Meatballs in Air Fryer Recipe
Quick and easy Italian meatballs in the air fryer. Eat the juicy meatballs as a main dish on their own or mix them with spaghetti sauce and serve with pasta or zoodles.
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 2 ½ tablespoon milk
- 1 lb ground beef 80/20
- 2 teaspoon garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoon finely minced onion
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, add the panko breadcrumbs and the milk. Combine and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- After the 5 minutes have passed, add the remaining ingredients to the bowl which includes the ground beef, egg, minced garlic, minced onion, grated parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, dried parsley, dried basil, dried oregano, fine sea salt, ground black pepper, and the pinch of cayenne. Combine all of the ingredients together.
- Form the meatballs into 2 Tbsp-sized balls and place them in the air fryer basket. A medium cookie scoop works well for this to get the meatballs an even size. Depending on the size of air fryer you have either all 20 of the meatballs will fit or you'll need to split them into two batches.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 F for 5 minutes.
- Air fry the meatballs for a total of 8-9 minutes, you do not need to flip the meatballs halfway but you can as an optional step. Check the beef meatballs after 8 minutes of cooking time with a digital thermometer to check for doneness and continue cooking them until the internal temperature reaches 160 F.
Notes
Ground turkey, pork, or chicken can be substituted for the ground beef.
A higher fat meat with an 80/20 ratio was used in the recipe, the extra grease helps to keep the meatballs juicier.
To make air fryer meatballs without egg substitute the egg for buttermilk, ricotta cheese, or Greek yogurt.
Other types of cheese can be used instead of the parmesan like mozzarella.
Serve with meatballs as is as a main dish or mix them with spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce to serve with pasta or your favorite Italian recipes.
Dried herbs were used in the meatballs air fryer recipe but fresh can be used as well. The conversion between dried herbs and fresh herbs is 3x.
To make the air fryer meatballs gluten-free use gluten-free breadcrumbs, for keto friendly use keto breadcrumbs.
We flipped the meatballs halfway through cooking but you can skip that to get them extra brown and crisp on one side.
Nutrition
Calories: 81kcalCarbohydrates: 2gProtein: 5gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 136mgPotassium: 90mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 0.4gVitamin A: 39IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 38mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Please consider Leaving a Review!