These sweet and spicy hot chicken meatballs are seriously irresistible! Made with ground chicken and coated in the most delicious spicy honey butter, they’re juicy, tender, and flavorful. You won’t be able to stop at just one!
These spicy chicken meatballs are high on my favorites list. The hot honey butter glaze is out of this world, and the meatballs are juicy and extra delicious thanks to a handful of spices.
These are inspired by our popular meatball recipe, so you know they will be juicy and super tender, just like the original. For more recipes like this, look at our tender turkey meatballs in a tomato basil sauce or these slow cooker chicken meatballs.
Key Ingredients
- Hot Honey Glaze: It’s easy and made with butter, honey, your favorite hot sauce, and a pinch of salt. I love vinegary styles of hot sauce, like Tabasco or Crystal’s hot sauce.
- Ground Chicken: If you can find it, grab a package of ground chicken with some fat (look for 7% to 10% fat). The extra fat keeps our meatballs juicy and tender.
- Breadcrumbs: I add breadcrumbs for texture. I also love substituting them for crushed saltine crackers like we do for this meatloaf.
- Milk: Adds moisture and tenderizes the ground chicken, making our meatballs juicy and tender once cooked.
- Egg: Adds more moisture and helps the mixture firm up once cooked.
- Parmesan: My secret ingredient for the best meatballs! Parmigiano-Reggiano adds flavor and salt to our mixture. I’m pretty generous with it.
- Spices, salt, and pepper: I love turning these into spiced chicken meatballs with garlic powder, onion powder, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, oregano, pepper, and salt. The combination is amazing!
How to Make Hot Honey Chicken Meatballs
These sweet and spicy chicken meatballs are super simple to make. You’ll mix everything except for the ground chicken. Then, use a fork to stir the chicken into the breadcrumb mixture. Doing this prevents over-mixing the chicken, which can make our meatballs mushy.
I cook my meatballs in a skillet on the stove and love how this method adds a caramelized exterior. You can bake them if you’d like. Use my baking tips in this meatball recipe for guidance.
Then, there’s that hot honey butter. It’s simple and so good! To make it, I heat butter, honey, a pinch of salt, and hot sauce together. As they heat, the butter melts into the honey and hot sauce, making a lovely sauce. Then, as you toss it with the chicken meatballs, it turns into a sweet and spicy glaze.
Hot Honey Chicken Meatballs
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These ground chicken meatballs are juicy, tender, and coated in spicy honey butter. It’s impossible to eat just one. The hot sauce you use is up to you! We love original Tabasco and Crystal hot sauces, but I’d imagine almost anything will work. We recommend one tablespoon of hot sauce, but you can adjust this based on how spicy you’d like them.
If you need to substitute for honey, try maple, golden, or brown sugar.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Spiced Chicken Meatballs1 pound (450g) ground chicken, see notes if you have 1 ¼ pound package
1/2 cup (35g) panko breadcrumbs or homemade breadcrumbs
1/3 cup milk, dairy or non-dairy
1 large egg
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated, 1/2 ounce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons high-heat cooking oil like grape seed or avocado oil
Hot Honey Sauce1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon hot sauce, or more to taste, we like Crystal or Tabasco
Pinch of salt
Directions
1Stir breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl, then let it sit for 5 minutes. Add the egg, cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, oregano, pepper, and salt. Stir until well blended.
2Add the ground chicken, and use a fork or your fingers to gently mix everything until combined. Try not to overmix for the most tender meatballs.
3Wet your hands and form the mixture into 1 ½-inch balls (about 1 ½ tablespoons each). A medium cookie scoop helps portion out the meatballs. The mixture is on the softer side, so don’t worry if you have difficulty making perfect balls. Since we want tender and juicy meatballs, we add more bread crumbs and milk, making the mixture less firm. Even though this causes less-than-perfect round meatballs, the texture of the interior is better.
4Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a wide Dutch oven or nonstick pan over medium heat.
5Place the meatballs in the hot oil and cook until they are cooked through, the outsides are browned, and they register 165°F in the middle on an instant-read thermometer, about 15 minutes. Depending on the shape or size of the pot, this might need to be done in two batches.
6Make the hot honey butter. Combine the hot sauce, butter, salt, and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Swirl the pan until the butter melts into the hot sauce and honey.
7Pour the sauce over the cooked meatballs, and then serve.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Ground chicken: You can buy ground chicken in 1 pound or 1 ¼ pound packages. Use either in this recipe without any changes. You will have a few extra meatballs if you have 1 ¼ pounds of chicken.
- Baked meatballs: Heat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, foil, or a silicone mat. Place formed meatballs onto the baking sheet, leaving a little space between each meatball. Lightly spray the top of the meatballs with cooking spray or brush with oil. Bake until golden brown, and they register 165°F in the middle on an instant-read thermometer, about 20 minutes.
- Storing: Cooked meatballs will last 3 days in the fridge in an airtight container. You can freeze them for up to three months. Store them in an airtight, freezer-friendly container.
- Make ahead tips: Raw meatballs can be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day. You should get 18 to 20 meatballs. You can also freeze the raw meatballs and store up to three months. To freeze them, form the meatballs and place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place the baking sheet into the freezer until the meatballs are firm. Transfer frozen meatballs to an airtight, freezer-friendly container and freeze for three months.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Made the exact recipe. They were wonderful!
Loving this recipe! I do double – triple sauce as I serve it on rice. And add I a bag of baby spinach just before meatballs have finished. It’s now a family favourite.
Is there a cheese substitute? Can I use Parmesan?
Yes.
This Chicken Meatballs recipe is a keeper. It’s so easy and delicious! Mine cooked way faster than the 20 minutes. Also, I like more sauce so I doubled it and would triple it next time (except not triple the hot sauce part, we don’t like things too hot). I dumped my cooked rice into the pot I cooked the meatballs in so it got coated with the yummy oil and browned bits.
Could I use porridge oats instead of bread crumbs, also I would try minced pork, and turkey mince instead. I haven’t made this yet. Regards Peter
Hi Peter, We use oats as a substitute for breadcrumbs often. One thing I have noticed is that oats soak up more moisture from the meatball mixture so I’d add a bit less. You can try either rolled oats or chopped up rolled oats (coarse oat flour).
I loved this recipe so much!!
I absolutely love your recipes! Everything has turned out so great and I look forward to trying as many as possible. One question……would this recipe work with ground beef instead of ground chicken (as that’s usually hard to find).
These are delicious but next time I’ll add a little more hot sauce!
So glad you enjoyed them. Sometimes we like to give them a little extra kick as well 🙂
Would love to know what sides to fix to accompany Hot Honey Chicken Meatballs for a dinner party. Suggestions?
Hi Sue, we almost always serve these with our homemade coleslaw.
These are fantastic. It’s hard to keep them for dinner because everyone grabs a meatball as they pass through the kitchen. I love an extra crispy outside & juicy inside so I cook them in the air fryer.
That is wonderful and so glad that you were able to make them in your air fryer.
Ever tried these delicious-looking nuggets in an air fryer?
We talked about cooking meatballs in an air fryer on our other meatball recipe. It works great!