A sweet, tangy sauce gives these meatballs a wicked delicious taste that guarantees an empty dish at potlucks and several requests for the recipe. This recipe is easily doubled.
The sauce is AMAZINGLY TASTY! Kids should LOVE the ketchup/brown sugar mixture BUT if you are a lover of spiciness (like I am! I LOVE hot sauce!) you are going to need to add some spice to it. As for the meat balls, it is a simple enough recipe to follow (took me 3 minutes to measure, mix and roll) but they do lack their own flavor identity. I would suggest choosing your own meat seasoning and adding it to the meat mixture before rolling into balls. This recipe is a good one and will be used again! Next time, I will add seasoning and vegetables to the meat mixture and add more SPICE to the sauce! ENJOY!!! :)
Read MoreThe sauce is AMAZINGLY TASTY! Kids should LOVE the ketchup/brown sugar mixture BUT if you are a lover of spiciness (like I am! I LOVE hot sauce!) you are going to need to add some spice to it. As for the meat balls, it is a simple enough recipe to follow (took me 3 minutes to measure, mix and roll) but they do lack their own flavor identity. I would suggest choosing your own meat seasoning and adding it to the meat mixture before rolling into balls. This recipe is a good one and will be used again! Next time, I will add seasoning and vegetables to the meat mixture and add more SPICE to the sauce! ENJOY!!! :)
Tasty! I took these to my church community group and got several compliments and requests for the recipe. I made these on a baking sheet as directed and then moved them to a bowl to transport them, so a lot of the sauce ended up getting left behind. Since the flavor is really in the sauce I wonder if it would have been better just to have baked them in a couple of 9 x 13 dishes that I could have just taken with me. Still, very yummy.
So easy to make, and the nutmeg added a little kick. Baked in a 13 X 9 pan so I didn't lose any of the sauce.. My husband said they were "Really Good" and that's enough for me! Thank you for the recipe, Chris H.
Soo yummy..My hubby loved these..I added fresh garlic and basil,sea salt and cracked black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes (sweet and spicy).. to meatballs..and I made the homemade BBQ sauce,added 1 cup of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce and a green pepper, chopped,baked..and served over rice..Next time, doing over mashed potatoes.. Super Moist and a great recipe..Thanks for sharing..Super easy and delish..
This is close to a recipe that I have been using for a while now. Unfortunately I can't find that cook book at the moment. :( The only difference between that recipe and this one, is that instead of using 1/3 cup water (which is about 6 TBS), it calls for 3T water and 3T white vinegar. The vinegar definitely balances out the super sweet flavor of the sugar, and in my opinion tastes better; more tangy. Therefore I can only give this recipe 4 stars. Still good tho. :)
If you add some red pepper flakes the flavors of the meatballs become really complex, both sweet and spicy at the same time. They come out really good and taste good with mashed potatoes.
These meatballs were great. Nice change from the regular Italian meatballs. I did double the sauce because I wanted enough to have over white rice. So good over rice. The sauce is quite sweet but my family likes that. If you aren't a fan of really sweet things then these may not be for you. I also misread the recipe and used ground ginger instead of nutmeg. Didn't matter because they were perfect. Definite keeper.
The original recipe looked like a fantastic guideline, but I'm given to altering recipes before I try them as presented. As it turns out I found my variation to be ridiculously good. I substituted Italian seasoned bread crumbs for the crackers, nixed the onions altogether since I am not an enthusiast, and added 1/2 cup of grated parmesan-romano cheese to the mixture. After rolling the meatballs and arranging them on the baking sheet I very lightly dusted the tops with just a skosh more cheese. I also felt that while the sauce was good I wanted something extra to spice it up. To achieve that I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon red cayenne pepper. For appetizer-sized portions, the amount of sauce this recipe makes is perfect. However, if you are looking for a slightly saucier dish I would recommend upping the sauce ingredients by at least 50%, as covering 20 meatballs made from 1 lb. of ground meat won't leave much extra.
I made this last night for my husband and friends!! This was amazing our friends loved them!!! They said best meatballs they had ever tasted!!! My husband said they were amazing but doesnt like the onions to much. Next time im making two batches one with onions and one without!! Lol
I honestly thought the sauce was going to taste like straight ketchup, but I was wrong. SOOO GOOD! The water really mellows the ketchup and let's the brown sugar come through. Served over white rice :)
I thought the sauce was not going to be good - brown sugar, nutmeg, ketchup, water...I was wrong! It was super! Made it for the crock pot....people loved it!
I really loved the sweetness of these meatballs. I added crushed red pepper so they were the perfect play of spicy and sweet.
Love this recipe! I recently took it to a party and got many requests for the recipe... the only thing I did differently is make half the amount of bbq sauce and add some of my favorite brand sauce to give it a more smokey flavor. My son and husband ask for this all the time! Thanks!
It was easy to put together, the ingredients were already on hand and the meatballs came out juicy, tender and flavorful! Instead of making my own sauce I put two bottled ones together (cheating, I know!) with a little bit of added brown sugar. Will be making this again and again!
I doubled the sauce for this & served it with white rice. We loved it!!! I am sure this will be a regular on our dinner menu from now on! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
My family really liked this. I added a tsp of basil and garlic to the meatballs. And doubled the sauce. Will def make it again!!
I have made these several times now. They are delicious just as they are, especially with mashed potatoes and corn (just like i'm going to be making them tonight). Make these exactly like the recipe states and you will not be disappointed. The more time you spend breaking up the ground beef and mixing the ingredients together evenly, the more you will be rewarded for your efforts. Also make sure the crackers are broken up into as close to powder as possible. Yum!
Just like grandma makes! I love this recipe! I usually add some cayenne or red pepper flakes to spice it up a bit! This is definitely a family favorite!!
I usually make Italian Meatballs or Swedish Meatballs, but wanted to try something different. I liked the recipe but wanted to add some kick, so I added cumin to the meatballs and sauce, a dab of curry. YUMMY!
We had this for Supper tonight and I didn't have any leftovers. The only change I made to the BBQ sauce is I had to use pumpkin pie spice instead of nutmeg, but it turned out really well! Also, I substituted onion powder for the onion and used Italian bread crumbs in place of the crackers. We will have this again soon! I put the meatballs and BBQ sauce over a baked potato which was a little different, but it was good still.
I made these tonight, using bread crumbs instead of cracker crumbs, and they were amazing! Like mini meatloaves. The kids loved them!
Made recipe as written except replaced the 3/4 tsp salt with 1-1/2 tsp Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and baked in a 13 X 9 pan. I used high fat ground beef (all I had on hand) so there was a lot of fat rendered out. Removed the meatballs to another dish, poured the fat off the sauce and then spooned the sauce back over the meatballs. Turned out really good -- will definitely make again.
This was amazing. I was worried about the sauce, but after cooking on the meatballs it was the best bbq sauce.
I have made this recipe for several years and love it. However, I make 6 large meatballs and bake them in a baking dish for 45 minutes. Perfect every time!
The recipe proved to be a winner. I used turkey instead of beef. My family asked for more!
I made these meatballs for girls night in to go with our finger food theme and they were delicious! I did read one of the comments that said to replace half the water with vinegar so that's what I did. I don't know if it made a difference because I never made them the other way but I do know that all the girls loved them and we had no leftovers. I will for sure make these again because they were very easy to make. I used a mini muffin tin to bake them in and it worked out really well.
