Discover the joy of making Romanian meatballs, also known as "chiftele", right in your own kitchen. These meat patties, a wonderful mix of ground pork and beef pan-fried to perfection, are a cherished classic in Romanian cuisine.
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Why I Love This Recipe
This recipe is extremely popular where I come from. It is one of these recipes you make when you have ground meat in the fridge and no inspiration on what to do with it. The meat patties are an easy solution for a quick meal.
The mixture also has bread crumbs, spices, garlic, and eggs. In some regions of Romania, a shredded potato is also added. Neither my grandmother nor my mother added potato to the meat, so my recipe today is the basic one I grew up with.
The slightly flat shape is traditional, but sometimes, we make them smaller and round and serve them as appetizers.
It is a cheap, delicious way to combine different ingredients and create these almost flat meatballs, which can be served in sandwiches or snacks next to a salad, French fries, mashed potatoes, or other vegetables.
Sometimes, the women in my family would make a delicious tomato sauce for them and create the so-called "Chiftele Marinate" dish or "Marinated Meatballs." The sauce was very tasty, especially when served with mashed potatoes or simply with some white crusty bread for dipping.
Ingredients Needed
- Ground Beef and ground pork: You can use either one, but the best meatballs are usually made with a mixture of meat.
- Eggs
- Onion and garlic
- Bread Crumbs or stale bread
- Salt and pepper
- Dill or parsley
How To Make These Meat Patties
The recipe is not very difficult to put together. Check out the printable recipe card at the end of the article.
Step 1. Place the meat in a medium bowl. Dice the onion, garlic, and dill and add them to the meat. Add the rest of the ingredients to the meat mixture (bread crumbs, water, salt, and pepper to your taste.)
If you do not have bread crumbs, grab 1-2 slices of stale bread and place them in a bowl with water. Let it absorb the moisture, squeeze the water out of the bread, and add it to the mixture.
Step 2. Mix everything into a smooth paste.
Step 3. Place a few tablespoons of flour in a small bowl. Also, sprinkle the table with a little bit of flour. Dust your palms with flour and grab a small amount of meat mixture. Make a round meatball and roll it in the bowl with flour. Coat the meatball with flour, flatten it, but keep its round shape.
Set the meatballs on a floured surface(they will not stick to it) and continue working on the rest of the meatballs.
Step 4. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet with oil on the stove.
Grandma's tip
How to check if the oil is hot enough for frying: If you insert a wooden spoon into the oil, it will bubble around the stick when it's ready for frying. If you have a thermometer, the temperature should be between 300-325F, and you should aim to keep it that way.
When the oil is hot, gently slide them into the skillet and fry them for 4-5 minutes on each side until they get brown.
Remove them from the pan and place them on paper towels to drain. Serve the meatballs warm or cold. I love them cold, in sandwiches with mustard or slices of tomatoes.
If you make them round, they are perfect as appetizers. Keep them refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or freeze the extra ones.
Serve them with Romanian Roasted Eggplant Salad, Crispy French Fries , Romanian Beef Salad, Dill Pickles.
Enjoy!
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📖 Recipe
Romanian Meatballs(Chiftele)
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3-4 garlic cloves crushedl
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- ¼ cup water
- 2 large eggs
- 1 bunch fresh dill
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4-5 tablespoons flour for dusting meatballs before frying
- ½ cup oil for frying
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, place the ground pork and beef together.
- Add bread crumbs, diced onion, crushed garlic, chopped dill.
- Add eggs and salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the water and mix everything really well to combine.
- Tip: Mixing all the ingredients with your hand would work better than a spoon.
- On a clean surface, sprinkle some flour.
- Also, grab a smaller bowl and put 4-5 tablespoons of flour in it.
- Dust some flour on your palms and grab a small amount of meat mixture.
- Make a round meatball and roll it in the bowl with flour.
- Coat the meatball with flour really well, then flatten it slightly, but keep it round.
- Set the meatballs on the floured surface and keep working on the rest of them.
- Meanwhile, warm up the oil in a skillet on medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, slide the meatballs carefully in the skillet and fry them for 4-5 mins on each side until they get browned.
Gigi says
I made these in the Airfryer the other night and they turned out wonderful. I put them at 390º F for 10 minutes and turned them at about the halfway mark. They came out crunchy and so delicious. This is such a great recipe! Thank you for sharing it with your readers!
The Bossy Kitchen says
What a great idea! I might buy an Airfryer and try the recipe with it. I am so glad you liked the recipe! Thank you for visiting!
Linda Countryman says
These are exactly the way Baba taught me to make these! Delicious!