These Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs are incredibly juicy and tasty and deliciously golden on the outside. They are ready from scratch in less than 25 minutes, with only 15 minutes cooking time and minimal prep. A fantastic family-friendly recipe that you really must try!
These Romanian-style chicken meatballs are the very best chicken meatball recipe you will ever need! They are really easy to make, need just a handful of ingredients, but are extremely delicious and a big hit with all ages.
They are also so versatile, and can be served either as a healthy and filling snack for a picnic, afterschool snack or potluck, an appetizer dipped in the sauce of your choice, or even a main meal with your favourite side dish or a nice salad on the side.
Or add them to your your favourite pasta and sauce and you get the best pasta and meatballs you can eat. They are such a good alternative to the good old beef meatballs.
So many possibilities here, but no matter how you choose to serve them, one thing is sure, you will fall in love with them from the very first bite! Don't you just love recipes that deliver without you even trying hard?
Kids are notorious for being picky eaters, although I suppose it can happen with all ages, but these meatballs are such fantastic bites that literally everyone will love them. In my house we all demolish them as soon as they are ready.
Jump to:
Ingredients used
- chicken mince - or ground chicken for the US readers
- breadcrumbs - I used stop-bought golden breadcrumbs, but any other breadcrumbs will do
- onion - just a small onion, or half of a larger onion is needed for the amount of chicken used
- salt and pepper - good old seasoning
- paprika - I prefer the classic sweet paprika here rather than the smoked or hot paprika
- dill - fresh dill makes all the difference here, it gives a nice fresh touch and fantastic flavours
- egg - it's the binding agent, and it also helps keep the meatballs juicy, otherwise they tend to be quite tough without egg
- a drizzle of oil - helps crisp them up nicely in the air fryer
Variations
I absolutely love cooking meatballs in the air fryer, they stay nice and juicy with only a drop of oil, which means you get much healthier and nutritious meatballs than you'd get if you were to deep fry them.
However, you can, of course fry them as well in a pan, they will need a more oil though, and I'd also coat them in flour or breadcrumbs too to help them get an ever colour.
They can also be cooked in the oven at the same temperature, just make sure you check them half the way through cooking to make sure they get an good colour on them or if they need turning around.
How to make chicken meatballs in the air fryer
- in a mixing bowl, add the chicken mince, chopped onion, egg, chopped fill, salt, pepper and paprika
- mix well to get a paste
- use your hands to shape balls out of the mixture
- arrange them in an air fryer and drizzle a bit of oil over
- air fry them for 15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius ( 390 Fahrenheit) shaking the air fryer drawers half the way through
Expert tips
Shaping the mixture into meatballs is much easier if you wet your hands often, I usually just keep a bowl of cold water next to me and dip the hands when the mixture start feeling sticky, it makes such a difference and the meatballs have a good round shape.
The onion can also be blended to a mushy texture for the meatballs, if you don't want to chop it - I haven't even bothered to do it too finely anyway, although when it does cook well and you can't feel it in the meatballs.
I have Tefal Duo Air Fryer, so I can used both drawers to cook the meatballs, if you have a smaller air fryer, I would recommend cooking the meatballs in batches to avoid overcrowding.
What to serve with chicken meatballs
If you want to turn these delicious chicken meatballs into a main meal, you can either cook them in a nice tomato sauce and serve them with pasta, like I did with my Beef Meatballs in Tomato Sauce.
You can follow the exact steps in this recipe and use chicken mince instead of beef, the sauce is simple but extremely delicious.
Or, you can serve them with a nice side dish like: mashed potatoes, stewed cabbage, basmati rice to name a few. Or, a nice tomato and cucumber salad, green salad or corn and avocado salad.
If you’ve liked this recipe or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM , YOUTUBE, TIK TOK , FLIPBOARD and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 500 g chicken mince ( 1.1 lb ground chicken)
- 3 tablespoon breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- ½ small onion
- ½ teaspoon salt
- â…› teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
- a drizzle of oil
Instructions
- Peel and chop the onion finely.
- Add it to a mixing bowl together with the chicken mince, breadcrumbs, salt, egg, pepper, paprika and chopped dill.
- Mix everything well to get a paste.
- Use your hands to shape balls out of the mixture, I got 20 meatballs.
- Arrange the meatballs in the air fryer ( mine is Tefal duo air fryer and I used both drawers).
- Air fry them at 200 degrees Celsius ( 390 Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes, shaking the drawers half the way through.
Video
Notes
- Shaping the mixture into meatballs is much easier if you wet your hands often, I usually just keep a bowl of cold water next to me and dip the hands when the mixture start feeling sticky, it makes such a difference and the meatballs have a good round shape.
- The onion can also be blended to a mushy texture for the meatballs, if you don't want to chop it - I haven't even bothered to do it too finely anyway, although when it does cook well and you can't feel it in the meatballs.
- I have Tefal Duo Air Fryer, so I can used both drawers to cook the meatballs, if you have a smaller air fryer, I would recommend cooking the meatballs in batches to avoid overcrowding.
Nutrition
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Michael says
Could I make these and then freeze them for another night?
If so, how would you cook them from frozen please?
Daniela Apostol says
You can definitely make them in advance and freeze them before cooking, they can go in the air fryer from frozen. The cooking time will be a bit longer, l would just keep an eye on them.