Our Heirloom Life: Open-Faced Chicken Meatball Subs on Naan

Is chicken a frequent player in your dinner meals? It is in my household. My husband does not eat fish, and red meat is only healthy in small quantities, so chicken is the protein of choice more often than not. It goes without saying that this can get tiresome quickly. Since it was Friday and I was feeling adventurous, I created this concoction for dinner. The recipe takes at least an hour to prepare, but you can make the naan a day or two ahead of time and cut down on the prep time substantially.

This recipe calls for ground chicken meat. If you are like me, that ingredient is never a staple in the freezer. However, chicken breasts are. The next words you read may change your life: You can make your own ground meat in a food processor. This works just as well for pork or beef. It is very nice because you can control the fat content in the meat.

The naan recipe came from the blog BudgetBytes, which I found on Pinterest. The chicken meatball recipe is a riff off of Sunny Anderson's "Zesty Chicken Meatballs" from the Food Network. For the whole-wheat bread crumbs, I always save the ends of my wheat sandwich loaves in a bag in the freezer. When a recipe calls for breadcrumbs, I pull one or two ends out and process them in the food processor for a few seconds. Hello breadcrumbs.

Open-Faced Chicken Meatball Subs on Naan
Serves 3. To serve 4, add 1 chicken breast and increase all Meatball Ingredients marginally
Naan Ingredients

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
2.5 - 3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 large egg

Chicken Meatball Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, whisked
3 tablespoons unseasoned whole-wheat bread crumbs
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Hungarian or hot paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 cup unpacked fresh parsely, minced (approximately 3 Tbsp chopped)
1 tsp brown sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Additional Ingredients
1 jar your favorite tomato sauce
1-2 cups baby spinach, sliced into ribbons
3 slices provolone cheese

For the Naan:
In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and water. Stir to dissolve then let sit for a few minutes or until it is frothy on top. At that point, stir in the oil, yogurt and egg until evenly combined.

In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup flour with the salt. Next, add the bowl of wet ingredients to the flour/salt mix and stir until well combined. Continue adding flour a half cup at a time until you can no longer stir it with a spoon (about 1 to 1.5 cups later).

At that point, turn the ball of dough out onto a well floured surface. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. The dough should be smooth and very soft but not sticky.

Loosely cover the dough and let it rise until double in size (about 45 minutes). After it rises, gently flatten the dough and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball by stretching the dough back under itself until the top is smooth and round.

Naan Dough Waiting for the Frying Pan

Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat and rub a piece of butter once over the hot surface. Working one ball at a time, roll out ball until it is about 1/4 inch thick or approximately 6 inches in diameter. Place the rolled dough onto the hot skillet and cook until the under side is golden brown and large bubbles have formed on the surface. Flip the dough and cook the other side until golden brown as well. Repeat for remaining dough balls.

Cooking Naan

For the Chicken Meatballs:
While the dough is rising, cut chicken into cubes and place in food processor. Pulse for approximately 10 seconds until the meat looks ground, but not pasty.

Mix the ground chicken with the next nine ingredients (garlic through salt and pepper) in a medium bowl. Form mixture into meatballs (makes about 20 small meatballs).


Meatball Mixture

Raw Chicken Meatballs

Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat and add the butter and oil. Place meatballs in the skillet and do not disturb for 3 minutes to brown well. Turn, cooking another 3 minutes without disturbing. Keep cooking until browned and cooked on all sides. At this point, I use a meat thermometer to test the internal temp of the meatballs. A meatball is done when the thermometer registers 160 degrees. You can't be too safe when it comes to cooking chicken. Transfer meatballs to a plate, and repeat with remaining meatballs, adding more oil and butter as necessary.

When all meatballs are cooked, return them to the skillet and add jar of tomato sauce. Turn heat to medium-low and cook until the tomato sauce is warmed through.

Assembly:
Turn on the broiler. Place naan on a rimmed baking sheet. Add meatballs and sauce to each naan. Place spinach over meatballs, and top with pieces of torn provolone cheese. Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese is brown in places and bubbly.