Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs
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 Chicken Meatballs 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.
How to Make 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 Air Fryer Chicken 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
Ground Chicken Meatballs Air Fryer FAQs
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.
Carefully drop each meatball into your simmering sauce, cover the saucepan, and simmer over low heat for about 5 – 8 minutes.
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!
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.
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Chicken Meatballs (Air Fryer Recipe)
Video
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.
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.
Nutrition
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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.
Is there a replacement for zucchini?
You could use a yellow squash instead
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.
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 were fantastic! Will definitely make again. These came out as zero points on the Weight Watchers Purple plan.
So glad you enjoyed!!
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!
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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
Yum! these look great, and a bit lighter with chicken. I definitely love my air fryer! I liked the idea of adding zucchini, too.
These meatballs came out delicious! So juicy plus they were so easy to make in the airfryer!
I love how much healthier these meatballs are compared to traditional meatballs, but they taste just as good!!
Love this recipe. These meatballs are delicious and not dry at all!