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Author:
Franco Salzillo
Meatballs are probably the easiest thing to make a home; that is, if you have a reliable recipe. The result never disappoints — you get one or two-bite meaty goodies that go well with a wide variety of side dishes and sauces.
Meatballs are a lovely home-cooked meal, and it is typical on every continent — although all meatballs are a little different, they’re always comforting. Now, how to make the best meatballs? Why not make them with extraordinarily little oil in the air fryer? You’ll be surprised to see how tender and juicy these come out.
To make meatballs, we recommend using a blend of lean and fatty ground meat. For example, ground chuck with ground veal. An 80-20 ratio between lean and fat is usually successful but talk to your local butcher and see what they recommend for meatballs.
We’ll also need garlic and parsley to give flavor and specks of color to the meatballs, and breadcrumbs and a few eggs will prevent the meatballs from falling apart.
Add salt and pepper to taste and choose your favorite sauce. These meatballs go well with tomato-based sauces and Asian-inspired sticky sauces.
For the recipe below, we air fried our meatballs and tossed them with warm Teriyaki sauce for an Asian-inspired dish. You can also use a mixture of honey and soy sauce for comparable results.
This doesn’t mean these meatballs aren’t delicious with tomato sauce for an Italian meal (over spaghetti) or with a creamy sauce. Meatballs on their own are popular as well, but coating them with sauce is a good idea, especially because ground beef tends to dry a bit.
Serve your meatballs with roasted veggies, potatoes, pasta, noodles or rice. Make them part of any meal!
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, veal, cloves, eggs and parsley. Once mixed, incorporate the breadcrumbs.
Spray the air-fryer basket with cooking oil.
Shape the meatballs with your hands to the desired size and place them on the air fryer basket.
Preheat the air fryer to 400°F and air fry the meatballs for 10-12 minutes. Shake the basket halfway through and work in batches if necessary.
Serve coated with teriyaki glaze or tomato sauce.
