Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

It’s the day after the Superbowl and I am thrilled the Philadelphia Eagles came out on top! Not only are they my brother in law’s team, but I love stories about ‘underdogs’ winning! What a great game it was too, exciting to watch from start to finish! Remember the trick play turned touchdown by the Eagles on 4th and goal early in the game? I’ll gladly watch that on repeat today. Plays like that make football fun to watch. And bonus points for the amazing halftime performance by JT and the fact Bradley Cooper got to see his Eagles win in person giving his adoring fans a flashback to one of his greatest movies, Silver Linings Playbook. Thank you eNews for reminding us of this on Instagram!

We didn’t do anything exciting for the game this year. It was just us and the animals at home and we even did a little multi-tasking working on the house while watching the game. We’re in the process of getting ready to put our house on the market and while I’m completely excited to get a new place (something we’ve talked about for minimum six years) I can’t wait to be at that point where we’re moved in and settled again. It’s amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over time, especially when you have too many places to store that stuff! Maybe we’ll be better with that in the new house. At least for the first month anyway 🙂

We most definitely took a break from our random house selling chores to enjoy Superbowl food! Buffalo chicken meatballs, rosemary fries, veggies and hummus, chips and dip and skillet chocolate chip cookie. Yum! The buffalo chicken meatballs were my new recipe to try and they did not disappoint!

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A few things I loved about the meatballs…

  • SO easy to make! Few ingredients, simple process and help from your crock pot! Winning on game day already!
  • Delicious and versatile! Eat them as is dipped in ranch (no blue cheese round here or is it bleu cheese – regardless of spelling I just can’t eat it), make them into meatball subs, roll them up for a buffalo chicken wrap (lunch today) or cut them up and toss on a salad!
  • Keep really well as leftovers! Pretty sure my husband and I both took turns opening the fridge and grabbing one out of the container just to eat cold. Bite sized food fun!
  • Perfect for a party appetizer! Stick a toothpick in each one, drizzle with your preferred dressing and set out the platter!

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I can’t quite say I’d choose these over the famous traditional wings from Rooster’s (sports bar style restaurant with the best wings around), but they will absolutely hold me over in between visits! If you have one of those handy buffet style crock pots (3 small crock pots together in one unit) you could even try a few different wing sauces! I’m thinking about adding teriyaki to the mix next time sprinkled with sesame seeds!

Quick walk through of the steps to illustrate my first bullet point above?

  1. Mix ground chicken, egg, panko, garlic powder, onion powder, green onions and salt&pepper in a large bowl.

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2. Roll the mixture into about 1 1/2 inch meatballs and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I used a cookie dough scoop and then rolled them in between my hands. Tips – don’t actually measure to 1 1/2 inches and wear food prep gloves 🙂

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3. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 7 – 10 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they’ve browned a bit. Transfer them to the crock pot at this point, gently toss in buffalo sauce and cook on low for two hours!

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4. Remove those tasty meatballs from the crock pot, drizzle with ranch or bleu/blue cheese dressing and please garnish with some pretty parsley.

And now with the game over and the food eaten, there’s really only one thing left to do. Brace myself for the next episode of This is Us that will inevitably leave me teary eyed. Fellow fans of the show can certainly relate. I chose not to stay up late to watch it, because 1. I love early bedtimes and 2. how do you watch that and then just hop in bed and drift off to dreamland? It didn’t exactly sound realistic to me so before I see any last minute spoilers I’m off to get comfy on the couch and be consumed by TV for the next hour.

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

A perfect bite sized appetizer!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 1 Ib ground chicken
  • 3/4 cup panko
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 2 green onions sliced thinly
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup buffalo wing sauce
  • ranch dressing and parsley to garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken, panko, egg, garlic and onion powders, green onions and salt and pepper. Stir together.

  3. Roll mixture into individual meatballs using a cookie dough scoop for even sizing and place on parchment paper. I used the scoop to get each meatball from the bowl and then gently rolled it between my hands. I wore food prep gloves for this step.

  4. Bake meatballs for 7 - 10 minutes allowing them to brown all around. Place the meatballs in a slow cooker/ crock pot, pour in buffalo sauce and gently toss to coat. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours.


  5. Serve drizzled with your preferred dressing and sprinkled with parsley. Enjoy!

 

Have a beautiful day!

 

 

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