gingery chicken + broccoli meatballs with soy + lime mayo

lots of words but actually sooo simple

Mar 24, 2026

∙ Paid

Hey there! On Tuesdays I share easy lunch recipes for paid subscribers.

To me, a “lunch recipe” is especially simple to make and simple to clean-up (of course you can make the recipe for any mealtime that you’d like!).

I always include a number of helpful notes for paid subscribers (i.e. ways to make vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free versions of the recipe and other fun notes/ideas).

So the other day I was at the grocery store picking up a few things and I threw a package of ground chicken in my cart with no real plan for it. I was about to check out when I realized that I timed my errands poorly and wouldn’t be home for a couple of hours. I was about to put the chicken back since I didn’t want it to sit out of the fridge for too long. But then a lightbulb went off and I grabbed a bag of frozen broccoli to pack in the bag next to the chicken. My thought was the frozen broccoli would keep the chicken cold and if the broccoli thawed by the time I got home, I could just make it for dinner with butter, salt and garlic powder (my preferred frozen broccoli trifecta).

This is a long way of telling you that I was in my kitchen the other day with a pound of ground chicken and a 10 ounce bag of defrosted broccoli. And then inspiration struck!

I thought: what if I finely chop the broccoli in the food processor with garlic and ginger and mix it with the chicken? Would that make great meatballs?

The answer, my friends, is yes. A resounding YES!

Would these meatballs work with fresh broccoli? Probably. But I actually think frozen (and defrosted!) is better since the broccoli is already cooked and therefore quite tender. And there’s so much moisture. Which keeps the ground chicken from getting too dry when you cook it. It also stretches out the ground chicken so a pound goes further and no eggs or breadcrumbs are needed (less ingredients = easier). Plus, as Grace said while eating these, “what a great way to get me to eat broccoli.”

There’s more good news! While the meatballs were in the oven, I whisked together a super simple mix of mayo, soy sauce and the juice and zest from a lime. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and basically had to stop myself from eating the whole bowl before the meatballs were done because…friends…this sauce is SO GOOD. I served the meatballs with baked Japanese sweet potatoes and slathered those with the sauce, too. The next morning I put leftover sauce on toast and topped it with smashed avocado. Then I made another batch to have on hand because I missed it.

Below, for paid subscribers, the complete recipes for both the meatballs and sauce plus notes if:

You’d prefer to use something different than ground chicken
…including if you’re vegetarian or vegan
You’re looking for ideas of how to serve these/what to serve them with
Want more of a kick in the meatballs and/or sauce
All of the above as a handy PDF

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