Air Fryer Italian Meatballs
Cooking Italian beef meatballs in the air fryer will be your new favorite method, with a cook time of just 8 minutes, you'll prefer the homemade ones over the frozen ones every time! Top with sauce or eat them without, they're amazing either way.
Equipment
- air fryer
- Rubber Tip Tongs
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 them and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- Add 5 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl including the ground beef, egg, garlic, onion, parmesan cheese, dried herbs (parsley, basil, oregano), Worecestershire, sea salt, black pepper, an the pinch of cayenne pepper. Combine all of the ingredients together.
- Shape the meatballs into 2 tablespoon sized meatballs and add them to the air fryer, making sure tl leave a little room between them. A medium cookie scoop works well for this to get the meatballs a similar sized shape.
- In a Cosori air fryer we were able to hold 20 meatballs, how many you can make at one time depends on the brand and capacity of air fryer that you have.
- Preheat the air fryer on 400 F for 5 minutes. Don't skip this step as the recipe for air fryer Italian meatballs is written using a pre-heated air fryer, not a cold one.
- The Italian meatballs in air fryer will cook for a total of 8-9 minutes, flipping them half-way through the cooking time is an optional step. Air fry the meatballs for a total of 8-9 minutes.
- Check the beef meatballs after 8 minutes of cooking time with a digital thermometer to test for doneness and continue cooking them until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.
Notes
- A higher fat meat with an 80/20 ratio was used in the recipe as the extra grease helps to keep the meatballs juicier, plus gives them lots of flavor.
- Using a cookie scoop will help to make your meatballs evenly sized, this is optional but helpful.
- Don't skip preheating the air fryer, as the air fryer Italian meatballs recipe is written with a preheated unit. Skipping the preheat means the recipe will take longer to cook.
- The meatballs can be flipped halfway through the cooking time but you can skip that if you want them to be extra brown and crisp on one side.
- Ground turkey, pork, or chicken can be substituted for the ground beef, or why not try a blend of meats? Ground beef mixed with pork go great together!
- Finely minced fresh herbs can be substituted for dried herbs, the ratio is 3:1 so 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
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