Welcome to your new favorite way to use zucchini and maybe even your new go-to weeknight dinner. I developed this recipe for #AKZucchiniWeek FIVE whole years ago and it quickly became a staple in our house because of how easy and delicious it was.
So let’s get to it. Onto THE best zucchini chicken meatballs with colorful veggies and the most delicious coconut curry sauce.
To be honest with you, chicken (or turkey) meatballs or meatloaf is on my menu once a week in our house. WE LOVE IT. It’s an easy dinner; just serve veggies or a salad on the side for a high protein, nutritious meal.
I wanted to give you another easy one pan meal that would be awesome for meal prep, for when you don’t feel like creating a huge mess in your kitchen or have zero time (so this is basically all of you).
And honestly, I’m just gonna say this: I freakin’ nailed it. Yep, tooting my own horn over here. TOOT TOOT.
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What’s in these zucchini chicken meatballs?
These wonderful zucchini chicken meatballs are SO juicy and flavorful. Of course, I can’t forget this coconut curry sauce situation. This may be a little dramatic, but I kind of want to bathe in it (that’s how addicting it is). Here’s everything you’ll need to make this dish:
- For the peppers: we’re roasting up red, orange, and yellow bell peppers right along with the meatballs. You’ll first coat them with olive oil, garlic powder, salt & pepper.
- For the meatballs: these meatballs are made with lean ground chicken (or turkey) and made extra juicy thanks to shredded zucchini! You’ll also need bread crumbs, an egg, garlic, and delicious spices like curry powder, ground cumin, ground turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper.
- For the sauce: that addicting curry sauce is made with light coconut milk, tahini, garlic, curry powder, turmeric, cayenne, ginger, and just a touch of maple syrup. If you’re a curry fan, be prepared to fall in love!
All you’ll do is roll them up into big golf ball-sized balls, place them on a baking sheet with the chopped bell peppers, and bake away! 20 minutes later you have an absolutely delicious healthy meal to nosh on.
Customize your meatballs
These healthy one pan zucchini chicken meatballs are super easy to customize with what you have on hand. Here’s what I can recommend:
- Use chicken or turkey. As I mentioned, feel free to use lean ground chicken or ground turkey. I recommend using no leaner than 94% so that the meatballs aren’t too dry.
- Make them gluten free. I recommend using gluten free breadcrumbs or 1-2 tablespoons coconut flour for the 1/4 cup breadcrumbs.
- Try new veggies. I love roasting these meatballs up with colorful bell peppers, but feel free to use any of your fav veggies! Carrots, cauliflower, sweet potato, zucchini, and red onion would all be delicious.
Don’t forget this meatball-rolling tip
I like to have a bowl of water next to me to dip my hands in while rolling up the meatball mixture! Using wet hands really helps to prevent sticking as you roll. You can also scoop the mixture using a cookie scoop before rolling if you’d like.
How to meal prep these zucchini chicken meatballs
These chicken zucchini meatballs make AMAZING leftovers, are lower in carbs, pack in a ton of protein per serving, and are wonderful for meal prep. To do so:
- Make the meatballs ahead of time and bake them. Alternatively, you can mix and form the meatballs and store them unbaked in the refrigerator for 1-2 days ahead of time before baking them and proceeding to step 2.
- Allow them to cool and then place three meatballs and peppers in a meal prep container.
- Once ready to eat, microwave on high for 1-2 minutes until warm.
What to pair with these meatballs
The meatballs, peppers, and sauce are delicious on their own, but we love to serve everything with:
- A baked sweet potato
- Fluffy quinoa, brown rice, or forbidden rice
- My famous coconut rice
- A toasty piece of naan
Two amazing ways to freeze meatballs
- Cook first, then freeze: simply place your meatballs, peppers & sauce in a freezer-safe, airtight container or bag and freeze it all for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, let your container of meatballs + sauce thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight, and then empty the contents into a pan on the stovetop. Heat them in your pan until they’re nice and warm, and then serve!
- Freeze before cooking: you can also freeze these meatballs before cooking them! Form your meatballs as instructed, place them on a baking sheet, and put them in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This is called a flash freeze. Then, transfer your frozen meatballs to an airtight, freezer-friendly bag or container and place in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw them, simply place them in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight and then bake them as directed in the recipe.
More zucchini recipes you’ll love
- Buffalo Zucchini Chicken Burgers
- The BEST Zucchini Lasagna Recipe (low carb!)
- The Best Zucchini Brownies You’ll Ever Eat
- 30 Minute Brown Butter Goat Cheese Grilled Veggie Orzo
- Cheesy BBQ Chicken Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Get all of my zucchini recipes here!
I hope you love these zucchini chicken meatballs! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked the. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Sheet Pan Zucchini Chicken Meatballs with Coconut Curry Sauce
Ingredients
- For the peppers:
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
- 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into chunks
- 1 orange bell pepper, cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- For the meatballs:
- 1 pound 94% lean ground chicken or turkey
- 1 cup shredded zucchini that's been squeezed of excess moisture with towel
- ½ cup panko or regular breadcrumbs* (see notes section for GF option)
- 1 egg
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon red cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- For the sauce:
- 1/3 cup light coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon pure maple syrup or honey, to sweeten
- 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
- ½ tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon red cayenne pepper
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- For garnish and serving
- Cilantro and sliced green onion (green part only)
- Rice, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don't have a large baking sheet, you can use two smaller pans.
- Add chopped bell peppers to a medium bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle on garlic powder and a little salt and pepper. Use a spoon to toss the peppers in the oil to coat them. Set aside.
- Make the meatballs: Add ground chicken (or turkey), shredded zucchini (make sure you squeezed all the excess moisture out), breadcrumbs*, egg, minced garlic, curry powder, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, salt and pepper to a large bowl. Use clean hands to mix until well combined. Do not over mix.
- Grab a golf size ball of meat and roll it into a ball. Place each on baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Evenly distribute chopped bell peppers in the spaces between the meatballs like the pictures show.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until meatballs are fully cooked and a meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees. Mine were done at 20 minutes.
- While the meatballs are cooking, make the coconut curry sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, tahini, garlic, maple syrup, curry powder, ginger, turmeric, cayenne and salt and pepper, to taste. Be careful to not over salt the sauce, taste and adjust as you go.
- Drizzle sauce over cooked meatballs and rice. Garnish with green onion and cilantro.. Serves 4, 3 meatballs each + roasted peppers + sauce.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on August 2nd, 2018, and republished on July 16th, 2023.
Quite literally the only zucchini dish my husband eats willingly AND asks for. One of our family faves!!
Amazing!!
I love this recipe! My kids don’t love cooked peppers so I only do one pepper but add broccoli. When I make the meatballs I double the recipe and freeze half so I have a meal for another night. The sauce is so yummy!
Perfect! This is great for customizing 🙂
This is one of my all time favorites. I would eat this sauce for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mine always need more breadcrumbs that what’s listed but besides that it’s a slam dunk!!
So good!!
This was a delicious meal. I cut out the cayenne pepper because I was feeding it to toddlers. It was still very good. Everyone loved it and I plan to add it to our weekly rotation and freeze meatballs for easy weeknight dinners. The sauce was good too but I think when I make it again, I will use ginger juice instead of grated ginger.
Perfect! So happy to hear that 🙂
I have been making this sheet pan turkey meatballs for YEARS!!! It’s always a family favorite. I love flavor and spices. This checks all the boxes. The grated zucchini is the best secret to keep them moist. Tonight’s variation is lemon butter orzo on the side and used preserved lemons. Chef’s kiss!!
This was delicious! My picky 4 year old had 4-5 meatballs which made me so happy. I didn’t have tahini so used almond butter in the sauce and used a whole can of coconut milk to increase the amount of the sauce (then adjusted the seasonings to taste). I simmered the meatballs in the sauce after they were cooked. I also added sweet potatoes and broccoli to the veggies as I had some leftover in the fridge. So tasty! I forgot to make rice but will do next time I make this- it’s being added to the rotation. Thank you!
Amazing! This one’s great for customizing with any veggies you have on hand. So glad it was a hit with the kiddos!
This recipe was so delicious! This was so incredibly flavorful, and I love that it’s fairly healthy as well. Will definitely be adding this to our favorites!
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
This is my second AK recipe in two days and WOW, is this meal delicious! The hype for it in the comments inspired me to double the meatballs to freeze and I doubled the sauce recipe. I’m so glad I did. The sauce is pure gold! Thanks for the recipe! Looking forward to my next AK recipe.
Amazing!! So happy you loved these (and hope you keep finding new fav recipes here!)
I find myself coming back to your website for many of my weekday meals and this was my favorite so far! I love the flavor of the meatballs, the hidden veg 🙂 and the sauce is amazing!! I think I doubled the curry seasoning amount but that was just personal preference! Will definitely be adding this to the weekly rotation! Thank you for sharing!!
Amazing! This one’s great for customizing, too 🙂 Glad you enjoyed!
This meal is absolutely delish and healthful. Everyone in the family loved it!! We doubled the sauce and used naan to soak it all up. Highly recommend! Thanks for another incredible, quick, easy meal Monique!
Amazing! Love a little extra sauce 🙂
OMG, my husband made this with the kids for dinner after I’d worked all day. It was soooo delicious! I had mine over zoodles, while the rest of my family had it with rice. I could not believe how moist the chicken meatballs were! Absolutely will make again, and again, and again….
Amazing! So glad this was a hit!
Wow, absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe and made with the coconut rice suggestion, for meal prep lunches for my husband and I for the week. I made the recipes exactly as written and wouldn’t change a thing! The meatballs were so tender. Each component came together faster than I expected too!
Amazing! So glad you loved this one!
I really enjoyed this recipe. Very tasty and would make it again but only on weekends when I have more time. I used ground turkey as I prefer it over chicken, I cut back on curry and cumin as I find them strong. A lot of ingredients, 3 recipes to prep in 1 so prep time for me was 45 mins + and I don’t move slow. It was well worth it in end.
I’m glad you found it worth it! I sometimes like to prep things 1-2 days beforehand, which helps with the overall time 🙂
This is tops as the most delicious meatballs I’ve made. I tripled the recipe so I could meal prep, and everything stores well without loosing taste
YUM! SO glad you’re loving this recipe and it turned out great for you.
I will be making this tonight. I’m wondering if I should measure the grated zucchini before or after squeezing it. Thanks!
After!
This was very good. It took me 20 mins just to read recipe, pull out all ingredients, preheat oven and put parchment paper on large pan. A lot of ingredients go into this recipe and I like to have all on hand. My kitchen is small so it was challenging. It was well worth 1 hour prep time! Thanks
So glad you enjoyed this recipe and the prep time was worth it in the end!
Holy smokes, this was AMAZING> Would also work well for meal prep day as well!
Flavours (especially in the sauce) blew me away. Even the 14 year old kid liked it.
Will def make again.
Ah yay! I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying this recipe and it turned out great for you, Janel 🙂
Would this sauce work in a slow cooker? Thinking this sauce sounds super yummy but would like to try it with chicken in a slow cooker!
Hi Rebecca – I haven’t tested it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how it turns out if you give it a try!
We loved this recipe! The flavors, textures and slight heat were a perfect marriage. The only thing I’ll do differently next time is double the sauce because we are ‘saucy’ people ❤️ so yum!
Yay! Happy to hear this recipe is a hit, Cassie. Double the sauce is always highly recommended!!
Wow! Another winner from Monique. My husband said it’s restaurant quality and I agree. The spice level is perfect. I love that this comes together on one pan and no need to brown the meatballs. A keeper!
❤️ This seriously makes me so happy to hear, glad this recipe is a hit!
Made this last night and boy was it good. I doubled the meatball recipe using a 2 pound chub of turkey and tripled the sauce. It was all very flavorful. I used peanut butter as I didn’t have tahini. The peanut flavor was not overwhelming. The sauce was a bit runny but was so good. Yum. My husband who always makes jokes about my use of ground poultry (especially turkey!) liked it a lot! As suggested, I served over rice. I’m looking forward to eating it again for lunches this week! I might end up freezing some meatballs but that’s always a good thing for this lazy cook! For certain, I’ll be making it again. Thank you for posting this delicious recipe!
WOO! I am so glad this recipe is a hit for you and your family, Barbara 🙂
Just made for a quick dinner, really phenomenal! So tasty!
Excellent! Love this one! Glad it is a hit 🙂
This was super yummy and easy! Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! Happy you loved it!
A delicious and easy sheet pan meal! 🍗🥥 Sheet Pan Zucchini Chicken Meatballs with Coconut Curry Sauce 🍛🌶️😋 #FlavorfulCombination #WeeknightDinner
Glad you enjoyed this recipe!
This meal has been in our regular rotation for a few years now, so I have missed the mark on leaving timely reviews. This is delicious, flavor packed, and enjoyed by the whole family. I usually serve with roasted sweet potatoes and double the sauce. Yum!
Excellent! I am so glad you are loving this recipe, thank you for your comment, I appreciate it ❤️
This recipe was delicious and will be on my go-tp list when hosting guests. 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
Did you know, you can buy GF Panko breadcrumbs??
Yes there are a bunch of brands online!
I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to leave a review, but this recipe is delicious and has been a regular in our rotation for a few years. The curry sauce is flavorful without being too spicy for our toddler to enjoy. We love it! I serve with roasted sweet potatoes tossed in garam masala. Yum!
Ahh I’m so happy to hear that, Alli! Sounds like an amazing meal 🙂 Really appreciate the review!
Wow! I have made a lot of AK recipes and this one is near the top of my favorites. That sauce is to die for! This dish is so delicious and full of nutrients! I will definitely be making this one again! Used the same seasoning mix on some roasted sweet potatoes to finish off the dish. Excellent!!
Yay!! I’m so happy you loved this one, Liz!
This was great! I heated the sauce up. I thought cold coconut milk would not be good with hot meatballs. I fixed it with quinoa. It’s a keeper!