Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Want buffalo wings WITHOUT the mess?! Buffalo Chicken Meatballs a poppable combination of spicy sauce, chicken, and celery with blue cheese for dipping!

I love all things buffalo. If you’re a Real Housemoms fan, you’ll know this already… I’ve got TONS of buffalo recipes, including this completely craveable buffalo chicken dip! These Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Blue Cheese are no exception – they’re moist, spicy, and delicious BUT, they don’t get your fingers messy like chicken wings! They’re the perfect party food for any occasion!

BUFFALO CHICKEN MEATBALLS
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When I was young, Sundays were for cooking at Grandma’s house (looking back, I now realize that for my parents it meant a few hours without kids…seems like a conspiracy to me). We baked, we cooked, we developed new recipes, we had a great time laughing and spending time together. My all-time favorite thing to cook with my grandma was her juicy Italian meatballs. I think those were what created my deep-rooted love for meatballs.

I still use her recipe for meatballs with my own family, but I’ve become a bit more adventurous lately. I was trying to decide what to make for a neighborhood potluck last week when I realized that I was craving meatballs, but also craving buffalo chicken….when WHAM! It hit me – BUFFALO CHICKEN MEATBALLS!

It was a true stroke of genius. Putting together my two favorite things into one, easy, finger-food style dish was one of my greatest accomplishments to date (ok, ok, I exaggerate, but in all seriousness – this chicken meatball recipe is a keeper).

Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Meatballs and Blue Cheese Sauce

One thing I love about this recipe is that you get the spicy deliciousness of a crispy buffalo wing, but with a lighter, healthier (less guilt-wrenching) kick! I keep the calorie count down by using reduced-fat and light ingredients wherever possible. Plus ground chicken meatballs are more health-conscious than the ground beef you’d use in typical meatballs!

For the chicken balls recipe:

• Ground chicken
• Butter
• Hot sauce
• Salt
• Celery
• Egg
• Bread crumbs

For the blue cheese sauce:

• Light sour cream
• Milk (I use 1%)
• Reduced-fat blue cheese crumbles
• Reduced-fat mayonnaise
• Salt
• Red wine vinegar

How to Make Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

From prepping to cooking to eating, these meatballs only take about 40-45 minutes. Imagine that… in under an hour, you can be eating the most delicious buffalo chicken meatballs you’ve ever had!

1. I always start every new cooking endeavor with a great playlist, so after you preheat your oven to 450°F, pop on your favorite tunes and get yourself into the cooking groove!
2. In a small pot, add butter and hot sauce on low heat and whisk until butter is melted – when its all combined and smelling spicy and amazing, set the pot aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
3. Coat a 9×13 pan with cooking spray
4. In a large bowl, combine chicken, salt, chopped fresh celery, egg, bread crumbs, and cooled hot sauce mixture. Now it’s time to get messy – mix that all up with your hands until completely combined. Are they even really meatballs unless you’ve squished them between your fingers??
5. Roll the mixture into small balls, packing the meat firmly (wouldn’t want those meatballs to fall apart while baking would we?)
6. Place balls evenly in rows on your greased pan
7. Bake until the meatballs are firm and cooked through, about 20 minutes
8. Cool for about 5 minutes – resist the urge to taste test, if you burn your mouth you won’t be able to fully enjoy them 🙂
9. Make the sauce: Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until completely blended
10. If desired, drizzle the meatballs with extra hot sauce (I never say no to more hot sauce) and serve with the blue cheese dressing. Be prepared to be asked for this buffalo chicken recipe from all your friends – they’re THAT good!

To make these meatballs even more perfect for your next potluck party, make them tiny enough to be served with toothpicks. This cuts down on the utensils needed and really makes it finger food! Plus, your guests’ fingers will stay clean (and not get orange buffalo sauce all over your nice, white couches).

How Long to Bake Chicken Meatballs

This buffalo chicken recipe has truly been a trial-and-error endeavor for me. But, don’t worry… I’ve got it all figured out for you!

Baking time for meatballs can often be a struggle – cook too quickly and you’ve got a mush of questionably edible meat, cook too long and you’ve got a crisp, dry meat chunk on your hands. The main problem arises with varying size of the meatballs. You want to make sure that you form your meatballs as uniformly as possible to ensure that they cook evenly!

The next thing you’ll want to think about is your uniform meatball size: if you like smaller meatballs (like ones you can pick up with a toothpick), then you’ll probably want to check on them after about 15 minutes in the oven. If you like larger meatballs (like those used for a meatball sub…what a great idea… buffalo chicken meatball subs? YUM) then they’ll probably take closer to 20-25 minutes to bake.

The perfect internal temperature for these ground chicken meatballs is 165°, so if you’re not sure if they’re done or not, pop in a meat thermometer and check where they’re at!

More poppable party bites!

• Meatball Parmesan Bites
• Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels
• Sausage Cheese Balls
• Bacon Jalapeno Popper Pretzel Bites
• Buffalo Mushroom Bites
• More APPETIZER recipes…

Tools used to make Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Blue Cheese

Baking dish: I love this baking dish for so many reasons, the main one being that it can go from baking, to serving, to storing with no extra dishes to clean!

Meat Thermometer: having this great tool on hand in your kitchen will help ensure you’re serving sufficiently cooked meats!

*This post originally posted on 02/12/2013.