sheet-pan bbq chicken meatballs, broccoli, and blistered tomatoes
with cheesy spinach rice! all in 30 minutes!
Summer break has officially launched at my house, and the boys are quite literally bouncing around with excitement. I’m ready for slower-than-usual mornings, weekends off the grid, and cooking the easiest, tastiest dinners possible all season long!
Speaking of easy, tasty dinners… sheet-pan BBQ chicken meatballs, broccoli, and blistered tomatoes with cheesy spinach rice! It’s what we’re cooking this week and it is a delight.
I’ve talked about this before, but I love meatballs. All six members of my family will eat them, they’re so easy to throw together, and they can be batch-made to stash in the freezer for future dinners. They’re perfect little balls of protein and no one can convince me otherwise.
We’re putting a summery BBQ spin on these meatballs, using a store-bought barbecue sauce in the meatball mixture and again as a finishing drizzle for our bowls. My fave brand is Stubb’s, but absolutely any barbecue sauce you love works.
To round out the meal, we’re going to roast some crispy broccoli and cherry tomatoes while the meatballs cook, and whip up fancy frozen rice in the microwave!
Oh yes. A decade ago, I scoffed at the concept of microwaveable frozen rice. “Who doesn’t have time to cook a pot of rice?!” Caroline-in-her-20s thought. Current me, that’s who! A perfectly cooked grain that’s ready in less than five minutes with zero work other than pressing a button on the microwave? Sign me up.
We’re going to transfer two bags worth of frozen rice to a microwave-safe bowl topped with a plate so that we can cook multiple packs at once. We’re also going to add spinach, butter, cheese, and milk to make it extra delicious.
One reason I love meatballs so much is that they have endless flavor potential. Here are some riff ideas, if you want to mix it up:
If you like spice, swap the barbecue sauce out for buffalo sauce. For the drizzle, mix buffalo sauce with sour cream or Greek yogurt, adding a little water to make it easy to drizzle.
Give it a mustardy spin with a Carolina gold sauce or honey mustard.
Or use a Japanese barbecue sauce like Bachan’s!
Report back if you change up the flavors! The broccoli and tomatoes will be great any direction you choose.
Also worth noting that these BBQ chicken meatballs make a great appetizer. Halve them in size so they’re easy to pop in your mouth, and start checking for doneness after 10 minutes of cooking. Serve them drizzled with more BBQ sauce and with toothpicks for easy grazing.
If you’re also part of the meatball fan club, here are three more recipes to try: Moroccan-inspired turkey meatballs served with corn butter rice, 30-minute chicken Parm meatballs, and Greek turkey meatballs with couscous and dill yogurt sauce. And since you’ll have some barbecue sauce in the fridge after cooking this meal, make my crispy BBQ chicken tacos!
Serves 4
Cook time: 30 minutes
Tools
Box grater
Large microwave-safe bowl
Large microwave-safe plate (for covering the bowl in the microwave)
Ingredients
1 pound ground chicken or turkey
1 large egg
2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup BBQ sauce (I love Stubb’s), plus more for serving
1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound broccoli florets (you can buy a bag of florets or cut a head of broccoli into florets, whichever works!)
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 cups baby spinach, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 (10-ounce) bags frozen white rice (see notes if you only have dry rice)
1/4 cup whole milk
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (seriously, do this now before your hands get dirty!).
Use a box grater to grate 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese and set it aside.
In a large bowl, combine 1 pound ground chicken or turkey, 1 large egg, 1 cup of the grated sharp cheddar, 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup BBQ sauce, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Use your hands to mix everything together, then form 12 golf ball-sized meatballs and place them on one of the prepared baking sheets as close together as possible without touching. Drizzle the tops of the meatballs with extra-virgin olive oil.
Add 1 pound broccoli florets and 1 pint whole cherry tomatoes to the second baking sheet. Drizzle with 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Toss to coat, then spread the vegetables into an even layer.
Roast both sheet pans on the center rack for 17 to 20 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through (they should reach an internal temperature of 165°F) and the broccoli is crispy around the edges.
While the meatballs and vegetables roast, finely chop 2 cups baby spinach and add the spinach to the bottom of a large microwave-safe bowl. Add 2 tablespoons unsalted butter on top of the spinach. Cut open 2 (10-ounce) bags frozen white rice and pour the frozen rice over the spinach and butter.
Cover the bowl tightly with a large plate and microwave according to the package instructions, increasing the cook time by 50%, until the rice is piping hot and the spinach has wilted. For example, if your package directs you to microwave the rice for 3 minutes, you will microwave it for 4 1/2 minutes!
While the rice is still piping hot, add the remaining 1 cup of grated cheddar, 1/4 cup whole milk, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, and a few cracks of black pepper. Stir vigorously until creamy, melty, and fully combined. If needed, microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each, until the cheese is fully melted.
Build bowls with the cheesy spinach rice, meatballs, broccoli, and tomatoes. Finish with a drizzle of BBQ sauce and serve.
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Love your leftovers/freezer-friendly/double it: Leftovers will be good for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge, and they make great lunches. Reheat in the microwave. You could also freeze any leftover meatballs! Maybe even double the meatball portion so you can stock your freezer with them? If you’re freezing cooked meatballs, let them cool completely before transferring to a freezer-safe bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. I microwave frozen meatballs in a microwave-safe bowl covered with a damp paper towel/dish towel for 2 minutes, or until warmed through. You could also freeze them uncooked if you’d prefer. Thaw them in the fridge then cook as directed in the recipe.
Make it an app/riffs: Read these tips right above the recipe!
I don’t want to dirty my knife: Just tear the spinach into little pieces instead.
Can I use regular rice? Of course! If you can’t/don’t want to cook frozen rice in the microwave, cook 1.5 cups dried rice (any kind!) per package directions. Once it’s ready, add the chopped spinach and butter, stirring until wilted and melted, then add the cheese, milk, etc., stirring until melted and well combined.
I’m out of parchment paper: No prob, just grease the pans with oil.
Prep ahead: You can go ahead and form the meatballs and prep the vegetables, putting them on the sheet pans. Cover the sheet pans tightly with plastic wrap and store them in the fridge. When you’re ready to cook, uncover and throw them in the oven.
My sheet pans won’t fit side-by-side in the oven: Put both oven racks as close to the center of the oven as they’ll go. Put one sheet pan on the top rack toward the left, and the other on the bottom rack toward the right. The goal is to avoid stacking them right on top of each other.
Feeding kids: My kids love these meatballs and the roasted broccoli! You can skip the spinach in the rice if they wouldn’t eat it because of the green bits.
Vegetarian: Use a plant-based ground meat alternative.
Dairy-free: Use a dairy-free shredded cheddar in the meatballs and rice. If you hate DF cheeses, here’s what I’d do for the meatballs (though I have not tested it this way!): omit the cheese, add 2 extra tablespoons panko, and 1 tablespoon mayo. That should keep their bulk without drying out. For the rice, use a thick DF milk like unflavored oat and DF cheese and butter. Or just keep the rice simple with wilted spinach and DF butter.
Gluten-free: Use GF breadcrumbs and make sure the barbecue sauce you buy is certified gluten-free (many are, but not all! Stubb’s is!).
Ground chicken or turkey: Any ground meat (turkey, chicken, beef, pork, venison) or vegetarian ground meat. If you’re using meat high in fat like pork, sausage, or 80% lean/20% fat beef, you can skip the EVOO drizzle on top of the meatballs since they’re fattier than the lean meat the recipe’s written with.
Egg: Make a flax egg: Mix 1 tablespoon ground flax plus 3 tablespoons water. Stir together and let it sit for 5 minutes before using. Or you could use 2 tablespoons of mayo.
Sharp cheddar: A smoky cheddar would be excellent here. Other cheeses that’d work are Pepper Jack, Monterey Jack, Gouda, or even Parm.
Panko: GF panko, rice breadcrumbs, Italian breadcrumbs, or almond flour/meal will all work. You could even blend up a slice of bread (the staler it is, the better) and use that instead. Or crushed up Ritz crackers!
Barbecue sauce: See the riffs section above the recipe for ideas.
Garlic powder: 3 cloves of fresh minced garlic
EVOO: Olive oil or a neutral oil like avocado or grapeseed oil
Broccoli: Zucchini chunks, green beans, broccolini, or cauliflower florets
Cherry tomatoes: Grape tomatoes, diced roma tomatoes, roasted red peppers from a jar, or just omit the tomatoes if you can’t eat them.
Baby spinach: Regular spinach, finely chopped kale, arugula (though it’ll add some peppery flavor so maybe don’t use this if you’re feeding kids), or just skip the greens!
Unsalted butter: Salted butter or a DF butter sub. Skip it if you have no butter.
Whole milk: 2% milk, cream (but cut it by half), an unsweetened, unflavored DF milk, or omit
Frozen white rice: Frozen brown rice, frozen rice blend, frozen quinoa, frozen cauliflower rice, or see the “can I use regular rice instead?” note above if you don’t want to use frozen.
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Editor: Molly Ramsey
Photographer: Lorena Masso
My husband and I loved it! Six year old freaked out because “the rice smells weird, it smells like butter, I can’t even be here,” four year old ate one bite of rice and all of her broccoli. I will still make it again and they can have frozen waffles lol.
This is my first time making a recipe on the day it came out! My neighbor and I ordered the ingredients while the kids ran around playing. It was a hit!