The Ideal Super Bowl Appetizer: Mini Buffalo Chicken Balls with Blue Cheese Dressing

How can you beat boneless, bite-sized and mess-free buffalo chicken?  These Mini Buffalo Chicken Meatballs taste like the real deal, but without the work and need for a lot of napkins.  They also are incredibly easy and quick to make.

I wish I could take credit for these, but I can’t. They come from the Food & Wine Best of the Best cookbook that features this recipe from the Meatball Shop Cookbook by Daniel Holzman & Michael Chernow with Lauren Dean.  The introduction to the cookbook says that these were the favorite of the Food & Wine taste-testers.  I can understand why.

If you do not serve these at your super bowl party or take them with you to whatever super bowl party you are going to, you and everyone else you are hanging out with will seriously be missing out.  

These were such a hit at my son’s birthday party yesterday (among the adults) that I made them for a family gathering today AGAIN.  

Both times, these babies were gone in minutes.  I watched my brother-in-law plant himself in front of the party platter and consume about five in about a minute until his wife informed him that he should move so that others would get to try them (gobbling a few while she said this no less).  

Meanwhile, today I found that my husband had removed the tray from the coffee table to the island in the kitchen (“so that the kids wouldn’t eat them”) so that he could shovel half a dozen into his mouth while standing up without others distracting him.

I will take credit for the homemade blue cheese dressing, which is quite marvelous with the meatballs, I must say.  I would recommend making it a few hours before you serve it so that the garlic, parsley and chives can infuse the dip.  

It makes enough so that you can serve 1/3 of it with the meatballs and the rest with carrots, celery or whatever other cut raw vegetable catches your fancy.

Mini Buffalo Chicken Balls with Blue Cheese Dressing

Author: Julie du Pont

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Serves: 8-12 

Ingredients

Chicken Balls

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 tbsp butter
• ⅓ Frank’s RedHot sauce or any other favorite hot sauce
• 1 lb ground chicken (preferably thigh meat)
• 1 large egg
• ½ celery stalk, minced
• ¾ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tsp salt

Blue Cheese Dressing

• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• 1 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 tbsp chives, chopped
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
• ½ juice of one lemon
• ½ tsp salt
• Fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Combine all of the ingredients of the dressing and mix well. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3. Drizzle vegetable oil in 9 x 13 inch baking dish and evenly coat the entire surface of the dish.
4. Combine the butter and hot sauce in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, whisking until butter is melted and fully incorporated into the hot sauce. Allow to cool.
5. Combine the hot sauce/butter mixture, chicken, egg, celery, bread crumbs and salt and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
6. Roll the mixture into ¾ inch balls, making sure to pack meat firmly. Place balls in the prepared baking dish, lining them up snuggly in the pan so that the meatballs are touching one another (you should be able to fit 5 by 8 in the pan in a nice orderly fashion).
7. Roast for 18-20 minutes (or until meatballs are cooked through).
8. Allow meatballs to cool for 5 minutes.
9. Serve meatballs with toothpicks, blue cheese dip and cut raw vegetable.

Julie du Pont is a Darien resident, mom and lawyer. She blogs about food and entertaining at weekend table. and on Darien Patch. See also the "Darien Food Blogs" and "Darien Food & Drink" topics pages.