Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
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Last updated on Apr 23, 2025
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These baked buffalo chicken meatballs are an easy and delicious appetizer for game day. They’re loaded with flavor and sure to become a new fan favorite! They also make a great low-carb option for meal prep.
While I’ve never been a huge fan of traditional wings, I have always loved buffalo-inspired recipes and it seems like many of you do as well!
I’ve shared buffalo cauliflower wings, air fryer buffalo cauliflower and a buffalo cauliflower salad… so many buffalo cauliflower creations. But today we’re switching things up and making buffalo chicken meatballs.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- These meatballs are the perfect addition to any potluck or party spread.
- They’re low carb – only 2g of carbs per serving when made with almond flour.
- The meatballs come together in just one bowl – yay for minimal dishes!
- They can be enjoyed as an appetizer, but also as a main dish. They’re great for meal prep.
Ingredients Needed
- ground chicken – ground chicken is the base of this recipe. I tested the recipe with ground turkey and while it turned out, the flavor wasn’t my favorite. I highly recommend sticking with ground chicken here.
- buffalo sauce – I like the Primal Kitchen’s buffalo sauce and Noble Made buffalo sauce, but any buffalo sauce works.
- egg – helps bind the meatballs together.
- green onions – you’re actually going to mix some green onions into the meatballs and top with additional green onion.
- grated carrots – I love adding some veggies into my meatballs. I grated a large carrot myself, but you can also use store-bought shredded carrots. If you’re doing this be sure to still chop the carrots up into smaller chunks so they aren’t long strands.
- almond flour or breadcrumbs – along with the egg, this helps bind the meatballs together. For a gluten-free option, I recommend almond flour, otherwise, panko breadcrumbs ore regular breadcrumbs work great!
- garlic powder and onion powder – the perfect spice pairing to round out the recipe.
- sea salt and black pepper – brings the flavors of this dish together.
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Start by mixing up your meatballs! In a large bowl, mix together the ground chicken, buffalo sauce, egg, green onions, carrots, almond flour or bread crumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. You can use a spoon to mix but it might just be easier to get in there with clean hands to mix it up!
Use a cookie scoop or small spoon to scoop the chicken mixture and then use your hands to form it into balls. Place the meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400ºF for 18-20 minutes. When the meatballs are done cooking, drizzle on the remaining sauce and carefully toss the meatballs to coat.
Brittany’s Recipe Tips!
- Pack your almond flour: If you’re using almond flour, be sure to pack it down while measuring. A few people have had issues with the meatballs being too wet when using almond flour and if you don’t pack the flour down you could end up with less flour than needed. When measuring in grams, it should yield about 52 grams.
- Make mini meatballs: If you want to serve these as mini meatballs for an appetizer, use a Tablespoon to scoop the chicken mixture. This recipe will make 25 mini meatballs!
How to Serve Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
I love drizzling on ranch (my vegan ranch dressing would be delicious) or blue cheese dressing, blue cheese crumbles and green onions for serving these meatballs!
For a potluck, you can serve them on a platter paired with celery sticks and carrots or you could have each meatball drizzled with dressing and poked with a toothpick so they’re ready to eat!
I’ve also served these buffalo chicken meatballs for dinner. You can serve them over rice (or cauliflower rice) or simply pair with a salad or other veggie side and you’re good to go!
How to Store
These meatballs are great for meal prep! Once cooled completely, store meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days. To reheat, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and heat in the oven at 350°F until warm throughout. Alternatively, you can also reheat these in the microwave, toaster oven or air fryer.
More Game Day Snacks
- Sweet Potato Skins
- Cheesy Cauliflower Nachos
- Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Healthy Guacamole
- Loaded Nachos
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Need more inspiration? Be sure to check out my full collection of healthy game day snacks and all of the appetizer recipes on EBF!
If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below.
Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- ½ cup buffalo sauce, divided
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions, plus more for garnish
- ¼ cup grated carrots*
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs, or ⅓ cup packed almond flour (52 grams)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- blue cheese dressing or ranch and blue cheese crumbles, for serving
- celery sticks and carrot sticks, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl mix together the ground chicken, ¼ cup buffalo sauce, egg, green onions, carrots, almond flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
- Using a cookie scoop or small spoon, scoop the ground chicken mixture and use your hands to form into balls.
- Place the meatballs onto a prepared baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and drizzle on remaining ¼ cup hot sauce and gently toss the meatballs.
- Serve immediately with a drizzle of blue cheese or ranch dressing and extra green onions sprinkled on top.
Notes
- Carrots: If you’re using store-bought shredded carrots, be sure to chop them up into smaller chunks so you don’t have long shreds of carrots in the meatballs.
- Mini meatballs: This recipe makes 12-15 regular size meatballs or 25 mini meatballs.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made these for my son who is on a low carb diet. He also love buffalo sauce. These were great. I doubled the recipe and added an additional 1/4C of panko. In reading the reviews I also basted the remaining buffalo sauce on after 15 minutes and then broiled for two minutes. They are a big hit! Thanks for sharing.
So glad these were a hit with your son, Tammy! Love that you doubled the batch and tried some of the tips from the comments — basting with extra sauce and a quick broil is such a great touch. Thanks so much for making the recipe and for coming back to leave a review!
I tried to make these exactly as written, but they were way too wet. I added more panko until meatball consistency, almost double the listed amount. Flavor was 5 stars as made, but I did have to alter the recipe.
Thanks so much for the feedback, Stephanie! I’m glad you loved the flavor, but sorry to hear the mixture was too wet. Ground chicken can vary quite a bit in moisture, so I really appreciate you adjusting and sharing your notes. I’ll take another look at the recipe to see if an extra tip might help others too. Thanks again for giving it a try!