Air Fryer Chicken Bacon Meatballs W Pepper Jack Sauce

About

If you’re looking for keto friendly air fryer recipes you can whip up in under 30 minutes, look no further! Use this recipe as the main course of your meal. While the chicken bacon meatballs bake in your air fryer, make a simple side dish of toasted zucchini noodles (zoodles), sauteed keto vegetables, or heat up a prep-made side you’ve prepped in advance. Not only do the meatballs have fats from chopped bacon and a pork rind binder, but the pepper jack cheese sauce is what completes this keto dish. With a heavy cream base, you’re getting a lot of fat in this meal. This is a great dinner recipe to use if you eat your final meal of the day early to fast through the remainder of the evening. All these fats will keep you satiated and happy until your breakfast. If you don’t like any spicy at all, simply substitute the pepper jack cheese for a mild jack cheese or provolone.

What Else Can I Enjoy With My Chicken Bacon Meatballs?

This dinner or lunch recipe does a fantastic job at fulfilling your macros for fat and protein. Of course, you don’t want to load up on carbohydrates, but the great news is you have carbs to spare! This recipe is so low carb, you can afford to enjoy a bed of keto mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, or another favorite low carb vegetable. In fact, tender veggies would taste great dipped in the pepper jack cheese sauce, wouldn’t you say? You can check out Carb Manager’s side dish category, which includes favorites like Low Carb Cauliflower Mash, Braised Cabbage, and Roasted Asparagus.

The Best And Worst Dairy Items For Your Keto Diet

Cream based sauces can make or break your air fryer keto recipes (or any keto recipe, for that matter). Simply put, the denser the dairy, the more fat you’ll have. That’s easy enough, but if you don’t pay attention, it could be your dairy products that push you over your carbohydrates limit. Butter should be your first go-to dairy item you incorporate into your meals. Butter is high in fat and arguably makes everything taste better! Heavy cream is another great way to incorporate fat, but too much in your soups or sauces will include way too many carbs. If you want to use cream for the fat content, but you need more liquid for your homemade recipes, you can add water, broth, or almond milk to the cream to thin it out.

Ingredients

1 slice – 6" long bacon
6 ounce ground chicken meat
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon italian seasoning
½ teaspoon mustard powder
½ ounce fried pork rinds
½ cup heavy cream
0.375 cup, shredded pepper jack cheese

Instructions

Cook the bacon into crispy strips. Once the bacon is cooled, chop into fresh bacon bits. Combine the bacon bits in a mixing bowl with the ground chicken, pepper, onion powder, paprika, italian seasoning, mustard powder, and pork rinds. At your discretion, you may wish to add a small pinch of salt, but keep in mind the pork rinds and bacon add salt to the meatballs.
Preheat an air fryer to 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Form 3, 1 ½-inch meatballs per serving and arrange them on your air fryer baking tray. You can line the tray with parchment paper if you wish. Bake the meatballs for only 10 minutes, flipping them over halfways through.
While the meatballs are baking, make the cheese sauce. Simply heat the heavy cream in a shallow pan over low heat. Once the cream just starts to simmer, whisk in the pepper jack cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted and is gently bubbling. Set the finished sauce aside to cool and thicken.
Serve 3 chicken bacon meatballs per person with ¼ cup sauce.