Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

These quick and easy Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Meatballs make the perfect lunch, snack, or appetizer! These reheat great, making them perfect for meal prep. We love to serve these with blue cheese or ranch dressing for dipping.

It’s no secret that we love buffalo chicken recipes, and air fryer meatball recipes, so it was about time we put the two together. Air fryer meatballs are easy to make and they always come out perfectly cooked! We’d rather prepare them in the air fryer than any other method.

This buffalo chicken meatball recipe is loaded with cheddar cheese, freshly grated carrot, ranch seasoning, and Panko breadcrumbs. They’re perfect snacks or appetizers and we love to serve them alongside ranch dressing or more buffalo sauce for dipping. Air fryer meatballs are a great choice for game day parties or gatherings too.

Of course, these make a tasty main dish too. Serve them over some rice or a bowl of mac and cheese for a tasty meal. You can also turn these into meatball sandwiches by using your favorite sub roll and some cheddar or mozzarella cheese. So good!

If you love meatballs as much as we do check out our classic air fryer meatballs recipe, and these air fryer turkey meatballs!

Ingredient Notes:

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Ground Chicken – These buffalo chicken meatballs start with lean ground chicken! Pro Tip: If you can’t find ground chicken at your grocery store, just use turkey. You really won’t taste the difference in the finished meatballs.

Panko – The Panko breadcrumbs will get mixed up with the ground chicken as well some egg. The breadcrumbs and the egg will help bind all the ingredients together and hold the meatball shape.

Buffalo Sauce – We prefer Frank’s Buffalo Sauce for just about any buffalo chicken recipe! It’s got just the right amount of heat. If you have a different brand of sauce you prefer feel free to use any you like!

Carrots – Shred your own carrots with a box grater to get the best results here. Store bought shredded carrots will end up being a little more crunchy. But if you like that, feel free to use them!

Ranch Seasoning – Make sure to use ranch seasoning mix and not ranch dip mix. The dip mix is a lot saltier and than ranch seasoning mix. To cut back the salt even more, you can make your own ranch seasoning with onion powder, garlic powder, chives, dill, and as much salt as you like.

Cheese – I’m using shredded cheddar cheese. Since you’re already grating some carrots (preferably) you may as well grate some cheddar too from a block, but pre-shredded cheese from the store will work fine here too. Other types of cheese are fine to use here too. We haven’t tried it with blue cheese crumbles but that might work well here too if finely crumbled.

How to Make Meatballs in Air Fryer:

• Combine – These buffalo chicken meatballs are quick and easy to prepare! Just add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon until it is well combined.
• Scoop – Use a medium cookie scoop to prepare 25 evenly portioned meatballs.
• Roll – Roll each one into a ball with your hands.
• Air Fry – Either prepare the air fryer basket with some oil or use perforated parchment paper and place the meatballs into the basket in a single layer. You may need to work in batches if you can’t fit them all. Air fry the buffalo chicken meatballs for 8 minutes at 400 degrees or until the internal temp has reached 165 degrees.
• Finish – If you are working in batches place each batch on a plate and cover with foil to keep them warm while the others are air frying. They’re best after resting for about 5 minutes anyways!