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. This post may contain affiliate links that won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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

For 10% off of all Primal Kitchen products use code: REALFOODRDS

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. 

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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter.  All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!   SaveSave

About Stacie Hassing

Stacie is a Licensed and Registered Dietitian from rural southern Minnesota where she, her husband and daughter reside with their two pups. She’s a co-founder of The Real Food RDs and content creator of simple and wholesome recipes. She loves all kinds of fitness and has a passion to inspire as many as she can live a healthier and happier life both in and out of the kitchen - the driving force behind the co-development of the The Real Food RDs brand.