Healthy Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Add these Healthy Buffalo Chicken Meatballs to your weeknight dinner menu, weekend meal prep rotation, or enjoy them as a tasty and fun appetizer! Serve them on top of tender spaghetti squash strands or lightly steamed zucchini noodles for a delicious, satisfying, and veggie-filled meal. A recipe the entire family will love!

Juicy, saucy, Buffalo Chicken Meatballs are easy to make, totally scrumptious, and made with simple, real food ingredients.

This recipe comes together quickly and can be prepped ahead, whether you’re including it as part of your weekend meal prep to enjoy as a reheat-and-eat meal, or you’re just trying to get a jump start on food preparation to make for an easy weeknight meal. These Buffalo Chicken Meatballs are perfect for both of those scenarios. You can either make them entirely, or you can prep them up to the point of cooking.

In addition, you can either make this recipe with homemade buffalo sauce, or if you’re wanting to take the quickest approach you can certainly use a store-bought buffalo sauce of your choice. If you’re making these for kids, you may want to go with a more mild buffalo hot sauce as most kids are not too keen on spicy foods.

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Ingredients for Healthy Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

• Olive oil or avocado oil – we like Primal Kitchen Foods oils.
• Carrots, celery, and yellow onion – minced finely and sautéed.
• Garlic cloves
• Ground chicken or ground turkey – use what you have on hand or what’s available to you. We love ButcherBox for its quality meat options.
• Almond flour – or flour of choice (if using coconut flour use about half the amount the recipe calls for)
• Buffalo Sauce – use your favorite store-bought buffalo sauce like this one from Primal Kitchen or our Homemade Buffalo Sauce
• Ranch dressing – use your favorite store-bought ranch like this one from Primal Kitchen or homemade Ranch
• Green onion & Cilantro – optional for garnish

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How to make Healthy Buffalo Meatballs

First step: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Second step: In a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat, add the oil, celery, carrots, onion, and garlic cloves. Sauté until onions are translucent and vegetables are cooked through. Remove from the skillet and let cool slightly.

Third step: In a separate bowl, combine and mix together the chicken, flour, 2 tbsp buffalo sauce, and veggies.

Fourth step: Form into 16-20 golf ball-sized meatballs. The meat will be sticky but dampening hands a little with water will help to prevent the meat from sticking to hands.

Fifth step: Place them on a large baking sheet and bake 14-18 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and the insides are no longer pink. Flip meatballs after about 10 minutes of baking. Total baking time will depend on the size of the meatballs. (Pro tip: This step is optional but if you’d like to brown up the meatballs a little bit, simply turn your oven to broil to finish. Watch closely so they do not burn.)

Lastly: Return the meatballs to the skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 cup of buffalo sauce (more if you wish). Toss gently. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2-3 minutes. Serve as desired (ideas below!).

How to serve Buffalo Chicken Meatballs?

There are so many ways you can serve these Buffalo Chicken Meatballs. Some of our favorites include:

• On top of Zucchini Noodles
• On top of Roasted Spaghetti Squash
• Tucked in your favorite wrap or sandwich bread to make a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
• Served on their own as a tasty appetizer

Best of all, we’ve loaded them with veggies. But shhhhhh, don’t tell those non-veggie eaters that little bit. Not only is it a great way to boost your veggie and fiber intake for the day, but adding veggies keeps the meatballs perfectly tender and moist (even when reheated!).

Pre-sautéing the veggies until they’re nice and soft before mixing them into the meat is a great way to keep those veggies a secret. Once the meatballs are cooked and tossed in a delicious buffalo wing sauce and drizzled with ranch, those non-veggie eaters will never know carrots, celery & onions are involved.

Can you make Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with ground turkey instead of ground chicken?

Sure can! In any recipe that calls for ground chicken or ground turkey, you can almost always substitute one for the other. Often times you may find one of them at the grocery store but not the other so use what you have on hand or what’s available to you.

Confused about poultry labeling? Check this post out to learn all about how to choose the best chicken in the grocery store. 

How to store Buffalo Chicken Meatballs?

If making buffalo meatballs as part of your meal prep or if you have leftovers, simply store the cooled meatballs in an appropriately sized glass, airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Can you freeze Healthy Buffalo Chicken Meatballs?

You sure can. Buffalo Chicken Meatballs are freezer-friendly. So if you’d like, go ahead and double the recipe, make as directed, and then freeze half for a future meal or appetizer. Then all you’ll need to do is thaw the meatballs out in the fridge overnight and throw them in a Crock Pot on low to heat through. Easy peasy!

Also, if you’re making this meatball recipe as an appetizer, you most certainly can cook them up ahead of time and place them in a slow cooker on low to keep warm.

The Buffalo Chicken Meatballs are lightly covered with sauce, so feel free to double the sauce in the recipe if you’d like them more…”saucy!”

Looking for guidance with meal planning? Check out Real Plans, a highly customizable online meal planning service that includes over 300 of our very own recipes.

Other Healthy Buffalo Chicken recipes you’ll love!

• Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken (or Instant Pot)
• Creamy Buffalo Chicken Casserole (Whole30)
• Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Note: this recipe was updated on November 24, 2020. The original recipe was made in one-skillet but after much testing, we found that the meatballs hold together much better and are more evenly cooked when baked in the oven. 

Recipe

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Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Add these Healthy Buffalo Chicken Meatballs to your weeknight dinner menu, weekend meal prep rotation, or enjoy them as a tasty and fun appetizer! Serve them on top of tender spaghetti squash strands or lightly steamed zucchini noodles for a delicious, satisfying, and veggie-filled meal. A recipe the entire family will love!

Prep: 15 minCook: 15 minTotal: 30 min

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Servings: 6 servings 1x

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Ingredients

• 2 tsp. olive oil or avocado oil 
• 1/4 cup minced carrots
• 1/4 cup minced celery
• 1/4 cup minced yellow onion 
• 3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed 
• 1 lb. 90-93% ground chicken or turkey
• 1/4 cup almond flour or flour of choice
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. Buffalo Sauce, divided (or use our Homemade Buffalo Sauce)
• Ranch for drizzling (or use our Paleo Ranch Dressing & Dip)
• Garnish – green onions and/or cilantro (optional)

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375℉.
2. In a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat, add the oil, celery, carrots, onion, and garlic cloves. Sauté until onions are translucent and vegetables are cooked through. Remove from the skillet and let cool slightly.
3. Next in a bowl, combine and mix together the chicken, flour, 2 Tbsp. buffalo sauce, and sautéed veggies.
4. Form into 16-20 golf ball-sized meatballs. The meat will be sticky but dampening hands a little with water will help to prevent the meat from sticking to hands. Place them on a large baking sheet. 
5. Bake in a preheated oven for 14-18 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through and insides are no longer pink. Flip meatballs after about 10 minutes of baking. Total baking time will depend on the size of the meatballs.
6. Pro tip: This step is optional but if you’d like to brown up the meatballs a little bit, simply turn your oven to broil to finish. Watch closely so they do not burn.
7. Return the meatballs to the skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 cup of buffalo sauce (more if you wish). Toss gently. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
8. Serve on spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles and drizzle with ranch, additional buffalo sauce, and garnish with green onions.

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Nutrition Information

• Serving Size: 1/5 of recipe (4 meatballs + 1 Tbsp. Ranch)
• Calories: 340
• Fat: 27g
• Sodium: 600mg
• Carbohydrate: 5g
• (Fiber: 1g
• Sugar: 1g)
• Protein: 20g

Dietary

Dairy-FreeEgg-FreeGluten-freeGrain-FreePaleoWhole30

© The Real Food Dietitians

Recipe By: Stacie Hassing

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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter. 

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