Meatballs in Air Fryer
We have recently acquired a Nuwave air fryer which is the most fantastic addition to our kitchen. It is great as a healthy alternative to deep-frying food, but also is a better way to cook certain foods. This recipe will show you how to make some delicious meatballs in your air fryer. Crispy on the outside and soft and tasty on the inside.
You can eat these meatballs any way you wish. Try eating with some sweet and sour dipping sauce as an appetizer pre-meal, or as a snack during a party or drinks.
Meatball appetizer
Or even as a main meal in some Italian tomato gravy with some pasta.
Or you could eat them in a french baguette with some mustard as a meatball sub. The possibilities are endless.
Meatball Roll
Make upfront and freeze your meatballs
The great thing about this recipe is that you can prepare these air fryer meatballs beforehand and freeze them until you want to eat them. If the meat you use has been frozen before, you should cook them first before freezing them. This also makes the re-heat time shorter when you are ready to eat them.
But if you use fresh meat, you can freeze the uncooked meatballs and just cook them when you want to eat them.
Frozen meatballs (pre-cooked)
If you do freeze them, make sure they are not touching each other in the freezer initially. Once they have frozen you can then put them together into an airtight container or plastic bag to store them for a longer period in the freezer.
How long to cook frozen meatballs in the air fryer?
Pre-cooked meatballs only take 10 minutes at 180C to cook from frozen when you want to eat them.
Meatballs no breadcrumbs
This recipe does use some Panko breadcrumbs, but if you wanted to make some gluten-free meatballs you could either use some gluten-free breadcrumbs (yes, it does exist), or you could omit the Panko from this recipe.
Air fryer meatballs
As long as you properly squeeze the meatballs together when you are shaping them, they should hold together OK.
Ground Pork and Beef Meatballs
You will find, if you try some of my meatball recipes shown below, that most of them use a mixture of ground pork and ground beef. A 50/50 mix is fine (here I used a 60/40 as that just happened to be the size of the packaging that the meat came in).
I mix pork and beef because I think it just makes the meatball taste a lot better. Another great thing about making meatballs is that you can experiment with different ingredients. Try my classic cocktail meatball recipe and compare it to this one. Which one tastes better do you think?
Make sure you cook the meatballs in a single layer in the fryer basket and do not forget to give them a shake!
I have a 3-quart Nuwave air fryer and it took me 3 batches to cook these quantities.
I hope you enjoy the taste of these meatballs as much as we do! Please let me know how you get on in the comments section below.
How to make air fryer meatballs
Air Fryer Meatballs
These air fryer meatballs can be enjoyed however you wish - as a cocktail snack with a dip, in a tomato sauce with some pasta, or even in a meatball sub!
Ingredients
- 400g Lean Ground Pork
- 600g Lean Ground Beef
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 large Onion finely chopped
- 60g grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 40g Panko breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 2 tsp English mustard
Instructions
- Saute the mushrooms in a skillet and some olive oil for about 2 minutes.
- Then put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix well by hand until all ingredients are uniformly distributed.
- Using a spoon or ice cream scoop make the meatballs by hand, rolling them until well compressed. I make about 34 one inch diameter meatballs with the above quantities.
- Cook in an air fryer at 180C for 15 minutes, shaking once halfway through the process to turn them. Make sure that the meatballs do not touch each other, so make sure they are in a single layer. You will probably need to do this in batches (it took me 3 batches).
No air fryer?
Alternatively, if you do not have an air fryer, cook in the oven on parchment at 180C for 30 minutes, or until browned. Turn halfway through to brown all sides.
Cooking meatballs from frozen
@180C:
Pre-cooked frozen meatballs: 10 minutes
Frozen (not yet cooked): 20 minutes
Notes
You can serve these meatballs any way you choose. In a bowl with cocktail sticks and some dipping sauce, or perhaps with a simple tomato sauce and some pasta.
You can also eat them hot or cold.
They are also great in a sub sandwich with some mustard and mayo - I tried it!!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 34 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 78Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 35mgSodium: 90mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 9g
This nutrition information was automatically calculated by Nutritionix, but may not be 100% accurate.
Here are some other meatball recipes that you may enjoy:
And a suitable dipping sauce for this one: