Tarragon chicken with creamy white beans
Tender chicken in a creamy white bean sauce with fresh tarragon.
About 30 min · 375 kcal · 43 g protein per serving
One pan
Turkey meatballs with roasted pepper sauce
Tender turkey meatballs in a smooth pepper sauce, served with orzo.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm twelve 30 g meatballs cook through in 10 to 12 minutes
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 40 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 585 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 42 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains eggs, gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- dried breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs can contain soya or milk; check the label.
- roasted red peppers from a jar. Jarred peppers are packed in brine and can contain sulphites; check the label.
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
- orzo. Most dry pasta is just wheat and water, but some contains egg; check the packet.
Cooking steps
Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk in a large bowl for 5 minutes.
Add the turkey and egg and mix gently with your hands until just combined. Shape into twelve small meatballs of about 30 g each.
Warm the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Brown the meatballs for 4 to 5 minutes, turning them, until coloured all over. They are not cooked through yet; they finish in the sauce.
Blend the drained peppers with the stock until smooth. Pour into the pan, bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, turning the meatballs once, until they are cooked through.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Meanwhile, cook the orzo in a large pan of boiling water, following the packet, then drain it.
Divide the orzo and meatballs between two plates, spoon the sauce over and scatter with the parsley.
The useful detail
Mix the meatballs gently to keep them tender. The breadcrumbs and milk hold water in the meat, and the less you work the mixture, the less springy the result.
Make it work for you
One serving is Six small meatballs with half the orzo and half the sauce. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Chicken mince instead of turkey
Much the same. The safe endpoint is the same, 74°C / 165°F.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g less protein, about the same fat.
Peppers you roast yourself
Two large peppers, about 260 g before roasting, roasted until soft and peeled. Sweeter, without the brine, and the sodium becomes calculable. Calculated from the raw weight.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Gluten-free pasta instead of orzo
Small gluten-free shapes work here, but they are not orzo and the nutrition is not recalculated.
Allergens: Removes gluten from the pasta. The breadcrumbs still contain it.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A full plate of dinner: meatballs, pasta and sauce, all counted. Sodium is not calculated, because the brine the jarred peppers sit in is not in their record.
| Energy | 585 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 42 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| of which saturates | 5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 55 g |
| of which sugars | 8 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
| Sodium | not calculated |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dried breadcrumbs | 25 g | FDC 174928Bread, crumbs, dry, grated, plain | 99 kcal | 3.3 g |
| milk | 31 g | FDC 171267Milk, reduced fat, fluid, 2% milkfat, with added vitamin A and vitamin D | 15 kcal | 1.0 g |
| turkey mince | 300 g | FDC 172850Turkey, ground, 93% lean, 7% fat, raw | 450 kcal | 56.2 g |
| eggs | 56 g | FDC 171287Egg, whole, raw, fresh | 80 kcal | 7.0 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| roasted red peppers from a jar | 200 g | FDC 2710799Red pepper, cooked, as ingredientCalculated as plain cooked red pepper, FoodData Central's closest record. Jarred peppers are packed in salted brine that the record does not include, so sodium is left uncalculated for any recipe that uses them rather than shown too low. | 66 kcal | 1.9 g |
| chicken stock | 160 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 9 kcal | 1.0 g |
| orzo | 100 g | FDC 169736Pasta, dry, enrichedFoodData Central records dry pasta as one entry rather than by shape. Orzo is the same durum wheat pasta, cut small. | 371 kcal | 13.0 g |
| parsley | 5 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 2 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1173 kcal | 83.7 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. sodium could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Lemon-oregano chicken with courgette orzo
Oregano chicken with soft courgette, orzo and fresh lemon zest.
About 30 min · 420 kcal · 40 g protein per serving
One pan