Baked Buffalo Chicken Mini Meatballs - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs ground chicken
2 large eggs
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (you can use gluten free)
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
3/4 cup texas pete original hot sauce (it's gluten free)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup melted salted butter (3/4 stick)
3 -5 tablespoons tomato paste

Preparation

line cookie sheet with foil and spray foil with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
in a large bowl, mix ground chicken, panko, celery seed, 1/4 cup of the hot sauce, chopped onion, minced garlic, 2 eggs, salt and pepper. The mixture will be very sticky unlike my other meatball mix (but this is correct). With damp hands shape into 1.5-2 inch balls the best you can (they do not need to be perfect) and place evenly on prepped cookie sheet.
spray the top of the meatballs with a little cooking spray. important. why? it gives you a crispier / more brown meatball.
bake meatballs at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, flip them and bake for an additional 10 minutes (if all the mix does not fit on your cookie sheet, refrigerate mix as you will need to bake a second batch. Do not forget to put new foil and spray on the cookie sheet for second round).
sauce: in small bowl melt 3/4 cup softened butter (about 30 sec in microwave) and add the remaining 1/2 cup of hot sauce. Taste sauce. A little too hot for you or the kids? That's ok, whisk in 3-5 tbsp of tomato paste until the desired 'heat' is reached (I usually add 3 tbsp tomato paste when I make the sauce).
drizzle the sauce over the meatballs; gently toss to coat.
transfer to serving dish with some celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.