My recipe for soft and juicy Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs will soon be your family‘s favorite! Tofu is the secret ingredient that makes these meatballs so fluffy. The best part? It takes only 40 minutes to prepare.
These Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs are soft and fluffy, and my kids love them! What’s the secret ingredient to making them so fluffy? It’s tofu!
Actually, in Japan, we call this dish Tofu Hambagu (豆腐ハンバーグ) – “hambagu” as in Japanese Hamburger Steak. However, most tofu hambagu are made with tofu AND ground meat (usually chicken, sometimes a combination of beef & pork). To avoid misleading the vegetarian readers, I decided to simply call it chicken meatballs (with tofu, as the secret ingredient).
Why tofu? It’s because tofu makes the meatball texture very fluffy and soft. These teriyaki meatballs are especially great for all ages including toddlers and elders! If you increase the amount of tofu, it gets even fluffier and less calorie! My proportion of the meat and tofu in this recipe is pretty easy to form into meatballs. As you increase the ratio for tofu, it might become slightly difficult to maintain the round shape.
And please note that the meat acts as a binding agent here. As you knead the meat, it gets stickier and helps bind tofu and other ingredients very well.
Today I used colorful sweet bell peppers to add some color to these meatballs. You can add your choice of vegetables but don’t put too much in order to maintain the fluffiness.
Lastly, look at the delicious glaze on the meatballs! The sauce is everyone’s favorite, Teriyaki Sauce. If you cook Japanese food often, you noticed that we often use the same condiments – soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake (I didn’t use it for this recipe). It’s very common to season Japanese food with these condiments (just slightly different ratios).
Similar Recipes
- Chicken Meatballs with Sweet and Sour Sauce
- 17 Teriyaki Recipes You Must Make at Home
- Chicken Meatball Bento
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Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs
Video
Ingredients
For the Teriyaki Sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
- ½ tsp potato starch or cornstarch
For the Meatballs
- 5 oz medium-firm tofu (momen dofu) (about ⅓ of a 14-oz block)
- 3 oz sweet bell peppers (1½ peppers; I used 3 colors)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice; from a 1-inch, 2.5-cm knob)
- 14 oz ground chicken
- 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the sauce: 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp mirin, 2 tsp rice vinegar (unseasoned), and ½ tsp potato starch or cornstarch. Set aside.
To Make the Meatballs
- Wrap 5 oz medium-firm tofu (momen dofu) with a paper towel and let it drain for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove the seeds from 3 oz sweet bell peppers under running water and dry completely.
- Mince the sweet bell peppers and chop 1 green onion/scallion finely. Grate the ginger and measure 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice).
- In a large bowl, combine 14 oz ground chicken, the minced sweet bell peppers, and the chopped green onion. Break the drained tofu into small pieces and add to the bowl.
- Add 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and mix it all together.
- Add the grated ginger, ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper and combine well.
- Using two tablespoons or a cookie scoop, form small meatballs. I usually scoop the meatballs straight into the frying pan (see the next step).
To Cook the Meatballs
- Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp neutral oil. When hot, add the meatballs, keeping some space between each. Cook in batches, if necessary.
- When the bottom is nicely browned, flip them over. Cover with the lid to cook until the inside is no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low if they are browning too fast. Transfer to a plate and cook the remaining batch(es).
- When the meat in the last batch is cooked through, add the other cooked meatballs and their juices back into the pan.
- Pour the sauce over the meatballs. Simmer to reduce and thicken the sauce while flipping the meatballs to coat both sides with the sauce.
To Store
- Keep the leftovers in an airtight container with the sauce, let cool completely, and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
If I double this recipe to make more meatballs, but only have one package of tofu will they come out horrible?
Hi Amanda! Sorry about my late response. The ratio is kind of important BUT sometimes you have to make with what you have. It won’t come out horribly, so don’t worry! It’ll be less fluffy, and that’s probably the only difference. 🙂
Hi Nami, I saw these were marked as freezer friendly. Would you recommend freezing it before you cook or after you cook it?
Hi A! I always cook first, let cool, and freeze. The food is preserved better after it’s cooked (the quality and taste is better kept after being cooked and served). 🙂
Hi,
I have been looking at your blog for a while. Everything looks awesome and we love the Beef Soboro recipe!
Question about this recipe. And please don’t hate me 🙂
We don’t eat tofu. Can it be replaced with something else? I would really like to make this for my crazy Japanese food lover school lunch. 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Zaneta! Sure, you can totally omit tofu, but the meat patties won’t be so fluffy (the main feature of this recipe) because it lacks tofu. When you make meat with just ground meat, it tends to be very tough meat balls… you know, just ordinary. If you don’t like tofu for taste, I want to let you know you don’t taste tofu in this recipe. Otherwise, hmm… you can use Japanese “Fu” (wheat gluten – https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry_items/fu-wheat-gluten/) but I know it’s not easy to find it. Or you can use panko (Japanese breadcrumbs or Japanese toast – very fluffy compared to American toast) but I’m not sure how that will work in this recipe as I’ve never tasted using other ingredients.
Thank you, I will try Panko, that’s a great idea.
Enjoy the recipe! 🙂
I made these tonight, they were so good and so easy! The tofu really does make them moist and fluffy, I cooked them to within an inch of their lives and they stayed nice and moist!
Hi Eden! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks for making my day! 🙂
My family loves this recipe! Thank you!
Thanks so much Jackie! So happy to hear your family enjoys this recipe! 🙂
Tried this twice with chicken and turkey. Chicken taste much better since the turkey was very lean. The teriyaki sauce is yummy. I would double even triple the sauce!
Hi Abigail! Thank you for trying this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback. xoxo
Hi Nami — I’ve been making this recipe since you posted it and it’s one of my favorites!
But I really want to understand how you decided the ratios for the teriyaki sauce — why do you leave out sake and use rice vinegar in this recipe? Is the goal to make it less rich and more bright?
Hi Daniel! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy this recipe and make it since I published this post! Thank you!
So, I think I’ve mentioned that we don’t have teriyaki sauce in Japan. There is no specific taste to our “teriyaki sauce” unlike here the “bottle teriyaki sauce taste”. So each family makes up their ratio, and each family changes up their portion all the time. Otherwise we’re eating the same sauce all the time… you know, Japanese seasonings are always soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar… these 4 makes up majority of Japanese seasonings. But we never call “teriyaki”. So this one is just another example of teriyaki variation. To make it “lighter” I used rice vinegar to get that zing flavor in the sauce. You can replace or add sake – and that’s totally okay. I always change up the flavor so my family doesn’t get tired of same flavor. Also with the vegetables in this recipe, it has nice to have rice vinegar too. You can add garlic, ginger… make different variations based on ingredients. Hope I answered to your question?
Thanks for the detailed response — I was just looking to understand your thought process so your answer was very helpful!
You’re very welcome. 🙂
My family loves this recipe and the leftovers make the best bento lunch. Thank you!
Hi Christine! Wonderful! I’m happy to hear your family enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
Hi!
I tried this recipe tonight and it was delicious, thanks for sharing!
I did it with turkey breasts instead of chicken since I already had some, and added a little more tofu in case it might be too dry. It had a lot of success. 😀
Hi Anne! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi
Can this be frozen? At which step should i put into the freezer?
Hi Mel! You cook the meatballs and let them cool. Then you can put it in an airtight container and freeze. 🙂
These look awesome! Gonna make this tomorrow!
Hi Rheena! Thank you! Hope you enjoy(ed) this recipe!
Hello dear Nami ,what do you eat beside this? Rice? Or just salad? I’m Going to make them this week 😀 but with 3men in the house …..
Hi Stephanie! We eat some veggies or salad, rice, miso soup, and since you have 3 men in the house, I’d definitely add 2-3 side dishes… in Japan, typical side dishes can be fish, simmered dishes (more vegetables + small amount of meat) etc…
Have you checked side dish category?
https://www.justonecookbook.com/categories/recipes/side/
Is this suitable to b freeze?
Hi Ernie! You can freeze the meatballs after you cook and cool down. 🙂
Hi Nami, can’t wait to try this recipe. What’s the best way of freezing these if I were to make a big batch?
HI Jeny! For me, I usually freeze the leftover for bento, so I put 4 pieces (2 per kids) in each container with sauce and freeze them. I recommend dividing up based on how much you defrost in once so you can divide the sauce as well. 🙂
Aloha Nami,
I made this recipe for the first time tonight. It was soooooo GOOD! My family loved it!!! It was tasty, moist, soft and fluffy. I tripled the recipe and I’m glad because we ate a lot and I kept snitching as I was cooking ????. I added a small amount of finely chopped round onion to substitute for the bell peppers and made a batch with sauce and one without. It was good even without the sauce????. I wonder what it would be like with a little bit of chopped water chestnuts…I think it might add a nice crunch without changing the flavor too much. Anyway, thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Nami! It is now a family favorite. Even my dad, who is kinda picky, was very expressive on how good it was! Mahalo for another wonderful meal ????????????! Amy
Hi Amy! I’m so happy to hear you and your family liked this recipe and thanks so much for your kind comment! I like your water chestnut idea for the crunch, and it goes well with this sauce too. Thank you again for your kind feedback. xo