Buffalo chicken meatballs
I first made these buffalo chicken meatballs for my husband shortly after we got married in 2015, so we’re talking almost ten years ago now. For him, I served them like mini subs on whole wheat hot dog buns, topped with bleu cheese dressing. Even though I had already won his heart, I think these buffalo chicken meatballs made him fall in love with his new bride all over again. Needless to say, these delicious meatballs became a staple in our household for quite some time, and I even made them for a Super Bowl party a few months later. A dish like this is not only great for your weekly meal prepping, but it’s perfect for pot luck-style gatherings. You can make a big batch and keep them warm in a crock pot for everyone to enjoy.
I hadn’t thought about these spicy, meaty gems in a while, until recently. For some reason they fell out of our regular meal rotation and I honestly forgot about them. A couple weeks ago, my mom was needing to prepare a dish for her women’s bible study pot luck and I suggested a simple protein main dish. And buffalo chicken meatballs came to mind! What a tasty solution!
She bought all the ingredients and brought them over to my house so we could prepare them together and I could show her the ropes. Sometimes ground chicken can be harder to find than ground turkey, but since this recipe is so versatile, you can easily swap out ground turkey for the ground chicken. I have made these meatballs with each different meat and they both were equally delicious. Just a few simple spices of salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and fresh scallions, and there you have the makings of a flavorful dish. I don’t even add any binder in these meatballs, but if you wanted to, you could certainly add ground oats or ground gluten free cracker crumbs to still keep this dish gluten free. And, if you like that class combination of buffalo and bleu cheese, feel free to toss bleu cheese crumbles into the raw meat mixture and bake them, or serve the bleu cheese on top as a garnish. Either way, you cannot go wrong. For me, I keep it dairy free, so I serve the bleu cheese on the side, that way my husband can put as much or as little of the creamy, stinky crumbles on his meatballs as he pleases.
After you roll the meat mixture into balls, they only take about 20 minutes at 350F to bake in the oven. It’s important not to over bake them here, since they will cook a bit more on the stove or in a crock pot once doused in buffalo sauce. I like to use the cleanest buffalo sauce I can put my hands on, and right now that seems to be Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce or Noble Made Buffalo Sauce. Both of these brands make pretty clean sauces, with no added sugar or seed oils. After the meatballs come out of the oven, be sure to allow them to cool before saucing them, or else they will get a tad mushy.
Buffalo chicken meatballs
2-3 lbs. organic ground chicken or turkey (breast or a lean blend)
salt and black pepper to taste
2-3 tsp. granulated garlic
5-6 scallions
1 bottle buffalo sauce (recommended Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce or Noble Made Buffalo Sauce)
1/2 cup bleu cheese crumbles, optional
In a large bowl, mix together the raw ground meat, salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and scallions. If you want to add bleu cheese prior to baking, add it in now. Roll the mixture into about two-inch balls and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the oven and allow to cool. If using a crock pot, place the meatballs in a crock pot set on “warm” or “low” and pour over the buffalo sauce. Gently toss with a spoon to coat each meatball. If using a stove, do the same, except, place the meatballs in a large pot on the stove set to a low heat. Serve on rolls or over rice with bleu cheese crumbles or bleu cheese dressing on the side. Enjoy!
