Air Fryer Meatballs
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Make juicy, tender, flavorful meatballs every time with this tested and perfected recipe for Air Fryer Meatballs! These homemade meatballs are easy to make in under 30 minutes, incredibly versatile, and freezer-friendly. You can serve them as an appetizer, in meatball subs, with spaghetti and marinara sauce, or added to soup!
Table of contents
After spending 10 years perfecting my Italian meatballs, I had to make a version in my favorite kitchen appliance, the air fryer. Seriously, what can’t the air fryer do? It makes perfectly crispy fries and chicken strips, tender salmon, and juicy meatballs. This is why it’s my favorite appliance!
This recipe can be used to make my homemade meatballs and cook them in the air fryer. You can also use this recipe as a guide for cooking frozen meatballs.
I also highly recommend making a double batch of my homemade meatballs, then freezing half of them for later. They can go straight from the freezer to the air fryer and cook in just 10 minutes! This makes an easy meal to pair with pasta, veggies, or a salad, or to make a quick meatball sub.
What makes these meatballs the best
- Italian Pork Sausage. Instead of simply combining ground beef and ground pork, I use a combo of ground beef and Italian Pork Sausage. This adds salt, fat and flavor to the meatballs which makes them SO juicy and flavorful!
- Homemade Italian Seasoning. Sure, you could buy Italian seasoning at the store, but my homemade seasoning is SO EASY to make and really amps up the flavor of these meatballs, and honestly any other Italian dish as well!
- Egg Yolks. While eggs are a common binder in meatballs, using just the egg yolks adds fat and helps bind the meatballs, without watering them down.
Ingredients
- Olive oil – or another neutral-flavored vegetable oil.
- Onion – I prefer a yellow onion in this recipe for it’s nice, neutral flavor.
- Garlic – I recommend fresh minced cloves for the best flavor.
- Ground beef – I recommend a ground beef that’s 80/20, meaning 80% lean and 20% fat. This will give you the perfect amount of fat to make tender, juicy meatballs!
- Italian pork sausage – If you can’t find Italian sausage, not in the casing, you can always use Italian link sausage, and simply remove the sausage from the casing before adding it to this meatball recipe.
- Panko bread crumbs
- Parmesan cheese
- Eggs – you’ll only need the yolks, so feel free to save the egg whites for another recipe.
- Italian seasoning – I highly recommend my homemade seasoning, linked here. It’s so flavorful and easy to mix up in less than 5 minutes, with herbs like basil, thyme and oregano. You can also purchase pre-made Italian seasoning on the spice aisle at the grocery store.
- Kosher salt + black pepper – to season the meatballs.
Instructions
I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe super easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Combine the meatball ingredients. Start by cooking the onions and garlic to soften them. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Cook diced onions and minced garlic in the olive oil, then set the skillet aside. Add ground beef, Italian sausage, panko breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg yolks, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked onions and garlic.
- Form the meatballs. Use your hands, or a spatula, to combine all of the ingredients. Once the ingredients are combined, form the mixture into about 40 golf ball sized meatballs.
- Air fry the meatballs. Add the meatballs to an air fryer basket, making sure there’s room between each meatball for the air to move. Cook them at 380°F for 8 minutes. There’s no need to flip the meatballs, as the air will circulate around them and cook them on all sides. Depending on the size of your air fryer, you’ll have to cook the meatballs in 2-3 batches. I’m using a 5.8 quart air fryer and I can cook 16 at a time.
Easy as that, you have delicious, juicy air fryer meatballs. Now you just have to decide which way to serve them!
Ways to serve the meatballs
There are dozens of ways to serve these air fryer meatballs as an appetizer, lunch, or dinner. Here are a few ideas for you to start with!
- With pasta – there’s no more classic of a combo than spaghetti and meatballs. It really is a match made in foodie heaven! You could also serve these meatballs with tortellini or raviolis, two of my favorite cheese-filled pastas. Toss the meatballs in warm marinara sauce, or your favorite pasta sauce, after they come out of the air fryer. Spoon them right over cooked pasta for a delicious comfort food meal.
- In a sub sandwich – the almighty meatball sub is one of our go-to uses for leftover meatballs at lunch time. Click the link for my recipe for the best meatball sub ever!
- In soup – this Italian Meatball Soup (pictured above) is so easy to make and even more delicious with homemade meatballs! Simply drop the air fried meatballs right into the soup for a simple weeknight meal.
- On a pizza – slice the cooked meatballs into quarters, then add them as a topping on Kurt’s famous Pan Pizza recipe!
- As an appetizer – people go crazy for these meatballs every time I serve them at a party! Once you cook the meatballs in the air fryer, add them to a slow cooker with 2 cups of warm marinara sauce. Set the crock pot to warm and let people dig into these meatballs throughout the party!
- With mashed potatoes – now this is a meat and potatoes meal I can get down with! Pair the meatballs with Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes for some serious comfort food!
Storing and freezing meatballs
Leftover uncooked meatballs will stay good in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Cooked meatball leftovers will stay good in the fridge for up to 6 days. If you want to store them longer, toss them in the freezer!
I love freezing these meatballs to have them on hand for meals down the road. You can freeze the meatballs either raw or cooked.
If freezing the meatballs raw, I recommend placing them about 1/2 inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and into the freezer for 30 minutes before transferring them to a freezer bag. This will allow the meatballs to freeze on the outside and will prevent them from getting stuck together in the freezer bag.
If freezing cooked meatballs, make sure the meatballs have cooled completely, then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag and place them in the freezer. You can freeze these meatballs for up to 6 months. I always recommend writing a date on the bag before placing it in the freezer.
Uncooked meatballs can be cooked directly from frozen in the air fryer at 380°F for 10 minutes. You can also defrost the meatballs before cooking them by transferring them from the freezer to the refrigerator 12-24 hours before using them in a recipe.
If the meatballs are already fully cooked, you can add them directly to a pot of marinara sauce, or soup, to heat them up.
Recipe tips
- Do not over-mix the meatball ingredients! Only mix the ingredients enough to combine them. Over-mixing will cause the meatballs to become tough.
- Make even-sized meatballs. If your meatballs are different sizes, it means they won’t cook at the same time and you’ll get some over-cooked and some under-cooked meatballs, which no one wants! If you have a hard time eyeballing the correct size, simply use a cookie scoop to make perfectly even-sized meatballs every time. I recommend you spray the cookie scoop with cooking spray first, so that the mixture doesn’t get stuck in the scoop.
- Do not overcook the meatballs! The meatballs will dry out and become tough if they’re overcooked. Follow my cooking times for perfectly cooked, tender meatballs every time!
- The meatballs should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the meatballs after you remove them from the air fryer.
- To make gluten free meatballs, simply swap out the panko breadcrumbs for gluten-free panko bread crumbs.
More air fryer recipes
Fire up your air fryer and try all of these delicious recipes!
Air Fryer Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup onions, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian pork sausage
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, click link for homemade recipe
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet on the stove over medium high heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, Italian sausage, panko breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg yolks, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Add the cooked onions and garlic, then use your hands, or a spatula, to combine all of the ingredients.
- Once the ingredients are combined, form the mixture into about 40 golf ball sized meatballs.
- Place the meatballs in an air fryer basket with room around each meatball for the air to move around. Cook at 380°F for 8 minutes.
- Remove the meatballs from the air fryer and immediately toss with your favorite sauce, add to soups or subs, or freeze them for later.
Notes
- To freeze raw (uncooked) meatballs, I recommend placing them about 1/2 inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and into the freezer for 30 minutes before transferring them to a freezer bag. This will allow the meatballs to freeze on the outside and will prevent them from getting stuck together in the freezer bag.
- If freezing cooked meatballs, make sure the meatballs have cooled completely, then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag and place them in the freezer. You can freeze these meatballs for up to 6 months. I always recommend writing a date on the bag before placing it in the freezer.
- Uncooked meatballs can be cooked directly from frozen in the air fryer at 380°F for 10 minutes. You can also defrost the meatballs before cooking them by transferring them from the freezer to the refrigerator 12-24 hours before using them in a recipe.
- If the meatballs are already fully cooked, you can add them directly to a pot of marinara sauce, or soup, to heat them up.
- To make gluten free meatballs, simply swap out the panko breadcrumbs for gluten-free panko bread crumbs.
Nutrition Facts
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