These pesto chicken meatballs are loaded with flavor, easy to make and packed with protein and healthy fats. A great weeknight meal served over spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles, they’re Paleo, Whole30 compliant and keto friendly too!
The chicken pesto combo always gets me! I’m always dreaming up various ways to use pesto in recipes and it turns out that MEATBALLS is definitely a favorite for me.
Yes, if you’re not a huge fan of ground chicken, you can definitely use beef or turkey for these pesto meatballs. I personally love the taste of chicken patties/sausage/meatballs and with the pesto? It’s a double winner for me!
What’s in the Paleo Pesto?
The paleo pesto is a breeze to make with just a handful of ingredients, and a blender.
We have:
Pine nuts or walnuts
Garlic
Fresh Basil
Lemon
Avocado Oil (or light flavored olive oil)
Nutritional Yeast (to give it that cheesy flavor)
Sea salt and pepper
Do I Need the Nutritional Yeast?
The flavor won’t suffer too much without the nutritional yeast. I like to include it because it really does add a certain subtle “cheesy” flavor to the pesto, making all the flavors pop just a little bit more.
No worries – nutritional yeast is paleo and Whole30 friendly, and easy to find at many grocery stores or on Amazon.
What’s Else to I Need to Make Paleo Pesto Chicken Meatballs?
The rest of the ingredients are pretty standard meatball ingredients. You’ll need:
Ground Chicken
Pesto
Blanched Almond Flour
Italian Seasoning
Sea Salt and Pepper
One Egg
That’s it! Since these meatballs are baked, the oven does most of the work.
Tips for Making the Meatballs:
My biggest tip for working with any ground chicken recipes is to wet your hands! Ground chicken, even if it’s not too lean, will get sticky pretty much no matter what.
The secret to not going crazy while forming the mixture into meatballs is to periodically wet your hands, lightly, every time things start getting sticky. For this recipe, I made 14 meatballs – you can make anywhere from about 12-14.
Once done, it’s time to dig in! But first, what will you serve these pesto chicken meatballs with? I opted for cooked spaghetti squash, and, the rest of the pesto (of course!)
You can also go with cauliflower rice, zoodles or sweet potato noodles, or roasted potatoes. Since pesto and chicken go with basically anything, you cannot go wrong here!
I hope you’re ready for a delicious, healthy, filling dinner that you’ll want to put on repeat! Let’s grab our ingredients and make these Paleo Pesto Chicken Meatballs!
Paleo Pesto Chicken Meatballs {Whole30, Keto}
Paleo Pesto Chicken Meatballs {Whole30, Keto}
Ingredients
Paleo Pesto:
- 1/2 cup raw walnuts or pine nuts, or a combo
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 oz fresh basil leaves packed (you can sub in baby spinach for some of the basil if preferreabout 4 cups
- 1/2 cup light flavored olive oil or avocado oil
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast for flavor, optional
Chicken Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground chicken (or preferred ground mea- not too lean
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp pesto
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
For the Pesto:
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Combine walnuts or pine nuts, garlic, basil leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and nutritional yeast in a blender or food processor. Blend or process/pulse until a paste forms (not too smootscraping sides as needed.
For the Meatballs:
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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and drizzle a large baking sheet with oil or spray with cooking spray.
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In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp of the pesto, egg, almond flour, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix with clean hands until well combined, the mixture will be sticky, especially with ground chicken!
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Tip - when forming the mixture into balls, wet your hands periodically to make them easy to handle. Chicken meatballs are very sticky! Form the mixture into 12-14 meatballs, lightly wetting your hands as necessary.
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Place on the prepared baking sheet 2” apart and bake for 15-18 mins, or until just cooked through.
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Serve over cooked Spaghetti squash, Zucchini Noodles, Cauliflower Rice or Roasted Potatoes,
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topping with the remaining pesto. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo Pesto Recipes? Try One of These!
Chicken Pesto Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Pesto Chicken Spaghetti Squash Bake
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If I wanted to make a bunch of these and freeze for future use, would you recommend freezing them raw or cooked?
I love this pesto recipe. I didn’t have walnuts so I substituted cashews and added arugula for more nutty flavor, it came out great!
I love this recipe. I didn’t have walnuts so I substituted cashews and added arugula for more nutty flavor. It turned out great!
I’m pretty sure you read my mind. I recently made your pesto chicken stuffed sweet potatoes, and I saved some pesto with meatballs in mind. I’m so excited to try this!
I made a double batch of these meatballs tonight, but substituted ground turkey for the ground chicken, with both spinach and basil in the pesto. Oh my goodness! So good. Thank you for the recipe!
Delicious and pretty quick! This meal was a hit with my family. I also just had some leftover pesto on a wrap for lunch and it was delicious!!
So happy you enjoyed the meatballs and pesto!
Just a heads up! I used extra virgin olive oil, which I just found out, gets very bitter when blended. So if you’re using EVOO, blend everything without the oil, then manually stir in the oil after blending.
Anyone know how to fix the bitterness? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
This has become a staple in our household! My husband LOVES them!
Hi! Can you freeze these?
The meatballs we’re absolute perfection on the first try ?
I’m confused on how much basil for the pesto? I only want to use basil. 4 oz or 4 cups?
Made this last night and it was p h e n o m e n a l .
Instead of using straight up pasta as the base, I sliced up green cabbage, real thin, and sautéed it to make cabb-oodles. Mixed that with some actual noodles and voilà!
Also, I didn’t have walnut so I used 1/2 Macademia Nut + 1/2 Pecan.
SO GOOD!
Made this last night and it was p h e n o m e n a l .
Instead of using straight up pasta as the base, I sliced up green cabbage, real thin, and sautéed it to make cabb-oodles. Mixed that with some actual noodles and voilà!
Also, I didn’t have walnut so I used 1/2 Macademia Nut + 1/2 Pecan.
SO GOOD!
Tasted so yummy, wholesome and satisfying! I made a pesto sauce with added kale and didn’t use nuts and still was really good. Next time will add a little more salt to the meatball mix, but otherwise it was great! We’re excited for the leftovers 😀
I made these divine little morsels using a jar of pesto I found in my pantry. Oh my, they turned out amazing, the flavor was fantastic. I did add a little spinach because I had some I had to use up. I scooped up the balls and placed them in a 12 cup muffin tin, so easy. I served them with a little bit more pesto sauce over Palm Heart “noodles.” Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing your delicous recipes.
This is super easy and my family loves it!
Omg this was delicious! You don’t even need to use the extra pesto on top of the meat(although I did because it’s so good). I didn’t have the time or patience to make meatballs so I made this into meatloaf and served it with a side of spaghetti squash topped with the pesto. On a side note, the recipe card plugin won’t allow me to adjust the serving size on my phone, it doesn’t show up within the screen, so I had to do it on a laptop. Also, even though I selected the Jump to Recipe button, the page doesn’t stay in the recipe. It jumps all over as videos and ads pop up which is obnoxious and off putting.
Can I substitute the almond flour with a different gluten free flour? Also, any alternative suggestions for the egg?
I’ve made this recipe at least a couple times and it always comes out lovely. Thank you for sharing!