Amazing Chicken Fajita Meatballs complete with bell peppers, onions and a spicy fajita seasoning. These Mexican inspired fajita meatballs are spicy, juicy, and make an extremely flavorful meal prep dinner! Low Carb, Paleo friendly and Gluten-free too.
Jump to Recipe
Reason I decided to make these fajita-inspired meatballs? Because I bought way too many bell peppers – 3 of each color – when I got on that whole pasta salad phase.
I thought I’d just run through them like crazy, but that 2 days later the phase was gone. So now I just have a ton of peppers to get though.
Guess you can be prepared for some bell-pepper-heavy recipes. Stuffed peppers? Stir fry? I don’t know – let’s see where things go!
Ingredients for healthy Chicken Fajita Meatballs?
These chicken meatballs have all the classic fajita vegetables and seasoning, so you can call them hidden veggie chicken meatballs, but that’s what gives them the authentic flavor!
- Ground Chicken
- Zucchini to pack in some more vegetables, but feel free to omit them.
- Bell Peppers and Onion – Classic ingredients for good chicken fajitas. A mix of red, yellow or green work
- The Fajita spices – Chili Powder, Cumin, Paprika, Garlic Powder, Cayenne Pepper
- Crushed Red Chili Pepper Flakes for the slightly spicy meatballs version. Feel free to omit it.
- Salt & Pepper
- Almond Flour – This binds the meat in these meatballs, so theres’s no bread crumbs, no flour and no eggs either; So other than Paleo, this also makes the ground chicken meatballs low carb, keto-friendly and gluten-free!
How to cook Chicken Zucchini Mexican Meatballs?
- If you’re using chicken breast, make your own ground chicken from scratch by chopping it and then pulsing in the food processor (pulse not process, or you end up with mush).
- Finely chop or shred the zucchini a food processor and squeeze out liquid as much as possible. This is important or the meatballs will be too wet.
- Then chop the bell pell peppers and onion in the food processor as well.
- Mix the chicken, vegetables, spices, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Use a spoon.
- Spoon out about 1-2 tablespoons of the vegetable chicken mixture (about 20 portions) and toss them between your hands to shape them into meatballs. Or shape them with a spoon.
The mixture might be hard to handle since they’re meatballs without eggs.
Then and place them on a greased baking sheet.
Bake the chicken zucchini meatballs in the oven at 350°F for 23 minutes.
You can also cook these chicken meatballs in an air fryer for about 17-18 minutes. Work in batches if you need to.
Make ahead Baked Meatball Fajita Recipe
You can make the Mexican fajita inspired meatball mix with the zucchini and bell peppers, shape the meatballs, and keep them in the freezer until you’re ready to cook.
Place each meatball on a parchment lined baking sheet and them freeze individually. Then transfer the frozen meatballs to zipper bag. They should keep 2-3 months.
To cook the meatballs, bake them for about 3-4 minutes longer.
Can you store these Low carb and Gluten Free Chicken Meatballs
Yes! The reason I make meatballs so often is because I can bulk cook and have them for dinner 5 nights in a row!
Meal prep these vegetable and chicken meatballs and keep them in the fridge for about 3-4 days in an airtight container.
The cooked chicken meatballs are also freezer-friendly; Follow the same process as for the uncooked ones. They should keep for about 2-3 months.
To reheat cooked meatballs (let frozen ones thaw) just microwave them for about 30 seconds.
Alternate ingredients for homemade Bell Pepper Meatballs
- Use Turkey instead of the chicken and make Turkey Fajita Meatballs
- These are made with almond meal or almond flour, but you can use 2 Tbsp coconut flour or just the same ⅓ cup of bread crumbs if you don’t have dietary restrictions
- Play around with the spices: Jalapeño peppers in place of the cayenne and crushed red chili powder works great too.
How to serve these Spicy Baked Chicken Meatballs?
My top recommendation would be to lightly fry some tortillas, grab some avocado or guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese if you wish, and turn this recipe into meatball fajitas!
Or go the usual meatball route and have them with some pasta, as a sub, sandwich, anything!
Even an omelette maybe?
Some more Healthy, Keto and Paleo friendly Meatballs you’ll love
- Egg Roll Chicken Meatballs with Sweet Chili Sauce
- Curry Chicken-Zucchini Meatballs with Coconut Curry Sauce
- Hot Ketchup Chicken Meatballs
Chicken Fajita Meatballs (Paleo & Low Carb)
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breast, Ground or Whole, 454g
- 1 medium Zucchini, 176g
- ¾ cup Bell Peppers, Roughly Chopped, 108g
- ¼ cup Red Onion, Roughly Chopped, 40g
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- ½ tsp Paprika
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- ½ tsp Crushed Red Chili Pepper Flakes
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- ⅓ cup Almond Flour, see notes for sub
- Cooking spray or Olive Oil for greasing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly grease a baking sheet.
Prepare Chicken and Vegetables:
- If using whole chicken breast, cut into large chunks and place in a food processor.
- Pulse (do not process, use the pulse option, or the chicken will form mush) about 10-15 times until it turns into a ground chicken.
- Work in batches if needed.
- Finely chop zucchini using food processor and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
- Place onion and bell peppers in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
Make Meatballs:
- In a large bowl combine chicken, zucchini, peppers, onion, seasonings (chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, red chili flakes, salt and pepper), and almond flour, and mix well until uniform.
- Spoon out a heaping 1-2 tablespoon worth of the mix and use hands and a spoon to shape into meatballs (about 20). Transfer to baking sheet.
- Bake for 23 minutes.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with charred tortillas, avocado, sour cream or your choice of sides.
Notes
- To replace almond flour use ¼ cup breadcrumbs or 1-2 Tbsp Coconut Flour.
- If making ground chicken, use the “pulse” and not the “process” option on the food processor, or it will turn the chicken into a soft mush.
- Fridge: 3-4 days in an airtight glass container. Microwave on high for 1 minute until warmed through.
- Freeze raw: Place baking sheet in freezer and allow meatballs to freeze. When frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe bag and freeze. Thaw before cooking, and increase cook time by 3-4 minutes.
- Freeze cooked: Cook meatballs and cool. Transfer to parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze. When frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe bag and freeze. Thaw and reheat in microwave to serve.
- Servings: 20 2” meatballs | Serving size: 5 meatballs
- Calories: 203kcal
- Fat: 6.6g | Saturated fat: 0.7g
- Carbohydrates: 6.6g | Fiber: 2.4g | Sugar: 2.7g
- Protein: 28.1g
Hey! I'm Haylee
Google Software Engineer
I use my passion for baking (and eating) to create healthy, high-protein, good-for-you and diet-friendly desserts and sweet treats that are actually delicious.
Come join me in Hayl's Kitchen and let's eat high protein, sweet and guilt free!