Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf “Muffins”

You know what seems to be all the rage in restaurants these days? Fusion, or the combining of several separate cuisines into one dish/restaurant concept. This is kind of like that, but far less fancy because mine involves meatloaf. It’s more like diner-fusion than an elegant and eclectic mix of Japanese, Brazilian and Parisian fare (or whatever). I’m good with that. Meatloaf and Chicken Parmesan are two of my favorite  comfort foods, and I loved the idea of combining them. The finished product kind of reminded me of a chicken version of meatballs (which are one of my favorite foods of all time –  I LOVE meatballs), so I loved them. Of course I also followed my instinct to portion them into muffin tins, and as always it made for added convenience, presentation, portion control, and in this case – a shorter cooking time! These “muffins make great leftovers and are freezer and kid-friendly. Plus, you get to transform your kitchen into the next great Italian-American fusion restaurant! Look at you, being all hip and fancy.

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lbs raw ground chicken breast (if you have trouble finding ground chicken that is breast meat only, you can throw the same weight of boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the food processor and run until ground)
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs
• ¾ teaspoon dried basil
• ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¾ teaspoon oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ a small onion, chopped small or grated
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• ¾ cup Parmesan cheese
• ¾ cup pasta sauce
• ¾ cup 2% reduced fat shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Optional: dried parsley, oregano or basil for garnish

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Lightly mist a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, egg whites, breadcrumbs, basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese and lightly mix together. Do not over handle.
3. Form the meat mixture evenly into the 12 cups of your prepared muffin tin. Spread the pasta sauce evenly over the tops of each muffin. Bake for 20 minutes and remove from the oven. Top each muffin with about a tablespoon of shredded cheese and then return to the oven for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melted. Garnish if desired.

Weight Watchers Freestyle SmartPoints:
3 per muffin (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com), a muffin was 4 SP on the previous program

Weight Watchers Points Plus:
4 per muffin, 7 for 2 muffins (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)

Nutrition Information per muffin:
147 calories, 6 g carbs, 2 g sugars, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 18 g protein, 0 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)

adapted from What’s Cookin’ Chicago?