Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
These Buffalo Chicken Meatballs are made with a delicious garlic buffalo sauce and sharp blue cheese crumbles to build the perfect blend of texture and flavor. An easy alternative to buffalo wings for your Sunday night game day treats!
Buffalo Chicken is a flavor that can go on pretty much everything – I’ve made it with tacos, sandwiches, and I’ve posted my Buffalo sauce before on my Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Wing recipe. I’m bringing that same tasty buffalo garlic sauce for this Buffalo Chicken Meatball recipe.
What do I need to get started?
- Ground chicken.
- Bread crumbs.
- Egg.
- Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
- Homemade Buffalo sauce – this includes hot sauce (I always use Franks Red Hot!), butter, garlic, brown sugar, and blue cheese crumbles.
- Blue Cheese crumbles.
- Celery – both for a side and for the recipe.
- Green onions.
- A sauce of your choice for dipping – I find ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing works best.
How to make Buffalo Meatballs
Start with making your homemade buffalo sauce.
Heat the hot sauce, butter, minced garlic, brown sugar, and blue cheese crumbles in a small saucepan over medium to low heat, until butter and cheese is melted. Remove to a bowl.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken, bread crumbs, egg, finely chopped celery, blue cheese crumbles, buffalo sauce, and all seasonings. Mix with a wooden spatula until it is all combined.
Form balls using an ice cream scoop and place onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until nicely browned on the outside.
Once meatballs are cooked, toss in the sauce and top with more blue cheese crumbles and green onions. Serve with celery and dressing of your choice!
How to serve Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
You can make these meatballs as a main course for dinner, or as an appetizer for a game day party!
Serve them on a long tray with toothpicks for easy sharing.
Tips and Tricks
- Add more butter and brown sugar to your buffalo garlic sauce for less heat.
- If you struggle with finely shopping, shred the celery using a nice box grater.
- I made my meatballs smaller size for sharing. You can make them as small or as large as you like!
Make Ahead and Storage
For ease on the day of, you can make the sauce the day before and mix the meatball ingredients together, put in an airtight container, then roll and bake right before serving.
The cooked meatballs can be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also freeze after cooking – to thaw, place in fridge until unfrozen, then bake for 5 minutes.
For another meatball recipe, try my Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan Meatballs!
Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Chicken Meatballs made with a tasty buffalo garlic sauce and topped with blue cheese and green onion!
Ingredients
Buffalo Sauce
- 1 cup hot sauce
- 1/2 cup butter (add 1/4 cup for less heat)
- 3-4 tbsp brown sugar (add another tbsp for less heat)
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 3/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
- 1/3 cup very finely chopped celery
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
- Blue cheese or ranch dressing, for dipping
- Celery, for side
- 2 green onions, sliced for topping
- Blue cheese crumbles, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Add all buffalo sauce ingredients to a small saucepan and cook over medium to low heat, until butter and cheese is melted, stirring occasionally. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
- Combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, chopped celery, 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles, and 1/2 cup of the buffalo sauce in a large bowl. Mix with a spatula until all ingredients are nicely mixed.
- Roll into balls using an ice cream scoop and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all meatball mixture is rolled into balls.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the outside is browed and the inside is fully cooked. Let cool for 1-2 minutes, then toss in remaining buffalo sauce.
- Top with green onions and remaining blue cheese crumbles, and serve with blue cheese sauce and celery.
