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Low-Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs (Super Cheesy)

These low carb buffalo chicken meatballs are a healthier twist on the beloved bar favorite!  Full of flavor and low on carbs, these absurdly tender meatballs are perfect for a quick dinner or as a yummy appetizer! 

Low-Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs - Girl and the Kitchen

These deliciously tender low carb buffalo chicken meatballs were a result of one of my husband’s requests for more low carb meals.  The hubby likes to torture me with his many diets and naturally I oblige and treat it as a way into even more recipe development and testing.

These precious low carb buffalo chicken meatballs were born out of my love for buffalo wings and the family’s love of all things meatballs.

The meatballs were beyond easy to put together and keep moist.  Because they are low carb, I did not use any breadcrumbs, so I modified and added tons more flavor and certain ingredients that packed the moisture and the flavor and took out all the carbs.

Did you notice that these low carb buffalo chicken meatballs are also super cheesy?  They are!  They are packed with two different types of cheeses.  Can you imagine the pure cheesy joy you get when biting into these succulent little babies and having that cheese just ooze out?

Talk about food porn.

Low-Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs - Girl and the Kitchen
Sorry no cheese shot here…except the copious amounts of blue cheese on top.

The Technique

  • Cheese:  As you may have already guessed, the secret ingredient here is…cheese.  Good ole delicious, creamy cheese.  It actually helps our lovely low carb buffalo chicken meatballs stay together and keep moist.  Not to mention, because I use a sharp cheddar and a creamy blue cheese…the addition of flavor is superb! Plus who doesn’t love that cheesy pull when biting into a meatball?!?
  • Flavors:  I tried to emulate the flavors in these low carb buffalo chicken meatballs of the classic battered and fried chicken wing.  Except I removed the battering and the frying and the unnecessary time spent doing said things.  These meatballs are filled with chives, sour cream, cheddar cheese, Franks Red Hot Sauce (because that is just a must) and celery.  The combination of the flavors is very much that of the classic greasy joints’ chicken wings but with way less mess and less time spent in the kitchen.
  • Roasting vs Frying  Certainly these low carb buffalo chicken meatballs can be baked or fried.  But I chose the lesser of the two evils and decided to roast them.  When you roast at a high temperature of 450 degrees and above in a convection oven, you get heat circulation from above and below.  This result is fast cooking and caramelization of proteins.  This means our our lovely meatballs get cooked within 15 minutes and stay moist and browned!  Plus because there is so much cheese in the low carb buffalo chicken meatballs it leads to even more browning!
  • The Topping:   These low carb buffalo chicken meatballs looked absolutely gorgeous when they came out of the oven…but it was not enough… I needed MORE.  I needed more oomph…because that’s me.  I diluted some sour cream with a little bit of water so it was spoonable and added in a little bit of Frank’s Red Hot to it.  I drizzled that on top and added some blue cheese crumbles and some snipped chives.

Chef Note: Make your life easy and use scissors to cut the chives…they will be more uniform and will not fly out in every direction as you attempt to cut them.

Low-Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs - Girl and the Kitchen

Here are some tools to make these meatballs a little easier!

  1. Ice Cream Scooper/Cookie Scooper: This will make it so much easier to make these beautiful uniform little meatballs.
  2. Sillpat Mat: These are the best for baking and roasting because they are dishwasher safe and reusable!
  3. Sheet Pans: These are fabulous!  I have had them forever and they last!
  4. SOS Pads:  Nothing scrubs better than these!  I clean all my stainless with them!  Use on everything EXCEPT non-stick!
  5. Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls: I love stainless most because they last FOREVER and are super dishwasher safe.  Plus these have lids!
  6. Kitchen Shears: I use these for everything!  But in this recipe I used them for snipping the chives.
  7. Rubber Gloves: I love them when I mix meat…because if the kids need me in the middle of mixing…I can always remove real quick and run to them!  Plus these are black so you look even cooler
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Low Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Low Carb Buffalo Chicken Meatballs


  • Author: Mila
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 4 people 1x

Description

These low carb buffalo chicken meatballs are a healthier twist on the beloved bar favorite!  Full of flavor and low on carbs, these absurdly tender meatballs are perfect for a quick dinner or as a yummy appetizer! 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 lb ground chicken thigh
  • 1.5 cups sharp cheddar (shredded)
  • 3 tbsp chives (chopped or snipped with scissors, plus more for garnishing)
  • 2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot Sauce (plus extra for garnishing)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream (divided in 1/4 cups)
  • 2 celery stalks (finely chopped)
  • 1 egg
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp water
  • crumbled blue cheese (optional for toppings)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
  2. Mix together the ground chicken, cheese, chopped chives, 1/4 cup of sour cream, hot sauce, egg, chives, hot sauce, celery and a pinch of kosher salt in a bowl. With your hand or ice cream scoop, roll into 16 meatballs.
  3. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a Sillpat mat and lay out the meatballs on the pan.
  4. Roast for 15 minutes or until cooked through on the inside
  5. In a seperate bowl, mix the remaining sour cream, water and as much hot sauce as desired.
  6. Remove meatballs from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
  7. Drizzle sour cream sauce on top. Sprinkle with chives and if desired with blue cheese.

Notes

  1. I have a convection oven and all my recipes are based on that temperature.  Time adjustments may be necessary due to your oven power.
  2. We use ground chicken thigh because it has more fat so our meatballs stay nice and juicy.
  3. Feel free to add in as much or as little hot sauce as you like.
  4. The blue cheese can be added into the meat mixture as well.  I prefer not to because I am not keen on the taste.  But feel free to add it in if you like it!
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Cuisine: American Classic

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4 Comments

  1. hi. i want to make these tonight, but i am confused. there is no egg in the ingredient list but it says egg in the direction. can you clarify? thanks so much!

  2. Made these last night with ground turkey, as I didn’t not have the ground chicken. OMW!!!! So great! Husband loved them. As a coaches wife with lots of football boys around this will definitely be a team pleaser. Thank you for an awesome recipe!

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