on the density of the breadcrumbs I use. If they are soft, and from a less dense bread, I use a little more. If they are from, say, a heavy, whole grain bread, I use less. Store bought bread crumbs are very fine, and tend to result (in my experience) in a denser meatball. Hope this helps. ?
Robin says
I really do not think it is right to share a recipe from a book that others, (including myself) has paid for, and without Gina's permission. She herself has not even shared this one.
Renée ♥ says
I understand your concern, Robin; however, I was given permission to publish one recipe from the book for the purpose of this review. [Note the "sponsored post" disclosure at both the beginning and end of this post.] Thank you for watching out for those of us who do recipe development though. Most of us are fine when a recipe is shared (with instructions rewritten to protect copyright, of course) when proper credit is given and when the recipe is used for the purposes of promoting our work, both of which are true in this case. Happy cooking! ?
Stephanie says
These look wonderful. I would love to try making these before buying the book. Will you post the cooking directions?
Renée ♥ says
Yes! Thanks for pointing that out - I just converted this recipe from another recipe plugin and apparently the instructions didn't transfer. It's all fixed now!
Renée ♥ says
Sorry, Stephanie - I am in the midst of converting all of my recipes to a new format, and somehow I didn't notice that the directions for this recipe had gotten dropped. I've updated the recipe and they are up for you now!
Glennae says
Thanks for this recipe, it was highly recommended by a friend...but am I the only one that doesn't see an oven temp in the directions? I've got it all mixed up and ready to go!
Renée ♥ says
You are not the only one to not see the temp - but you are the only one to give me a head's up! Thank you!!! Corrections have been made.
Megan Pires says
Broccoli casserole. I so love it!