These Keto General Tso’s Meatballs are easy to make and family friendly. Delicious hot or cold, these sweet and spicy keto meatballs are also perfect for meal prep for lunches all week long!
Keto General Tso’s Meatballs guys – you’re gonna want to make these STAT.
These keto General Tso’s meatballs are inspired by the popular Chinese takeout dish that consists of fried chicken chunks in an addicting sauce that is both sweet and spicy.
I’ve taken all the flavors of the classic favorite and jammed them into these little gems of poultry bliss!
One of the things I love about these sweet and spicy keto meatballs is that they are equally delicious either hot or cold. Maybe I’m just weird that way, but I enjoy them right out of the fridge – no heating needed. Which makes them super convenient to take them for lunch on the go when you don’t have the option to warm them up.
I’m including some answers to frequently asked questions in the section below. If I’ve missed anything feel free to put your question in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.
What is the best ground meat to use for these keto meatballs?
I recommend that you use ground chicken or turkey for the most authentic flavor in these keto General Tso’s Meatballs, but ground pork would also work nicely.
In a pinch, you could use ground beef, but the stronger flavor of the meat won’t work as well with this particular sauce in my opinion.
Are keto meatballs gluten free?
The majority of my recipes here on IBIH are gluten free. These particular meatballs can be made with regular soy sauce if that’s what you have on hand and a small amount of gluten isn’t an issue for you.
Traditional soy sauce is a no-no for Paleo and Celiacs, so if you want to make sure these keto meatballs are gluten free, you can substitute a tamari-based gluten free soy sauce, or coconut aminos for the soy sauce in this recipe with excellent results.
Substitutions for this recipe
- Typically, General Tso’s chicken contains blisteringly hot dried peppers, but if you can’t get them, or you don’t like it too hot, you can use fresh chili’s instead and adjust the amount to your preference. Another option is to use crushed red pepper flakes, but the flavor won’t be as authentic.
- If you are Paleo, you can substitute honey for the granulated sweetener, and arrowroot powder (or another preferred thickener) for the xanthan gum. I don’t recommend omitting the thickener altogether in this recipe, because the sauce won’t cling to the meatballs as well and it won’t have that authentic sticky feel – however, the flavor will be just as good!
- If you are allergic to almonds, you can replace the almond flour with sunflower seed flour, hemp hearts, or crushed pork rinds to use as your binder in this keto meatball recipe.
Serving suggestions for Keto General Tso’s Meatballs
Finally, and I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life here, but these keto General Tso’s Meatballs go perfectly with my Coconut Lime Cauliflower Rice to soak up that sticky, yummy sauce.
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General Tso’s Meatballs (Low Carb & Gluten Free)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Diabetic
Description
These keto General Tso’s Meatballs have all of the flavors and textures of the classic Chinese takeout favorite! Low carb and gluten free, there are also Paleo substitutions available.
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 lb ground turkey or chicken
- 2 tablespoons minced ginger
- 1/4 cup scallions, chopped
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1 egg
- light flavored oil for frying
For the General Tso’s Sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (unseasoned and sugar free)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce (tamari based for GF, or coconut aminos for Paleo)
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tablespoons sugar substitute (I like Swerve for keto, honey for Paleo)
- 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (or arrowroot powder)
- 1/4 cup scallions, chopped
- 4 – 5 small dried chilies, seeded and chopped (or 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes)
Instructions
To make the meatballs:
- Combine all of the meatball ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Form into 16 balls about 1 inch in diameter.
- Fry in hot oil over medium heat until cooked through and crispy.
**Alternatively you could bake them but they won’t get the crunchy exterior.
To make the sauce:
- Combine the sesame oil, vinegar, GF soy sauce, water, sugar substitute, and xanthan gum in a small saucepan and whisk until combined.
- Add the scallions and chili pepper and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for five minutes or until thickened, and remove from heat.
To serve:
- Add the cooked meatballs to the thickened sauce and stir to coat.
- Garnish with more chopped scallions and chilis if desired.
Notes
Approximate net carbs per serving = 4g
To lower the fat and calories, use extra lean ground turkey, and bake rather than fry them.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Keto meatballs
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Chinese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 meatballs
- Calories: 322
- Fat: 25g
- Carbohydrates: 5g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 23g
More Keto Meatball Recipes
Keto Spinach & Artichoke Dip Meatballs
Keto Chicken Piccata Meatballs
Keto Turkey Saltimbocca Meatballs
Christine says
Did you use toasted sesame seed oil or plain?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Toasted is the best but either will work!
Christine says
Thank You, I love toasted!
Mihir says
i just happened upon these yesterday and they look great! i’m wondering though, what are you using to do the nutritional analysis? when i use my analyzer, i get 13.3g carbs (12.5 net) per serving (4 meatballs).
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
curious as to how you got the numbers you posted. thanks!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I’m not sure what went wrong but there is no way the ingredients in this recipe would net what you are describing unless there was a major error. I use calorie king, and I never input everything into a recipe analyzer program because it’s always way off. I’m confident in my numbers because I enter each item individually, write down the info for each ingredient, and then tally up the nutrition info myself and check it twice. The problem with sites like the one you linked to is that they guess when they don’t recognize something, and they also use an average of all listed brands – including those with sugar, etc. Sites like that recipe analyzer just aren’t reliable – sorry.
Mihir says
i figured the site i was using wasn’t correct. the reason i asked is because i was looking for a new site to use.
also, a friend entered the info into myfitness pal (makes you enter ingredient individually) and got 22g carbs per serving. looking at the ingredient list, neither of us can figure out where it could possibly get 88g carbs for the whole recipe.
either way, these look awesome and i’m making them!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I’m not a huge fan of MFP for calculating nutrition info either – though it has other great uses. I do like Calorie King but even with them I have to be brand specific and rarely use their “average” numbers for an item because it’s so far off sometimes. It’s helpful to keep a spreadsheet of nutrition info as a reference for items and brands that you use all the time for that reason too. Curious if you put an actual sugar substitute brand (ie Splenda, Truvia, etc) in the recipe when entering it – if not could it be reading it as just sugar? The only other thing I can think of is that it wasn’t subtracting the fiber from the carbs in the almond flour, but even that wouldn’t give you as high a number as you got – I don’t think. Oh well! Either way I hope you like these! :)
Mihir says
i did put in Splenda as the brand name. meh. i think i’ll just look at the labels for the brands i have and do the calculations on my own. curious as to which brand of rice wine vinegar you are using. the one we have at home has a whopping 14g carbs per serving! time to hit the store and see what other brands are available.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Definitely use “unseasoned” rice wine vinegar or it will have tons of sugar in it! You can usually find kikkoman brand even in the grocery store. Maybe that was the source of the carbs in the calculations! I just checked the recipe and I never specified to use the unseasoned, which is a major error on my part. Thanks for catching that, I just fixed it!
Cathy says
I was wondering about the fat content in the nutritional numbers ? Is this correct ? Or is there a decimal point missing ?
Mellissa Sevigny says
This is calculated using regular ground turkey and yes it is correct. If you are on a low fat plan, you can use lean ground turkey or ground chicken and it will lower the fat grams – you’ll have to calculate the difference yourself though as I don’t have those numbers. Enjoy!
Linda says
Do you think the sauce would work on skinless and boneless chicken breast pieces?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Absolutely yes!
Lynn says
I had pinned this months ago, and my sister and I made them for our birthday dinner tonight (we’re twins). Even the picky 8-year-old tried the sauce and LOVED it! I think that this sauce would be good on chunks of skinless/boneless chicken breast.
Tessa says
These look great. How long would you bake them, do you think?
Mellissa Sevigny says
About 18 minutes at 350 degrees (F) should do it Tessa! Enjoy!
Nancy says
These sound fantastic. I love the Generals Chicken.
Cant wait to try them.
CJ Huang says
It’s a favorite around here, and now in meatball form! I’ll have to give it a try. :)
Elyse says
Can you just use regular flour if you don’t have almond flour on hand? (I not necessarily need it to be gluten free)
Mellissa Sevigny says
I wouldn’t Elyse, it would be too dense – if you aren’t worried about gluten free, try bread crumbs in place of the almond flour – panko would be awesome if you have it. Enjoy!
a says
These look amazing! Although, we have someone allergic to sesame seeds in the family so I was just wondering if it would be ok to leave out the sesame oil or is there anything it could be replaced by? Thanks :)
Mellissa Sevigny says
It will have a different flavor, but should still taste great without the sesame! I can’t think of what you could replace it with since the flavor is so distinct though. Just omitting it should be fine!
rose54 says
Loved these! I made extra sauce and flash fried a bag of cole slaw – added the extra
sauce to it and had chinese “spaghetti” and meatballs! Delish!
Mellissa Sevigny says
That sounds AWESOME! Wish I’d thought of frying some cabbage as a side, totally doing that next time!!!