Last week, we here at The Companion Group team were excited to announce Ernie R. as the winner of our ‘Share Your Recipe and Win’ contest. But what we were even more excited about was grilling them up and trying them for ourselves!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground chicken breast
• 1/4 lb. ham (finely chopped)
• 3/4 C. Swiss cheese
• 1/2 C. bread crumbs
• 1 lg. egg
• 1 heaped tsp. favorite BBQ rub (We used Best of Barbecue All-Purpose Rub)
• 6 pieces of thick-cut bacon (cut in half to make 12 pieces)

First, we assembled our ingredients:

We mixed our ingredients in a large bowl…

Added in Steven Raichlen’s Best of Barbecue All-Purpose Rub…

Then mashed everything up by hand!

We scooped up the meat mixture and rolled it into balls (golf ball size). We found that wetting our hands with water in between rolling the meatballs prevented the mixture from sticking. Next, we then took our bacon pieces and wrapped them around the meatballs. Although Ernie’s recipe recommends spearing the meatball with a toothpick, ours held together pretty well on their own — plus our Steven Raichlen Meatball Grilling Basket helped them hold their shape.

Ernie’s recipe calls for the meatballs to be placed in a smoker set at 250°F for 45 minutes, with the heat then raised to 350°F until the chicken is done and the bacon is cooked. Unfortunately (and for some odd reason) we don’t have a smoker at our office, so we decided to use our good ol’ charcoal grill. Besides, we know that not everyone has access to a smoker, so this is a great alternative. We brought out our charcoal grill and got our charcoal started using our Best of Barbecue Ultimate Chimney Charcoal Starter. We love this chimney not only because it’s easy to use, but because it means you don’t need to use any nasty chemical lighter fluids. Once the coals were ashed over, we dumped them out.

And pushed them to the outside perimeter of the grill so that the meatballs could cook over indirect heat. Soaked woodchips were added to the coals to reproduce the wonderful smokey flavor of a smoker.

The meatballs, loaded in the in their grilling basket, were placed on the grill, and we put the cover back on to maintain the heat and smoke.

After cooking for a while, we flipped the basket, re-covered, let it cook some more, flipped, covered, cooked…

Finally, we used our tried and true (or used and abused, as this picture shows!) Instant Read Thermometer to check the meatballs’ internal temperature when they appeared to be done. 160°F is the safe temperature for ground meat, so we were definitely in the food safety clear zone. The smell was incredible!

Meatball Recipe Results

The taste was even more amazing! Back in our company kitchen, we served them up with some of Steven Raichlen Best of Barbecue Cabernet Barbecue Sauce.

The bacon was crisp on the outside, but not hard or crunchy; the meatball itself was a perfect mix of the chicken, ham, and Swiss cheese flavors. After we “tested” them… and “tested” some more… we finally let everyone else know that there were hot-off-the-grill meatballs in the kitchen, and they quickly disappeared! Everyone commented on how good they were — and seemed disappointed that there weren’t more!

Overall, Ernie’s “Chicken Cordon Que Balls” proved themselves to be worthy winners! Thanks again for sharing your recipe with us! Be on the lookout for future contests, and keep watching our blog for grilling and barbecuing tips and recipes!

Niki Gross

Niki is the Marketing Communications Manager for The Companion Group. She is responsible for marketing and communications strategies, from advertising to websites. She is a wife, mother, yogi, and lover of cheeseburgers, proper grammar and a strong work ethic!