Spicy Siracha Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Serving Suggestion: On a bed of lettuce slightly drizzled with low fat bleu cheese dressing to cut the heat

Often I think people think of serving spicy food in the summer, but when the leaves have exploded with color and I start wearing not my customary sun hats but instead crown myself with ridiculous head wear whose purpose is to keep away chronic earaches which have plagued me since I was very young. I crave spicy…like super spicy. Something about being heated from the inside brings up memories of chicken and dumplings served for Sunday dinner which were not spicy per say but they warmed me up just the same.

These meatballs did not disappoint and they’re healthier than your average beef meatball in fat content. If making again I would cut down on the amount of sugar and instead add honey or barbecue sauce so it better coats the actual meatballs. It is nice to have another way to cook ground chicken because sometimes it seems to be such an awesome protein option, but there are not as many recipes which use it. While I love myself a real juicy cheeseburger on occasion and have been known to hunger for some baked fish in well, a real hungry way, I often want additional protein options which interrupt the monotony of my normal cooking routines. Additional adjustments you could make to the meatballs to make them more flavorful would be to cook and then cool diced onions and add them in or even use Italian flavored bread crumbs in lieu of Panko. I used olive oil to cook them, and the only problem with olive oil is it has a low smoking temp. My house is equipped with the world’s most perceptive smoke detector system which shouts “FIRE FIRE” at me way before there is an actual fire. I have found myself assertively waving a dish towel at the alarm arguing with it shouting in exasperation “I got it but there’s no fire! PLEASE STOP!” It obviously does not ever answer back, which raises my suspicion it is controlled by some Truman Showesque mean elves who mysteriously know I am cooking and are trying to freak me out. Ha, just kidding! Since I have had this experience with some frequency and I have a very reasonable fire phobia given my actual belongings were destroyed by a fire, I watched my meatballs like some sort of vigilant meatball watcher, which made cooking take more time than the normal 3-5 minutes on each side which was recommended by the original recipe.

Ingredients

FOR THE MEATBALLS

1 lb. ground chicken

1/2 c. panko bread crumbs

1/4 c. chopped chives, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg

Kosher salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 tbsp. vegetable oil, for frying

FOR SAUCE

1/2 c. hot sauce (such as Frank's)

1/4 c. lightly packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Kosher salt

Red pepper flakes

Make your Sauce

The Sauce puts the “Spice” in these special meatballs

Mix Sauce Ingredients thoroughly…I used Siracha which has some additional ingredients, but it was delicious. I did not add red pepper flakes because well, I would not find them in my spice cabinet. If my kitchen had a ski patrol they would issue an avalanche warning for my spice cabinet because my kitchen is so tiny and it is hard to organize cabinets which are above your reach at 5 ft 2 .

Achieve Meatball Nirvana

The key to consistently flavorful meatballs is to integrate all the ingredients so when making these use your hands to thoroughly mix all the ingredients. If you’re squeamish or pregnant, use gloves for this step.

Form into golfball sized meatballs

Heat oil (vegetable is recommended but I used olive oil). Chicken is hard to cook because it is hard to tell when it will be done but I have learned if you don’t want to cut into your actual burgers/meatballs to check for doneness, you can go by firmness. If the meatball is firm, it is done and if it still has some give in the middle, it is not. Unlike beef, where some redness is permitable, there is no safe way to consume underdone chicken.

Remove them from the pan and put the sauce over the meatballs, entirely covering them and turning them over to ensure they’re completely drenched….Makes awesome leftovers and you could even use them as appetizers by sticking a toothpick in each.

Stories are my jam and I would sit and listen to somebody talk about their story, if they were being honest….for well, a while. Biographies were often what I gravitated towards when I started reading chapter books and I spent hours learning about people who had made a difference and what had made them who I was. My parents did not ever seem to think it was odd I loved curling up with some comfy blanket and a cup of tea over doing other stuff during the winter. Unfortunately for my siblings, I think it made my parents think children who did other things were surprising. Where I grew up was some kind of sledding wonderland and while my siblings and neighbors would sled until past dark, flying over homemade jumps and whirring down snow covered trails, after 3 hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon, I was primed to read and read I did. Truth be told I am somewhat cautious and while they loved flying by the seat of their pants, it made me nervous to see them doing things which could have gotten them hurt because I am about as tender heated as they come about other people’s pain. Yes, despite my adventures in life there are parts of my soul which belong to some kind of fussy old lady worrying about frost bite and concussions. Until I learned about the fact some girls don’t ever sled or have not ever shoveled, I thought of myself as the fuddy duddy of pretty much my entire childhood friend group based exclusively on the fact as a child there were times I would rather learn about Lousia May Alcott than break an ankle. In living life I have realized I probably spent more time outside than most people and am wilder at heart than many- I was just comparing myself to people who were probably among the wildest of heart people to ever be.

I have this kind of hunger to know, to understand and to listen and so when I took on writing this recipe I did a little research about the history of what we consider buffalo sauce. Food - how we eat, what we eat, who we prepare it for and why- is often an awfully accurate storyteller. I had heard the story of buffalo-sequel things before but I went to the internet to confirm what I knew. I learned (in more detail) the original buffalo sauce was not named for the animal but instead for the city of Buffalo, NY. Late at night, the story goes, the Bellismo family served chicken wings in a spicy sauce to their son in their family bar and since their invention, the world has declared the pairing of spicy hot sauce based sauce with well, meat, truly “bellisimo” A few years ago I heard a statistic that Buffalo is actually the “lonely hearts” capital of the Northeast United States, meaning there are more unhappily single people there, per capita, than all other cites where the survey was conducted and the surveyors attributed this to the lengthy and sometimes inhospitable winters. While I am not sure if this statistic is still true it got me thinking that for those lonely cold souls I am glad they at LEAST have hot wings. It is no mystery to me, after spending some time in Central New York where the winters are probably equally intense, people there might have made and popularized a food which will warm you. It’s also no mystery to me, having lived in a snow belt, how additionally difficult it is get to know people when there’s 2 feet of snow on the ground and…it’s still snowing. If you’re not being warmed in the bed, you can eat something which warms you instead. Yes, I rhyme and sometimes my rhymes are a little winky winky. Often I think the western and northern counties in New York State get a bum wrap because their winters are so intense but I have heard people have been moving to these areas because of a number of reasons this year. I think we might be able to look forward to some real food innovations of the “warming variety” soon. Dear Buffalo, for the invention of hot wings (and their children hot chicken meatballs and buffalo cheddar cheese) I thank you and wish for you all kinds of warmth.