Chicken Meatballs: Traditional & Buffalo

We made these meatballs for our annual Super Bowl party with Zack's parents. We made two different versions, buffalo chicken and traditional chili sauce. The actual meatballs are exactly the same, we just cooked in the sauces after the meatballs were cooked through. They turned out great! 

We made 3 pounds of meatballs (2 lbs of traditional meatballs and 1 lb of buffalo), so adjust your quantities as needed.

Here's what you need:
Meatballs:
3 lbs ground chicken
3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs (You may need more depending on the consistency at the end)
1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
3 eggs
3 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
Kosher salt & black pepper

Chili Sauce:
2 jars Heinz chili sauce
1/2 cup grape jelly

Buffalo Sauce:
1 1/2 jars Louisiana brand wing sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
This turned out really spicy, we added some Ranch dressing to the sauce to cool it down and save our taste buds. You could also use sour cream to cool it down.

Here's what you do:
Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix with your hands to combine. You can try mixing with a spoon, but by hand is really the best and easiest way.

Don't over mix. You want the meatballs to be moist, but not super wet. If you need to add breadcrumbs, just add a few at a time until the meatballs hold together well.

Roll the meat into one inch balls between your palms. Don't over roll them. You don't want to heat the meatballs up too much. We placed on the cookie sheets we'd be baking them on for the time being.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a 12" skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs on two sides. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked to 165 internal temperature. We just broke one open to check the center.

Remove from the oven, and dump them in their respective slow cookers.

Mix the buffalo sauce and chicken stock in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the sauce over the meatballs destined for buffalo sauce and keep on low in the slow cooker.

Pour the chili sauce and grape jelly over the other meatballs and give it a good stir. Put that one on low in the slow cooker as well.

We cooked the meatballs for a few hours the day before and then stored them in the fridge overnight. The longer the meatballs can soak up the sauce, the tastier they'll be.

Enjoy!