Buffalo Style Meatballs

It’s amazing how after a few months of not eating out very often my desire to eat out has dwindled. Husband and I had a conversation a few weeks ago about how so many chain restaurants just don’t sound appetizing. Yes, it would be great to have a meal prepared by someone else every once in a while but just going out to eat so I don’t have to cook isn’t an option anymore. Fast food restaurants and chain restaurants just leave me unsatisfied.

This doesn’t mean that husband and I don’t crave some bar food from time to time. Since we don’t have a fryer (nor do we want one) bar food is not easy to recreate at home. This, thankfully, leads to some healthier alternatives. I found a recipe for Buffalo style meatballs on Pinterest but after I bought all of the ingredients I found that the web site the recipe was on had been taken down. I was frustrated but I found a similar recipe and adapted it for our family.

The original recipe used ground chicken but I used ground turkey. The taste isn’t very different and ground turkey is a little bit cheaper. Instead of incorporating the hot sauce and butter into the meatballs I used the sauce after the meatballs had already been cooked. Little one isn’t ready for hot sauce so this is the best option for our family. I put aside a few meatballs for little one and tossed the remaining meatballs in the sauce for husband and me. This also made the meatballs more like bar food. Other changes I made include reducing the amount of butter from four tablespoons to one, increasing the amount of celery from half a stalk to a whole stock, reducing the bread crumbs from ¾ cup to 1/3 cup and adding ¼ cup of feta to the meatball mixture.  I was able to make twenty meatballs with this recipe.

Serve these meatballs with sweet potato fries for a yummy side dish and a salad to make a full meal. With the Super Bowl right around the corner these would make a wonderful game time snack.

Enjoy!

1 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/3 cup Frank’s RedHot Sauce

1 pound ground turkey

1 large egg

1 celery stalk, minced

1/3 cup bread crumbs

¼ cup feta

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Drizzle the vegetable oil into a 9×13-inch baking dish and use your hand to evenly coat the entire surface. Set aside.

Combine the turkey, egg, celery, bread crumbs, feta and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Roll the mixture into round, ¾ inch balls, making sure to pack the meat firmly. Place the balls in the prepared baking dish, being careful to line them up snugly to form a grid. The meatballs should be touching one another.

Bake 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. While the meatballs are cooking combine the butter and hot sauce in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat, whisking until the butter is melted and fully incorporated. Allow the meatballs to cool for five minutes then toss with the hot sauce mixture. Serve.

Adapted from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mini-Buffalo-Chicken-Balls-369170