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These Healthy Buffalo Turkey Meatballs are a wonderful baked meatball recipe made with ground turkey, almond flour, spices, and hot sauce. They are a yummy appetizer, snack or meal and come together in less than 30 minutes. Naturally Paleo, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, and Whole30 compliant.
I had another recipe planned for today’s post, but I got so excited about these Healthy Buffalo Turkey Meatballs that I just couldn’t wait to post the recipe.
I’m a huge buffalo sauce lover, so I may be biased but, these meatballs are one of the best things that I have eaten in a long time! They are so addicting. And they are great for meal prep, parties, and football Sundays.
If you love buffalo flavored recipes, try my buffalo chicken dip.
Table of Contents
- Why you’ll love these buffalo turkey meatballs
- Recipe ingredients
- Step by step meatball instructions:
- Tips and Tricks:
- How to store them:
- How to serve them:
- Recipe FAQs
- Other buffalo recipes you may enjoy:
- Other meatball recipes you’ll love:
- Healthy Buffalo Turkey Meatballs (Paleo, Whole30, Gluten-free) Recipe
Why you’ll love these buffalo turkey meatballs
- They’ve got the classic flavor of buffalo wings, but in meatball form.
- They are baked and made with real food ingredients. They are made with almond flour instead of breadcrumbs.
- Ground turkey naturally has less fat than ground beef.
- They come together in 10 minutes and cook for 20 minutes.
- They are Paleo, Whole30, Gluten-free, and Dairy-free.
- They are made with Frank’s hot sauce ( which is my favorite because there don’t add sugar or chemicals inside).
Recipe ingredients
- ground turkey– I like using regular fat ground turkey and not fat free ground turkey.
- almond flour– almond flour is a great way to make baked turkey meatballs without breadcrumbs. Almond flour is full of protein, vitamins and minerals.
- hot sauce– the hot sauce of your choice works here
- garlic powder– this adds flavor to the meatballs
- onion powder– this also adds good flavor to the meatballs
- salt and pepper
- chili powder– this adds a bit of a bite!
- egg– to bind everything together.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Step by step meatball instructions:
Step 1: Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
Step 2: roll them up into balls. I like to use a mini cookie scoop.
Step 3: Bake!
Note: you will notice some of the fat melting off of the meatball while it cooks. Just wipe the bottoms of the meatballs with a paper towel before serving. This only takes a minute.
Step 4: Serve with your favorite sauces!
Tips and Tricks:
(1) Use regular fat ground turkey.
- Using 99% lean turkey in this recipe results in the meatballs being a bit more dry
- If you use 94% fat ground turkey, these meatballs are more juicy.
- Don’t be alarmed with the extra fat that melts off while the meatballs bake, just wipe it off with a paper towel.
(2) Use more or less hot sauce.
- I originally used 1/3 cup of hot sauce in the recipe. My husband made these and accidentally put 1/2 cup of hot sauce and they tasted great!
(3) Add dipping sauces!
- blue cheese, ranch, whatever your favorite dipping sauce is!
- I like the Sir Kensington’s Ranch dressing ( which is Whole30 approved! )
How to store them:
Put the meatballs in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
How to serve them:
- as an appetizer with a dipping sauce
- as a meal with fries and veggies
- on top of a salad
- with rice and veggies
Recipe FAQs
Yes, they are baked and not fried. They are made with lean protein (turkey). They are also made with almond flour instead of breadcrumbs.
Yes, follow the instructions and then put the rolled up meatballs in the fridge until they are ready to bake.
Yes just replace the ground turkey in the recipe with ground chicken.
Yes! They don’t have any breadcrumbs inside and no other sources of gluten.
Other buffalo recipes you may enjoy:
This Buffalo Wing Sauce recipe from Evolving Table. It’s made with a few real food ingredients and looks like a fantastic companion to wings.
This Healthy Buffalo Meatloaf. It’s great buffalo flavor in meatloaf form!
Other meatball recipes you’ll love:
Did you try this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐ review below!
Healthy Buffalo Turkey Meatballs (Paleo, Whole30, Gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 1 lb of lean ground turkey, (note: lean turkey results in meatballs that area bit more dry, but with less fat. If you use 94% fat ground turkey, it’s more juicy)
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/3- 1/2 cup hot sauce, (Frank’s RedHot Original hot sauce is all natural and Paleo!) ( My original recipe used 1/3 cup, but if you want more hot sauce flavor, use 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet in aluminum paper.
- Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a fork until everything is completely mixed.
- Roll the meatballs into tablespoon-golf ball sized balls. Depending on size, you’ll end up with 20-24 meatballs.
- Cook for 20-25 minutes. I like to cook them for 20, then broil them for a few for added crisp.
- Brush off some of the excess liquid/fat off the bottom of the meatballs with paper towels.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m doing a cleanse and these fit into the diet I’m on. They turned out great, and it’s such a simple recipe. I’d like to add these to my weekly rotation, possibly even switching out the sauces to other whole30 ones from time to time. As I said, they did come out great, but do you think adding baking soda powder would make them more moist?
You know, I’ve never tried adding baking soda to meatballs! If you try it, let me know!
I was looking forward to these. 🙁 i followed the recipe to the letter and they turned out extremely dry. I find that when I follow recipes the time of 20 minutes is just too long for a moist meatball. I shoukd have listened to my instints. I did not use 99ff meat either. Everything was followed perfectly. I hate to say I am disappointed 😞
Since I’m making this literally for probably the 100th time I want to say THANK YOU for posting it. We eat this recipe once a week 🥰
Thanks for letting me know. It makes me happy to hear 🙂
I made these with an off brand hot sauce and the 1/2 cup…. also replaced the flour with breadcrumbs. SO SO delicious!!!! Thank you!
So happy to hear it!! Yes breadcrumbs work great 🙂
Made these tonight and was very disappointed. The flavor was great, but the texture is off. Very gummy and crumbly. I think it’s the almond flour. Breadcrumbs might have allowed them to hold together better.
Oh no! Sorry to hear that! I’m so curious why they were gummy… thats such a weird texture! I literally just made these this week and they turned out great!
How do you think these would turn out if I just did the ground turkey & hot sauce? No breadcrumbs/almond flour or egg? I was thinking knead the Franks into the ground turkey and forming meatballs. Think they’ll Fall apart?
Hmmmm, I’m not totally sure. Burgers don’t have almond flour or eggs in them and they stick together. I’d be curious to find out!
which other sauce could you use instead of hot sauce?
thank you
You could use a Paleo BBQ sauce. That would be delish!
If I substitute the flour for bread crumbs how much should I do.
Same amount 🙂
Wow these are PHENOMENAL!! I am only a few days into starting a gluten free diet so I am super excited that they are so easy to make and are so delicious! I tripled the recipe since I had 3 pounds of ground turkey on hand. I use 50/50 ground turkey. Instead of tripling the almond flour, I did 1.5 cup almond flour and 1.5 cup seasoned certified gluten free breadcrumbs. I also added scallions. It made 50 meatballs. This is a keeper, thank you!
Just made these tonight. They are great! So tasty.
I made a couple of amendments…i..e. I don’t like things too hot, so only used 1/4 cup Franks hot sauce but added a spoon of melted red pepper jelly. I had some parsley that needed eating so chopped that up and put it in.
This recipe is a keeper… I roasted some veggies at the same time as the turkey balls were cooking.
Happy to hear it! I love the idea of using red pepper jelly and adding fresh parsley. YUM