Why would gluten-free chicken meatballs involve pre-cooking 1/3 of the chicken before frying the formed meatballs?
Ground chicken can be very soft and sticky, and difficult to form into balls without everything sticking together or going "squish". If you tried to make balls from completely cooked chicken, though, the balls wouldn't stay together. So, cooking part of the chicken gives the mixture some structure so they can be formed, and will stay together when you put them in the pot.