Stuffed Again

My internet cooking buddies have been into stuffing everything lately (from veggies to meat) with all things decadent, so I decided to hop on the bandwagon and make some Panko coated meatballs stuffed with mozzaralla cheese and bacon. After I made Didi's mozzarella stuffed meatloaf I had some string cheese left over and decided that was a good starting point. By the way I got Didi's recipe off her blog Dishin With Didi (on my blog roll to the right of this post). Check it out, you will be happy you did. I had ground chicken, about 1/2 cup of Rotel tomatoes and 2 slices of cooked bacon in my fridge and figured that was a good starting point. Of course you can use ground beef or turkey, I know this recipe will be delish no matter what you use.

Panko Coated Meatballs Stuffed with Cheese and Bacon
Makes 12 meatballs

1 pound ground chicken
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 large egg
1/2 cup Rotel tomatoes
3/4 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic grated
2 tsp dehydrated onion flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 strips of mozzarella string cheese, cut into 12 pieces
2 slices cooked bacon chopped
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
Cooking spray

In large bowl combine fresh bread crumbs, egg, Rotel, oregano garlic onion flakes, salt and pepper.

Now add the ground chicken and combine.

At this point I took an ice cream scoop and portioned out 12 meatballs.

Place the soon to be meatballs in your clean hands, make small indentations and add 1 piece of mozzarella cheese and a piece or two of bacon to each meatball. (Sorry for the blurry picure)

Close the meatball packages up and set aside while you combine the Panko and parmesan cheese and spritz a baking sheet with cooking spray. This would be a good time to pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Roll meatballs in Panko/Parm mixture and place on baking sheet.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes and your meatballs are ready. Don't be surprised if some of the cheese wants to escape. Don't these look good?

I enjoyed these ooey gooey decadent little bites of heaven with even MORE CHEESE! Yes, I heated up some salsa con queso and placed the meatballs on top. Verrrry satisfying.