Instant Pot Meatballs (Chinese Style)
This easy Chinese-style Instant Pot meatball recipe is perfect for your weekday dinners and meal-prep. The juicy, tender chicken meatballs are cooked with a savory, fragrant brown sauce in one pot. Top them on rice or noodles - you won't be able to stop eating! {Gluten-Free adaptable}
To make the dish gluten-free, you will need to use gluten-free oyster sauce and gluten-free breadcrumbs. Use tamari or coconut aminos to replace the soy sauce, and use dry sherry instead of Shaoxing wine.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms (or 2 fresh shiitake mushrooms)
- 1 lb (450 g) ground chicken (*Footnote 1)
- 1 green onion , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , grated
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons reserved shiitake soaking liquid (*Footnote 2)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 3/4 cup beef broth (or chicken broth) (*Footnote 3)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Cooking
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
Instructions
Prep
- Place the dried shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl and cover them with hot water. Let them rehydrate until soft throughout. Gently rinse the mushrooms in the rehydrating water then squeeze out the excess liquid. Reserve the soaking liquid. Finely mince the mushrooms.
- In a large bowl, add the ground chicken, green onions, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, 1 tablespoon of soaking liquid, shaoxing wine, salt, and sugar. Mix in a circular motion until it forms a paste that feels sticky, 5 minutes or so.
- Add the panko and the egg, and mix again until everything comes together in one firm ball.
- Roll balls of the mixture with the palm of your hand, about 1-2 tablespoons each. Set the rolled meatballs aside on a separate plate.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium-size bowl and set aside.
Cook
- Turn your Instant Pot to the “Saute” function and add oil. Wait until the indicator shows “HOT”.
- Add the meatballs into the Instant Pot. Leave a small amount of space between each of them. Let them cook without moving, until the bottom side is browned. Flip to brown the other side. It will take a total of about 5 minutes. You may need to do two rounds of browning. In that case, take the browned meatballs out of the Instant Pot, allow the pot to get hot again, and add the next round.
- Once all the meatballs are browned, turn off the saute function and put any meatballs you may have taken out of the pot back in. Stir the sauce to dissolve the cornstarch completely and pour it over the meatballs.
- Seal the Instant Pot and make sure the valve is locked. Set to “Manual”, “High pressure”, and cook for 5 minutes. Once done cooking, press the “Quick Release” on the lid or switch the valve to unlock using a spatula (depending on your Instant Pod model).
- Serve hot over steamed rice or boiled noodles.
Notes
- You can also use ground turkey, or a mix of ground pork and chicken to create a more flavorful result.
- Use broth or water if you’re using fresh mushrooms and do not have any soaking liquid.
- During one of the recipe test runs, we used beef broth because we didn’t have chicken broth on hand. The result turned out SO GOOD. I highly recommend using beef broth if you want a richer sauce.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 87kcal, Carbohydrates: 5.6g, Protein: 8.5g, Fat: 3.2g, Saturated Fat: 0.8g, Cholesterol: 32mg, Sodium: 131mg, Potassium: 81mg, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugar: 0.9g, Calcium: 18mg, Iron: 1mg