I love grazing! I could graze on food all day so I love making small bite size eats! Why is it that people think you can only make appetizers or bite size things if you’re going to a party or something? I don’t agree with that so I love making fun, small plates for dinner every so often and then you can just double up the serving size.

That’s a perfect plan, right? Okay good. Now, moving on to a new dish I made for supper and it was so delicious, it’ll be added to the rotation.

Spicy Chicken Sliders

Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 25 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

Meatballs:

• 1lb ground chicken (this should make 12 meatballs)
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs hot sauce (I loved Louisiana hot sauce for these)
• 3 mozzarella cheese sticks, each stick cut into 4 1-inch pieces making 12 total 1-inch pieces
• 2 tbs salted butter
• 3 tbs vegetable oil

Sauce:

• 1 stick of salted butter melted
• 1/2 cup Louisiana hot sauce
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs honey
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper

Slider:

• package of 12 Hawaiian sliders

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Place the ground chicken, garlic, pepper, salt, paprika, brown sugar and hot sauce in a bowl and mix it up with your hands until it’s all mixed together.
• Wet your hands (chicken sticks to dry hands) and then begin rolling 12 meatballs into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls.
• Press a 1-inch piece of mozzarella cheese into each meatball and then pinch to seal back into a ball shape.
• Heat the butter and oil in a large plan on medium heat and add the meatballs to brown on all sides, about 5-6 minutes.
• Transfer the meatballs to a non stick cookie sheet and place in the oven for 15 minutes to finish cooking.
• For the sauce, while the meatballs are cooking, combine the hot sauce, butter, honey and brown sugar into a saucepan on medium-high heat and cook until it becomes smooth, stirring constantly.
• Take the meatballs out of the oven and spoon the sauce over each meatball getting it completely covered.
• To prepare the sliders, cut each Hawaiian roll into two pieces, a bottom and a top, making a bun. Then place the meatball on the bottom half, drizzle some more sauce if you have extra and then top with the other piece of the bun and pop a toothpick in it to hold it together.
• Enjoy!

XO, Rachel