Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
on Mar 09, 2020, Updated Jun 18, 2025
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The taste of these meatballs is fully inspired by buffalo chicken wings, but they are so much healthier. Pile them on rice or pasta for a simple slow cooker meal.
If you love the flavor of buffalo chicken wings, but hesitate to eat a pile of wings for dinner, then these crockpot buffalo chicken meatballs are for you! The addictive flavors of chicken wings get translated into meatballs, made with ground chicken (and just 4 other ingredients), so they are basically health food! These are like the skinny jeans cousin of buffalo wings.
The meatballs do get baked in the oven first for a short while to firm up, but then you transfer them to the crockpot with the easy sauce, and they finish cooking and all of the flavors meld together. Your kitchen will smell fantastic!
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What to Serve with Buffalo Style Meatballs
Serve these meatballs with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing or dip. Make your own blue cheese dip if you wish, or grab a bottle if you don’t. If you are purchasing blue cheese dip or dressing, go for one of the better brands, usually found in the refrigerated vegetable section of the grocery store, like Marie’s. Ranch dressing is another dipping option.
Make Ahead Tips
Rolling meatballs is a bit time-consuming, so if you can, shape the meatballs ahead, up to one day, and then when you are ready to cook them, just pull them from the fridge. Get a kid or a friend to help you with this.
If you want to freeze your meatballs, you can cook them from the frozen state. Bake them for 10 minutes instead of 5, and then the crockpot cooking time will be the same.
Kitchen Smarts
You can make the meatballs a bit bigger or smaller than the size suggested in this recipe; the cooking times will still be the same.
This recipe makes about 50 1-inch meatballs. You can certainly cut the recipe in half if you don’t need that many (you probably need that many – think about the fact that one could easily eat 10 if one were me).
Sauce for Buffalo Meatballs
The sauce is a simple blend of melted butter, Frank’s Red Hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Easy!
More Buffalo Style Recipes:
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Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Chicken Meatballs
- 2 pounds ground chicken
- ¾ cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons minced scallions divided
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the Buffalo Sauce
- ⅔ cup Frank’s Hot Sauce use less if you are using another hot sauce
- ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Blue Cheese Dip for Dipping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray (line it with foil first if tyou like), or line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine the ground chicken, bread crumbs, egg, 2 tablespoons scallions, salt and cayenne in a bowl until well blended.
- Roll the mixture into about 50 meatballs, about 1-inch in diameter. Bake the meatballs for 5 minutes until they have firmed up. Carefully transfer them to the slow cooker.
- While the meatballs are baking, combine the hot sauce, unsalted butter, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Once the meatballs are in the slow cooker, pour the sauce over the meatballs, then cook on low for 2 hours.
- Transfer to a serving dish, if desired, or serve them right from the pot. Sprinkle over the remaining 2 tablespoons minced scallions and serve with the blue cheese dip for dipping.
Where do the other 2 hours come in?
that was a typo, apologies! 25 minutes of prep, 2 hours and 5 minutes of cooking.
Used my food processor to grind boneless chicken thighs. And used about 1/3 cup of an alternate hot sauce, as I did not have Frank’s. I appreciated your hint to use less of another brand. The meatballs were really tasty with your blue cheese dip!
excellent!
Summary cook time says 4 hours 20 minutes, but the cooking instructions only have a total of 2 hours and 5 minutes. Which is correct?
the second! fixed it, and apologies.
Could these meatballs be a main and what would you serve them with?
ye! I just serve them over rice, with a big old salad. Try https://themom100.com/recipe/classic-caesar-salad/ or just a simple salad with a vinaigrette.
havent made this yet, but am looking forward to doing so. question, it only takes chicken meatballs 20 minutes in the oven. why 2 hrs in a slow cooker?
super tender meatballs, and you can also time it and “set it and forget it”. And you can hold them on warm for another hour if you like.