Vietnamese Meatballs

Begin by adding the chicken, garlic, shallot, salt, chili flakes, cornstarch, and fish sauce to a food processor and pulse it a few times until everything is finely chopped and mixed. Fold in the mint and cilantro, and let the mixture marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

While this marinates, make the dipping sauce. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small mixing bowl, and set aside. This stuff is great, trust me.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

In the meantime, take the chicken mixture out of the fridge, and begin making your meatballs. I tend to go with a golf ball sized meatball, and wetting your hands with a bit of water helps prevent the meat mixture from sticking to your hands. Add the sugar to a plate, then take the meatballs and lightly roll them in the sugar. Add the meatballs, one by one to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I’m a fan of parchment paper. Repeat with all of the chicken mixture. Then pop them in the oven for 20 minutes. The sugar will begin to caramelize the meatballs, and wow, are they good.

To serve, add the meatballs to a serving dish alongside the sauce. Have a plate of lettuce available, along with the thinly sliced red onion, cucumber, and additional fresh mint and cilantro.

This is finger food. Nothing like eating with your hands, there is just something about that.

Take a piece of Boston lettuce, add a meatball, a couple slices of red onion and cucumber, along with a sprig of cilantro and fresh mint leaves. Drizzle some of the sauce in the lettuce cup, fold, and get to it.

The result is nothing but a drive into flavor town.