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The best Air Fryer Meatballs – tender, juicy chicken meatballs made with ground chicken, zucchini, and a few pantry staple spices. These easy chicken meatballs are the perfect party appetizer and ready in just 10 minutes!
If you love this Air Fryer Meatball recipe, then you are going to love these Parmesan Chicken Meatballs and this Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip even more!
Air Fryer Meatballs Recipe
Meatballs are definitely a favorite in our household. Not just because they are easy to make and packed with flavor, but because they are so versatile when it comes to getting a quick lunch or dinner on the table.
I have made meatballs on the stove and I have made meatballs in the oven, but let me tell you – nothing tops an air-fryer meatball!
Just like everything else you make in the air fryer, these meatballs are perfectly crisp on the outside and so juicy and tender on the inside.
Here’s to the tender and juicy perfection! You will literally never make them any other way again, I promise.
These meatballs are also Whole30 and Keto friendly!
Air Fryer Meatball Ingredients
- Meat: I like to use ground chicken for mine, but you can use ground pork or ground beef instead.
- Zucchini: Grated zucchini is what makes these meatballs extra moist and keeps them from drying out.
- Spices: A few pantry staple spices and herbs give these Air Fryer Meatballs so much flavor!
A full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Making Meatballs in the Air Fryer
1. Preheat the air fryer. Start by preheating your air fryer to 400° F.
2. Grate the zucchini. Using a grater, finely grate your zucchini into a mesh strainer. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt to extract the excess water and gently press down on it with your fingers to drain the liquid.
3. Make the meatball mixture. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add your ground chicken, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, parsley, oregano, egg, and drained zucchini and mix.
4. Make the meatballs. Form the mixture into 16 1-inch balls using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. If you don’t have a cookie scoop two spoons or your hands will do!
5. Cook the meatballs. Place the chicken balls in the air fryer with space in between (I recommend cooking in batches) and cook 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through, until fully cooked through.
I like to dip mine in Homemade Chick-Fil-A Sauce!
Air Fryer Frozen Meatballs
Whether you’re freezing the meatballs from this recipe or using a box of frozen meatballs, here’s how to cook them in the air fryer:
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 F and arrange the frozen meatballs in a single layer in the air fryer basket, leaving about an inch of space in between each one.
- Air fry for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway, or until meatballs are slightly crisp and completely cooked through.
What to Serve with Meatballs
- Crispy Whole30 Roasted Mini Potatoes
- Easy Sauteed Green Beans With Garlic And Lemon
- Israeli Couscous With Mushrooms
- Air Fryer Zucchini
- Tomato Ricotta Pesto Pasta
How do you air fry frozen meatballs?
Whether you’re freezing the meatballs from this recipe or using a box of frozen meatballs, here’s how to cook frozen in the air fryer:
- Preheat your air fryer to 350°F
- Place the meatballs in the air fryer basket
- Cook for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway, or until meatballs are slightly crisp and completely cooked through.
How long should you cook meatballs in sauce?
Carefully drop each meatball into your simmering sauce, cover the saucepan, and simmer over low heat for about 5 – 8 minutes.
Can you overcook meatballs?
Is there anything you can’t overcook? There are many ways to overcook a meatball whether in the air-fryer or while simmering in the sauce.
Keep an eye on your meatballs, you don’t want to burn them and you don’t want them to dry out!
Should I cook meatballs before putting them in sauce?
If you follow this recipe, then yes, cook air-fry the meatballs before placing them in the sauce. However, if you don’t want to use the air fryer, you can cook them slow and low in the sauce. A slow cooker is great for this!
Place the uncooked meatballs in the simmering sauce, cover, and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes.
More Air Fryer & Other Recipes To Try
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Air Fryer Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 egg, beaten
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 400° F.
- Finely grate the zucchini into a mesh strainer. Add 1/2 tbsp salt to extract the excess water and allow it to sit over the sink while you prep the other ingredients. Gently press down on the grated zucchini with your fingers to drain the excess liquid.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the ground chicken, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, parsley, oregano, egg, and drained zucchini.
- Form the chicken mixture into 16 1-inch balls using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop.
- Place the meatballs in the air fryer with space in between (you might need to work in batches) and cook 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through, until fully cooked through.
Video
Notes
- Preheat your air fryer to 350°F
- Place the meatballs in the air fryer basket
- Cook for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway, or until meatballs are slightly crisp and completely cooked through.
Love this recipe. These meatballs are delicious and not dry at all!
I love how much healthier these meatballs are compared to traditional meatballs, but they taste just as good!!
These meatballs came out delicious! So juicy plus they were so easy to make in the airfryer!
Yum! these look great, and a bit lighter with chicken. I definitely love my air fryer! I liked the idea of adding zucchini, too.
Can’t wait to make this recipe again. I’m a bit one dimensional and only used my air fryer for fries and breaded chicken.
I have never thought to do meatballs in the air fryer. These were so crispy and delicious.
They were a little too spicy for me but not crisp at all in my air fryer. Unsure what I did wrong. I have a new Ninja air fryer. They seem to d better on roast vs air fry. Any suggestions?
Hi Kerry- the meatballs will be crisp around the edges, but not crisp like if they were deep fried. You can try spacing them out more next time, perhaps there were too many meatballs in the air fryer or they were too close together. If they are too close, they will steam.
Great recipe. The meatballs come out fantastic.
Thank you!
How big is a large zucchini? Can you give me a weight or measurement to use?
The picture looks like it has cheese and bread crumbs, but I don’t see it in the ingredients??? What am I missing? I was planning on making these tomorrow. Thanks
Hi – you aren’t missing anything. The ingredients in the recipe card are correct. There are no breadcrumbs and no cheese, but you can add those if you’d like.
I was confused to because the picture had breadcrumbs & Parmesan cheese but it’s not on the recipe card.
Thanks for your feedback! I’ve removed the photo to avoid confusion, it looks like I had added the wrong one!
WOW! First off, I LOVE your website, it’s stunning and the photos are incredible. This recipe was truly one for the books and I’ll be visiting your website weekly for new recipes! Thank you so much for all these amazing recipes.
Excellent recipe…ground chicken is usually bland, but the spice combination in this recipe made the ground chicken very tasty and moist! Made this twice in one week!
Thank you!
These were fantastic! Will definitely make again. These came out as zero points on the Weight Watchers Purple plan.
So glad you enjoyed!!
Hi, I made these two nights ago and they turned out pretty good. Thanks for sharing. Now, my question is: can I prepare them the night before, keep them in the refrigerator and air fryer them the next day?
Hi Nadia – yep you can prep them the day before!
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. I am always looking for sides to serve with dishes. Any suggestions for these meatballs?
I love to serve them over spaghetti squash, with sweet potatoes, or sautéed veggies like mushrooms and zucchini.
Is there a replacement for zucchini?
You could use a yellow squash instead
Turned out delicious. Although I made some changes. I put half of the oregano and garlic and added a little paprika, and pre-cooked white corned meal because I felt the mixture was too leaky to form the balls.
They were juicy and tender.
Glad you enjoyed! Make sure you are draining the zucchini really well to remove the excess water.
I really liked these but I think the crushed red pepper was way too much! Do you mean 1/2 tsp, not 1/2 Tablespoon?
I enjoyed them with 1/2 a tbsp but you can definitely adjust to your liking!
Planning on making these tonight they look great but instead of zucchini I wanted to try using frozen spinach. Just worried about them staying together have you tried it that way?
Hi! I haven’t tried them that way but I would make sure you are using chopped frozen spinach and that you drain it really well because spinach carries a lot of moisture. Let me know how they turn out!
Can I bake this in the oven?
Sure! Bake them at 400 F for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature has reached 165 F.
How much shredded zucchini should i use (1 cup…2 cups..?) OR roughly how many pounds is a large zucchini? I want to make these tomorrow, so please reply. Should it be equal portion to the meat? Thanks in advance.
I didn’t measure, but I’d say about 1/2-3/4 cup.
Preface to say, i am a novice at using my air fryer. The meat mixture was very wet. I even pressed the zucchini between paper towels. The meatballs stuck to the basket so i had much difficulty trying to flip them even though i sprayed the basket with oil. After the allotted time, they still looked raw so i put them in for another 5-6 minutes hoping they would get golden brown and crisp like your photo. Gave up and put the rest of the batch into the oven. I’ll hide them in sauce and hope they taste better than they look.
I’m sorry to hear that! Did you remove all the liquid from the zucchini before adding to the bowl with the chicken? It sounds like there was still a lot of liquid in there.
Can these be frozen after cooking and if so, what’s the best way to reheat? Thank!!
Yes! You can reheat them in the air fryer at a lower temperature – 325 F should be good! About 5 minutes, or until they are warm in the center.
Is the serving size for 1 meatball? It’s so good!!!!
yes!
Love these!!! Can u please just tell me what a serving size is???
the serving size is one meatball
Very good, quick, and easy! I didn’t have any zucchini, so I used carrots and it turned out perfectly. I also used an Italian spice mix in place of oregano.
Thanks for letting us all know about the carrots! That sounds like a great substitute.
Made them for dinner last night, recipe has potential.
I wasn’t a fan of the oregano, and I think I drained the zucchini too much. But I’m planning making them again tweaking the spices a little. What do you suggest I substitute the oregano with? (Btw I used Italian oregano as that’s the one I have at home, I know there is various types)