Buffalo Chicken Meatballs and Blue Cheese Dressing

This is football food. Well, this is football-watching food. This is tailgate-in-your dining room food. And it's really good! I am a superfan of Buffalo Chicken wings. I love them. I love the sauce; I love the blue cheese dressing. I love how they just mean party! But, in an attempt to lighten things up and sneak in some veggies, I did some googling and found some recipes for meatballs. I changed things up a bit and loved the results! I mixed up a chunky blue cheese dressing and we had apps for dinner. Awesome.

 

Buffalo Chicken Wings - inspired by Shrinking Kitchen

Makes about 20, 2" meatballs 

Preheat the oven to 350 

For the Meatballs

1 pound ground chicken

1 egg

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1 carrot stick

1 celery stick

2 tablespoons parsley 

1 small onion - about 1/2 cup sized onion

1 medium bell pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Buffalo Sauce

1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

 

In a food processor finely chop the onion, carrot, celery, parsley and the bell pepper. Add or remove veggies to get to about 2 cups of minced veggies. Add in egg, breadcrumbs and garlic.

 

Fold ground chicken into veggie mixture and start forming into 2 inch meatballs. Place formed meatballs on parchment lined baking sheets. Space them about an inch apart. 

Meanwhile, simmer hot sauce, butter and garlic over low heat to melt butter and reduce sauce slightly. Divide sauce into two containers.

Bake meatballs for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the meatballs with half the Buffalo sauce. Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the meatballs reach an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees.

 

Top with additional Buffalo Sauce from the reserved container and serve with veggies and blue cheese dressing.

Chunky, Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing - adapted from All Recipes

Makes about a 1/2 cup of dressing

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons sour cream

1 tablespoon mayonaise

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and Pepper to taste (about 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper)

 

Mix all ingredients together and let the dressing rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and hopefully longer. It gets better as the flavors blend together. 

 

A few things about this recipe... 

I left a few meatballs without Buffalo sauce and my toddler grubbed them down. Nice way to add veggies to a meal!

We tend to like dark meat chicken in our house and would like to try these with ground dark meat.

Buffalo sauce is delicious.

The blue cheese dressing is thick. Thin it down with extra buttermilk.

Things made this time last year:

 

Black Cauldron Cocktail - YUM!!! I can't wait to make these again!!

 

Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Onions

 

Asian Meatballs

When people think “meatball”, they often think Italian.  However, meatballs can be transformed many different ways.  This recipe was one of my pins on Pinterest.  I modified it but overall, it was great as is.  I almost always use turkey whenever ground meat is required: tacos, spaghetti, etc.  Turkey works well for this recipe because there are so many amazing Asian flavors that you don’t need the extra flavor you would get from the fat in beef. 

These meatballs use the typical egg and breadcrumbs for binding agents.  But the Asian-style is brought out with the use of ginger, toasted sesame oil, and green onions.  The original recipe calls for regular sesame oil but the toasted sesame oil, I feel, give the meatballs a stronger nutty flavor which I love.  Each of the meatballs is then dunked in an Asian sauce, which is pungent and salty due to the hoisin and soy.  I muted the saltiness with a bit of honey.  To balance the sauce, I served the saucy meatballs over coconut rice.  Coconut rice has a milky texture and is slightly sweet so it is really the perfect accompaniment.  You can also serve the meatballs individually as an appetizer.

Asian Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

½ c breadcrumbs

¼ tsp ground ginger

1 egg

1 ½ tsp minced garlic

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

¼ c thinly sliced green onions, plus more for garnish

sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Sauce:

2/3 c hoisin sauce

¼ c rice vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a large bowl combine ground turkey, sesame oil, breadcrumbs, ground ginger, egg, garlic, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.  Use your hands to combine ingredients.  Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Kitchen tool: Dig in!  Use your hands.  It’s the best kitchen tool you’ll ever have :)

Shape into balls and place on a greased 13x9 baking dish or a baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a digital read thermometer reads at least 165F.

Tip: Spray your hands with cooking spray before shaping the meatballs.  It prevents the meat from sticking.

While meatballs are baking, combine all sauce ingredients and whisk together. 

Remove meatballs from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.  Using a toothpick, dip each meatball into the sauce and place on a serving dish.  Top with green onions and sesame seeds.

Makes ~15 meatballs (approximately 1 - 1 1/2" diameter)