Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
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Introducing your new favorite way to eat meatballs! This recipe for THE BEST Buffalo Chicken Meatballs is saucy, spicy and easy to make in 30 minutes! Serve the meatballs in bowls, wraps, or sandwiches for a delicious meal. Or with ranch, or blue cheese dressing on the side, for a flavorful party appetizer!
Table of contents
We’re big fans of meatballs, and buffalo sauce, around my house. So of course, when I decided to make buffalo chicken meatballs, they truly had to be THE BEST buffalo chicken meatballs ever!
So what makes these the best buffalo chicken meatballs ever? These three things:
- A combination of ground chicken and ground pork. In my opinion, any good meatball should contain two different types of meat to balance out the flavor, and fat in the meatballs. Adding ground pork to the ground chicken in these meatballs adds fat and flavor. This makes them moist and delicious!
- 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.
- Broiling the meatballs. While most people fry or bake meatballs, I found that if you broil the meatballs, they cook faster, giving them a beautiful brown crust on the outside, while remaining super juicy and tender on the inside!
These meatballs are in the monthly rotation at our house, and I always make a double batch to freeze some for later. I like to make the meatballs golf ball sized, so they’re easy to toss in pasta dishes or salads, add to sandwiches or wraps, or serve as an appetizer.
It only takes 30 minutes start-to-finish to prep and cook these meatballs, and everyone will exclaim “these are the best meatballs I’ve ever had!“
If serving them at a party, you can keep them warm in a Crock Pot with an extra drizzle of buffalo sauce. I always like to serve the meatballs with a side of ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing for dipping. Because the taste of juicy, saucy meatballs, dipped in a creamy dressing is always a winning combination!
Ingredients
- Olive oil – or another neutral-flavored vegetable oil.
- Onion + celery + carrots – these veggies will need to be finely diced so that they easily blend into the meatballs.
- Garlic – I always recommend fresh minced cloves for the best flavor.
- Ground chicken – generally found with the other cuts of chicken at the grocery store on the meat aisle.
- Ground pork – also found near the other cuts of pork on the meat aisle. While you can use all ground chicken, I do recommend the combination of pork and chicken because the pork adds more fat to the mixture, which makes the meatballs juicy and tender.
- Chili powder + paprika + salt + black pepper – to season the meatballs. You can also substitute in 2 tablespoons of my famous Chicken Wing Seasoning instead, for even more flavor and spice.
- Panko bread crumbs – to make the meatballs keto, use pork panko.
- Parmesan cheese – this ingredient is used as a binder, and to add salt and flavor to the meatballs. Grated parmesan from a shaker will work just fine for this recipe.
- Eggs – you’ll only need the yolks, so feel free to save the egg whites for another recipe.
- Buffalo sauce – Frank’s is my favorite brand, but feel free to use any brand of buffalo sauce that you like.
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.
- Cook the veggies. Add olive oil to a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Add finely diced carrots, celery and onions. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for an additional minute, then remove the skillet from the heat on the stove.
- Add all of the ingredients for the meatballs to a large bowl. Add ground pork, ground chicken, chili powder, paprika, salt, black pepper, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg yolks and buffalo sauce to a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked diced vegetables.
- Combine all of the ingredients. Use a spatula, or your hands, to combine all of the ingredients. Only mix until the ingredients are combined, over-mixing can make the meatballs tough.
- Form the mixture into meatballs. Use your hands to form 40 1-inch, or golf ball-sized, meatballs. Place the meatballs on a large foil-lined baking sheet. Place on the middle to lower rack in the oven, under the broiler on high. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 165°F.
Other ways to cook them
Bake, instead of broil: line the meatballs up on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake them in a preheated oven at 400°F for 15-20 minutes.
Air fryer: line the meatballs up in a single layer, with space around each meatball in an air fryer basket. Cook at 380°F for 8-10 minutes. You’ll have to do this in 4-6 batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.
Crock Pot, or slow cooker: once you form the meatballs, I recommend placing them under the broiler in the oven for 2 minutes before adding them to the slow cooker. Doing this will lightly brown the outside of the meatballs, and will prevent them from sticking together, or falling apart, in the slow cooker.
Cover the meatballs with 1 cup of buffalo sauce, in the slow cooker, to keep them moist while they cook. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-3 hours.
Recipe tips
- The meatballs can be made ahead of time, up to 3 days before serving. Store them in the fridge, in an airtight container, until you’re ready to bake and serve them.
- If you want to bake the meatballs ahead of time, after baking I recommend transferring them straight from the oven to a slow cooker, or Crock Pot, set to warm. I also like to pour 1/2 – 1 cup of buffalo sauce over the meatballs in the slow cooker. This will make them extra saucy and keep them moist, while on warm in the Crock Pot.
- 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 for each meatball, simply use a cookie scoop to make perfectly even-sized meatballs every time! I recommend spraying the cookie scoop with cooking spray first, so that the meatball 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!
- Do not add the onions, celery and carrots into this recipe raw. They need to be cooked down until they’re tender, so that the texture blends in to make perfectly tender meatballs.
Ways to serve them
These meatballs are delicious on their own, served as an appetizer with buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, or blue cheese dressing drizzled on top, or served on the side.
You can also add some celery sticks and carrot sticks to the plate, for a serving presentation similar to that of buffalo wings. I like to garnish them with diced green onions, but that’s totally optional.
You can also make these meatballs into a meal, by adding them to pasta recipes, wraps, salads and more. Make these meatballs over and over again, and try all of these delicious ideas!
- With pasta – there’s a reason that this Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta recipe has been one of the most popular recipes on the blog since 2012! It’s delicious, and you can easily swap out the shredded chicken in the recipe for these meatballs, to make it even more delicious!
- In a sub sandwich – lightly toast a sandwich roll, or hot dog bun, then add these meatballs to the bun. Drizzle with blue cheese or ranch dressing, and buffalo sauce. You can also top the meatballs with blue cheese crumbles, or shredded pepper jack cheese. Or add other sandwich toppings, like shredded lettuce, sliced pepperoncinis or sliced red onions.
- Add them to this Buffalo Chicken Soup recipe – this soup is creamy, flavorful and you can put these meatballs right in the soup from the oven, fridge or freezer!
- 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! Or for even more buffalo sauce goodness, pair them with these Buffalo Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes.
- In a bowl or salad – these meatballs are perfect for meal-prep! Cook them ahead of time, then add them to bowls or salads throughout the week. Try them in this Buffalo Chickpea Buddha Bowl, or replace the bacon with these meatballs in this Blue Cheese Salad. Or swap out the grilled chicken with these chicken meatballs in this Keto Buffalo Chicken Bowl with Cheesy Zucchini Noodles.
- In a wrap – heat up a tortilla, then add your favorite fillings, like chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Add the buffalo chicken meatballs, drizzle with blue cheese or ranch dressing, then wrap up the tortilla for a delicious, and simple meal.
Make them gluten free or keto
To make gluten free meatballs, simply swap out the panko breadcrumbs for gluten-free panko bread crumbs. Always make sure the buffalo sauce used is gluten free. Frank’s RedHot, as seen in this post, is gluten free!
To make this recipe low carb and perfect for those on a keto diet, substitute in pork panko for the breadcrumbs. By making this swap, each meatball will contain .3 total carbs, and .1 net carbs, so virtually carb-free!
Storing and freezing meatballs
Leftover uncooked meatballs will stay good in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Leftover cooked meatballs 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. The meatballs can be frozen 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 bag and place in the freezer.
- These meatballs can be frozen for up to 6 months. I always recommend writing a date on the bag before placing it in the freezer.
- To defrost the meatballs, transfer them from the freezer to the refrigerator 12-24 hours before using them in a recipe. In a hurry? Transfer the frozen meatballs to a plate and use your microwave’s defrost function to defrost the meatballs in just a few minutes.
- If the meatballs are already fully cooked, you can reheat them in the oven, under the broiler for 3-4 minutes, or at 400°F for 8-10 minutes. Or you can air fry them in a single layer at 400°F for 3-4 minutes.
- If the meatballs are raw, you’ll want to cook them using the broil, bake, air fry or slow cooker methods I’ve listed above.
More appetizer recipes
Don’t miss these other tested and perfected appetizer recipes with buffalo sauce!
Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup onion, finely diced
- ½ cup celery, finely diced
- ½ cup carrots, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 large egg yolks
- ½ cup buffalo sauce
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.
- Add the finely diced onions, celery and carrots, cook for 4-5 minutes, or until tender.
- Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute, then remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, ground pork, chili powder, paprika, salt, black pepper, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg yolks and buffalo sauce. Add the sauteed, minced vegetables and stir to combine everything.
- Once the ingredients are combined, form the mixture into about 40 golf ball sized meatballs.
- Place the meatballs on a foil lined baking sheet and under the broiler, on the middle rack of the oven, for 8-10 minutes. Alternatively, you can bake the meatballs at 400°F for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove the meatballs from the oven and serve with buffalo sauce, blue cheese or ranch dressing on the side for dipping.
Video
Notes
- You can replace the chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper with 2 tablespoons of my famous Chicken Wing Seasoning for even more flavor and spice.
- You can also cook these meatballs in an air fryer. Line the meatballs up in a single layer, with space around each meatball in an air fryer basket. Cook at 380°F for 8-10 minutes. You’ll have to do this in 4-6 batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.
- The meatballs can be made ahead of time, up to 3 days before serving. Store them in the fridge, in an airtight container, until you’re ready to bake and serve them.
- If you want to bake the meatballs ahead of time, after baking I recommend transferring them straight from the oven to a slow cooker, or Crock Pot, set to warm. I also like to pour 1/2 – 1 cup of buffalo sauce over the meatballs in the slow cooker. This will make them extra saucy and keep them moist, while on warm in the Crock Pot.
- 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 for each meatball, simply use a cookie scoop to make perfectly even-sized meatballs every time! I recommend spraying the cookie scoop with cooking spray first, so that the meatball mixture doesn’t get stuck in the scoop.
- To make gluten free meatballs, simply swap out the panko breadcrumbs for gluten-free panko bread crumbs. Always make sure the buffalo sauce used is gluten free. Frank’s RedHot, as seen in this post, is gluten free!
- To make this recipe low carb and perfect for those on a keto diet, substitute in pork panko for the breadcrumbs. By making this swap, each meatball will contain .3 total carbs, and .1 net carbs, so virtually carb-free!
- Leftover uncooked meatballs will stay good in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Leftover cooked meatballs will stay good in the fridge for up to 6 days. If you want to store them longer, toss them in the freezer! Refer to the blog post above for freezing instructions.
Nutrition Facts
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