Chinese Chicken Ball Recipe (Gluten-Free)

Chinese chicken balls are one of those take-out classics that I've been making at home for years. The key to getting them right -- crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside -- comes down to a few simple techniques: precooking the chicken, using a cold batter with soda water, and double frying. This recipe is also completely gluten-free, though you honestly won't be able to tell.

Jump to:

• Making Chinese Chicken Balls
• Forming Chicken Balls
• Gluten-Free Batter
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Finishing The Gluten-Free Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls
• Recipe

Making Chinese Chicken Balls

Ingredients

In the meat mix itself, there are only five ingredients. This recipe will seem too simple for how delicious it is, but it works very well. The ingredients are:

• Two pounds of ground chicken
• One teaspoon of salt
• A quarter teaspoon of black pepper
• One tablespoon of pureed garlic
• One tablespoon of grated ginger

Put all of those ingredients together in a bowl and mix.

Forming Chicken Balls

To form the balls, divide the meat into sixteen even pieces. If you'd like more petite chicken balls, you can get as many as 24 out of this recipe. Wet your hands with cold water when rolling the balls to prevent the chicken from sticking. Put the formed chicken balls on a greased baking sheet and cook at 400°f for twenty minutes. If you make twenty-four balls, it will only take seventeen minutes to cook them.

Why Precook the Chicken Balls?

Precooking the chicken balls does three things:

• It makes them easier to batter
• It makes them quicker to fry, giving them a lighter and crisper batter
• It makes them safer because they are fully cooked before they go in the fryer

Gluten-Free Batter

While the chicken balls are cooking in the oven, make the batter and the sauce. Start with the batter because it needs to chill before being used. I've made this batter with two gluten-free flour brands, and both have come out very differently. This recipe would work the same with non-gluten-free flour as well. Depending on your flour, you may need to add more water than the recipe calls for. One of the gluten-free flour brands only required one cup of water, while the second brand needed two cups. The vital thing to note isn't the exact quantity of water you add but the consistency of the batter. It should have the same consistency as melted ice cream.

Batter Ingredients

The batter ingredients are one cup of all-purpose gluten-free flour, one teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt, one egg, and one to two cups of soda water (or sparkling water). Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the egg and soda water and mix. Again, add more water as needed to get the batter to the correct consistency. Once the batter is made, put it in the fridge for about fifteen minutes or until ready to use. The batter should be as cold as possible when it hits the hot oil to ensure a crisp texture.

Why Soda Water?

The reason the recipe calls for soda water over plain water is for the bubbles. The bubbles in the soda water will make the batter light and crisp. It is the reason why beer is used to batter fish. It's all for the bubbles.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

The Red Colour

The red colour in some sweet and sour sauce recipes comes from either food colouring or ketchup. To get the red colour and that perfect sweet and sour flavour, this recipe uses the juice from a jar of Maraschino Cherries. If you'd like, you could use food colouring; cherry juice is a much better option because of the flavour although it obviously has food colouring in it.

Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

The sweet and sour sauce ingredients are one cup of white vinegar, one cup of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of salt, half a cup of Maraschino Cherry juice, and a quarter cup of water mixed with a quarter cup of cornstarch.

Making Sweet and Sour Sauce

To make the sweet and sour sauce put the vinegar, sugar, salt and cherry juice in a medium-sized pot. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring every minute or so. Once the sauce starts to boil, add the cornstarch and water mixture (stir the cornstarch and water before pouring it into the sauce). Whisk the sauce until it is thick and completely translucent. Take it off the heat until you are ready to serve. This is one of those fundamental sauce techniques that's worth getting comfortable with.

Storing Sweet and Sour Sauce for Later

You can store the sweet and sour sauce in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three weeks. To use it, heat it in a pot over medium heat with a tablespoon or two of water.

Finishing The Gluten-Free Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls

All that is left to do is to batter and fry the chicken balls. To do that, dredge the cooked balls in about half a cup of gluten-free flour first, dip them in the batter, then into a fryer set to 365°f and fry for five minutes. You can do this without a fryer, but it's not recommended unless you know what you are doing. Deep-frying can be very dangerous. If you don't have a deep-fryer, maybe you can borrow one from a friend. They would be glad to let you use their fryer in exchange for some chicken balls.

Once the chicken balls have cooked for five minutes, take them out of the oil and place them on a cooling rack set over a sheet pan. Continue until all of the balls have been cooked. At this point, the chicken balls can be cooled and frozen, or cooled and reheated in the oven or the fryer. If you want to eat them right away, keep the fryer's temperature at 365°f and cook them for another four minutes or until they are browned. Once browned, take the balls out of the fryer, let them drain a little on a rack, then plate them and top them with the sweet and sour sauce.

Recipe

I'd strongly recommend making a double or even triple batch, because once you taste these you're going to wish you had more. The sauce is versatile too -- it works beautifully on beef meatballs, stir-fry dishes, and just about anything else you want to dip. If you enjoyed this, check out my other Chinese chicken ball variations too.