Slow cooker meatball recipes are always a hit. This air fryer meatballs recipe walks you through the best way to make and freeze your own delicious meatballs. This way, you will always have them on hand for your favorite, super-easy, toss-and-go slow cooker recipes.
There are many deliciously different ways to flavor and serve crockpot meatballs. Most of the meatball recistart with frozen meatballs. And, while you can buy them in any store, we all know that homemade is best.
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📝Shopping list
This is a list of the ingredients you'll need to make homemade air fryer meatballs. For quantities and full preparation instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
- ground beef
- eggs
- onion grated or processed
- fresh garlic grated or processed
- panko bread crumbs
- salt
- black pepper
Why air fryer meatballs are perfect for slow cooker recipes
Whether you're making slow cooker spicy maple meatballs, sweet chili meatballs, or comforting meatballs with ravioli, browning the meatballs first in the air fryer:
- ✔️Adds extra texture and helps them to hold their shape
- ✔️Helps to reduce the amount of grease in your final dish
- ✔️Speeds up prep time and cleanup
- ✔️Makes them ideal for meal prep or freezer storage
- ✔️These flavor neutral meatballs that will blend perfectly with any sauce you choose to make.
Preparing your air fryer
Set Up Your Air Fryer
- If your air fryer requires pre-heating, pre-heat to 400℉
Prepare Your Beef
- Grate or use a food processor to grind 1 small onion and 4 cloves of garlic finely
- To a large mixing bowl, add 3 lbs ground beef, onion, garlic, 2 eggs, ½ cup bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Use your hands to mix the ingredients fully
- Make meatballs by rolling meat between hands. For appetizers, use a teaspoon-sized amount of meat. For main courses, use a tablespoon size or slightly larger.
Cooking
- Please raw meatballs an inch or so apart in air fryer tray. I line mine with air fryer parchment paper for easiest clean up. If you prefer not to, spray your air fryer basket with a non-stick cooking spray.
- Cook smaller meatballs for 10 minutes and larger meatballs for 12 minutes
- Freeze or refrigerate for use in slow cooker recipe of your choice!
🍽Serving suggestions
Some favorite recipes to use these meatballs are:
- Spicy Maple Meatballs
- Tahini Meatballs
- Sweet Chili Meatballs
- Guinness Meatballs
- Honey Bourbon Meatballs
- Enchilada Meatballs
- Teriyaki Meatballs
- In your favorite tomato sauce or marinara sauce (these make the best meatball subs!)
- With your favorite bbq sauce!
- Doused with your favorite sauce!
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Top Tip
These meatballs are intentionally generic flavored. This allows to be a blank canvas for any sauce you choose to cook them in. They may taste bland without sauce.
🔁Substitutions
- Garlic powder and onion powder can be used in place of fresh, for convenience
- Not a fan of beef meatballs? Make chicken meatballs using ground chicken or turkey meatballs using ground turkey with this recipe. These meatballs have a slightly shorter cooking time of 8-10 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to confirm that the center of the meatball has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees f.
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Storing
These perfect meatballs were meant to be frozen.
- Place meatballs in a freezer bag or an airtight container. (If you will be using them for multiple recipes, it is best to freeze them in a single layer.)
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
- Add frozen meatballs directly to your slow cooker when you are ready to use them! The perfect way to make an easy meatball meal on busy weeknights!
😉Hints & hacks
- This air fryer meatball recipe is intentionally dairy-free. If you plan to use your air-fried meatballs in Italian-style recipes, you can use Italian-flavored bread crumbs and some grated Parmesan cheese. These will give your homemade meatballs an Italian twist.
- Easily make a double batch or triple of this recipe by doubling (or tripling) all ingredients.
- I use a multi-tasking air fryer that is also a toaster/oven to save kitchen counter space.
- Freeze meatballs in recipe-sized portions. This will allow you to grab exactly what you need from the freezer.
These easy air fryer meatballs can also be baked. It will take 20-25 minutes to bake these in a 400℉ oven.
Yes!! If you want to use this meat mixture right away, place uncooked, formed meatballs directly into the sauce in your slow cooker!
📖 Recipe
Air Fryer Meatballs - Slow Cooker Recipe Prep
(Click on the stars to leave a rating)
Print Pin Rate SaveAll nutrition information shown here is automatically generated and should be considered an estimate. If you follow a specific diet, please calculate your own values to ensure accuracy.
Equipment
- air fryer
- mixing bowl and spoon
- Optional: food processor
Ingredients
- 3 lbs ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 1 small onion grated or processed
- 4 cloves garlic grated or processed
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400℉
- Grate or use a food processor to finely grind 1 small onion and 4 cloves garlic
- To a large mixing bowl, add 3 lbs ground beef, 1 small onion , 4 cloves garlic(grated), 2 eggs, ½ cup bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Use your hands to fully mix ingredients together
- Make meatballs by rolling meat between hands. For appetizers, use a teaspoon size amount of meat. For main courses use a tablespoon size or slightly larger.
- Please meatballs an inch or so apart in air fryer tray.
- Cook smaller meatballs for 10 minutes and larger meatballs for 12 minutes
- freeze or refrigerate for use in slow cooker recipe of your choice!
Final Step
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Notes
Nutrition
All nutrition information shown here is automatically generated and should be considered an estimate. If you follow a specific diet, please calculate your own values to ensure accuracy.
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