Waikiki Meatballs

I have had this recipe in my collection for years, and have made it a million times. My family loves it. Here are a few tips to cut the prep time: Oven bake the meatballs at 350 degrees for 20 minutes on a foil lined broiler pan. The fat melts off, and the meatballs stay firm, instead of crumbling apart. Cuts down on calories and fat, and improves the taste. Also, when making the sauce, just dump all the ingredients in a saucepan at the same time, and whisk the heck out of it. No lumps, and cuts down on dishes. Enjoy! We love this recipe!

The only thing that I do differently after having been making this recipe for several years is that instead of cooking the meatballs on the stove, I put them on a cookie sheet and cook them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Much less messy, and faster too. I can cook the meatballs in the oven while I do the sauce on the stovetop. Plus, my meatballs never fall apart this way!

I make this alot. It is a BETTY CROCKER ORIGINAL.... It is highly requested for parties I attend. I cook the meatballs in the oven 350 for 20 min, then double the sauce and mix it all in the crockpot. Keep on low, and stir occasionally.

A big hit! I made a few changes and used fresh bread crumbs instead of crackers and some cilantro for the meatballs. I used less sugar for the sauce and red peppers instead of green. No leftovers!

These were delicious. I made some changes: I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, I used reduced-fat ritz crackers instead of saltines, like some other people, I baked mine in a 350F oven for 20 mins then I added them to the sauce, I added 1/2 of a red pepper and more green pepper, I used fresh ginger instead of ground, and all I had was a 20 oz can of pineapple chunks so I used almost all of that. I also cut down a tiny bit on the sugar. Everyone loved them...I served them over brown rice. Thanks!

First of all, we added coarsely chopped onion, red pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper, and a sliced carrot. Then we just used 1lb of ground pork for the balls. We used bread crumbs instead of crackers and we used fresh grated ginger instead of the powdered. The meatballs were great. Our sauce turned out a little bland although we still had plenty of sauce with the additions. Next time we will do everything the same, except add extra soy sauce and some red pepper flake to kick it up.

My family loves this with chicken (cubed or whole boneless skinless breasts), ground turkey, TVP, and my hubby likes it with ground beef :) To the sauce I add red pepper, green onions, garlic powder, ginger, use 1/4 cup lemon juice instead of vinegar, 1/4 cup br. sugar & 2 tbsp honey. And it was awesome just as it was written as well!

I really liked these. I did bake them like other reviewers suggested on 350 for about 20 minutes, then broiled them to get just a little more color on top. I also used fresh ginger that I grated instead of ground ginger. Hubby said that the meatballs were delicious, but the sauce was only o.k. I loved the sauce. Was a little afraid that it would be too sweet after reading some of the reviews, but I guess we like sweet. I will definately make again, very easy. Thanks for the post.

Easy, but only 4 stars for taste. The sauce was tangy and sweet, but the meatballs were fairly bland. The ginger added a nice dimension but was not enough to save the meatballs from mediocrity.

This recipie turned out good, the kids liked it, I found it a little bland. I added a bit of hot pepper flakes towards the end of cooking to balance the sweet flavour. I also used brown sugar sweetner, so it might have been that I should have used less.

These meatballs were pretty mild tasting. They were O.K. but they needed something extra to spice them up a bit.

Love this recipe! We usually julienne the onion into bigger pieces that stick out of the meatball that way they get fried a little when cooking and taste oh soo good. Also we usually cook the meatballs in one pan and do the sauce with pineapple and green separate. It makes it easier to reheat the left overs.

i made this for a company christmas party. it was a big hit! i leave out the vinegar and use more pineapple juice & soy sauce. it is my favorite meal my mom always made it when i lived at home. she used to mince the bell pepper and include it with the meatballs which adds more flavor to the meat. anyway, big hit!

This is a terrific appetizer but I changed it by using frozen meatballs & I use red and yellow peppers. I also cook the meatballs & sauce in a slow cooker for 3-4 hours and everyone loves them.

This was so good, my husband loves sweet and sour and really liked these meatball. I will put them in the oven next time as some people have said, sounds a lot less messy. I did not have enough sauce for the rice so I ended up adding a can of beefy mushroom soup, gave me much more sauce for the rice and added even more flavor. I frooze the left overs for another meal, since there is just the two of us. Just need to make the rice for the left overs, how easy is that

I thaught this recepie was great. It had lots of flavor contrary to some reviews. I followed the suggestions of others and baked the meatballs in the oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The only change I made was I cooked the sauce in a saucepan, added the peppers and pineapple at the last few mins to get warm...I placed the meatballs in a glass bakingdish and poured the sauce mixture ontop and baked at 350 for 30mins turning once. They ended up AWESOME!!! Tastey all the way through..mmmmm.

I was disappointed with this...it looked so good. I probably messed something up when makng it, b/c my meatballs all fell apart in the skillet so it was a crumbly beef mixture. My hubby thought it was edible, but I did not.;o)

Absolutely Delicious!! My husband and daughters are very picky eaters and they LOVED it!! The only change I made was using a red bell pepper instead of a green pepper. Everything else in the recipe I kept exactly the same. This is definitely a new family favorite...and sooo easy to make!! :)

I took the advice of others and baked the meatballs at 350 for 20 minutes. I let the sauce simmer in the meantime, with the green pepper included (we like it more cooked than raw). We loved the flavor of the meatballs with the sauce. We like pineapple, but all agreed that the chunks were a little bit overwhelming...next time I will try tidbits.

So good! I, too, baked the meatballs and used onion powder instead of minced onion. I added some red pepper flakes to the meatball mixture. My son loved it!

OK, so I haven't made the meatballs before, but I have made the sauce multiple times paired with frozen store-bought meatballs and it is wonderful! An excellent balance between sweet and sour and I love the pineapple and peppers!

Made it for New Year's Eve Party and it was gone in less than 30 minutes. So easy and very good. I did cut back on the sugar to 1/3 Cup instead of the 1/2 cup.

Great sauce. The meatballs were like your average meatballs - but they were moist. The sauce would be great on pork in my opinion.

These meatballs were really good! My 7-year-old daughter loved them. However, she didn't care for the sauce, so I left some meatballs out of the sauce just for her. I cooked them on a foil-lined, sprayed cookie sheet in the oven rather than on the stove (at 350 F for about 30 minutes - I had made them pretty large).

They were very very good! I baked them and they held together perfectly well!

I cut this down to 4 servings so I could use 1 pound of meat (we don't eat ground beef, so I used ground turkey instead), but I used the full amount of sauce ingredients. I worried about the sauce being too sweet, so I cut back on the brown sugar and I was glad I did. After frying the meatballs, I sauteed the bell pepper for a few minutes so it would be a little more tender, then I deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup of chicken broth before adding the rest of the sauce ingredients. I served it over white rice cooked in chicken broth. Overall, it was pretty good with less brown sugar, but the meatballs do need a bit more seasoning. I'll make these again, but I'll add some salt and pepper to the meatballs and definitely add more bell pepper.

Yummy! My husband said they were the best meatballs he'd ever had.

This is a great family pleaser. I have been cooking this for over 20 years. IT is requested quite often by my family. I have tried it with ground turkey as well and served over brown rice to make it a little healthier.

I made these last minute because someone onte Buzz got me thinking about meatballs and this recipe at 4:00pm, lol I found the sauce just a bit sweet for my taste so I added about 2 more tsp. of soya sauce and a dash of worchestshire sauce. I also used dark brown sugar because I prefer it for a savory sauce. That is completely personal taste though. It was a really nice thick sauce.

This was a quick & easy hit with guests. I made this along with other appetizers for a Holiday open-house for family and friends. I kept it warm in a slow cooker and had my rice cooker next to it for any party-hoppers that wanted something more substantial. I will make this again and again.

Pineapple adds a very nice tangy taste to it! Excellent recipe!

huge hit.... i used the 96count frozen 1.5"bitesize meatballs by "cooked perfect"----heated all sauce ingredients (flour instead of corn starch) in small sauce pan, then poured it over the frozen meatballs in the crockpot. cooked on high 2hrs....EZ!

These were very good. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the ginger flavor of the meatballs, and I even used 2 lbs of hamburger and did not increase the ginger. I cooked the meatballs in the oven at 400 for about 1/2 hr. I also cooked the green pepper before adding to the sauce as I don't like raw green peppers. I doubled the sauce and it came out fine even though I wasn't sure about the amounts since I could only find the pineapple in 20oz cans instead of 15oz cans. A little sweet but we didn't mind that.

Yummy, used ground turkey instead of beef and it turned out great. I would recommend oven baking the meatballs and if you're using the ingredients as shiskabobs you may need to double the peppers.

Good recipe, I some times add waterchestnuts, and, or snowpeas. I serve them with rice, egg roll and a toss salad with Oriental salad dressing.

I have been making this dish for 30 years! It was the first cookbook I bought when I got married. My family loves this dish. Probably one of their all time requested meals. I serve it over rice and also add carrots with the peppers. YUM!!

This recipe was fantastic. I left off the ginger and with was still great. Leftovers were great as well.

OOPS!!! I need to add something to my review... I ALWAYS make double the sauce. there's never enough sauce to go with the meatballs.

All I can say is YUMMY!

This sweet 'n sour sauce is absolutely divine. I served this with "Orange Rice Medley" from this site and it made for the perfect combination.

This was a FANTASTIC recipe! I followed other reader's suggestions and baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes and then broiled a few minutes longer to make them crispier. I do think I will double the sauce recipe next time as there didn't seem to be enough! I may also play around with spices for the meatballs just for variation (thought they're fine as is). Another suggestion I would add is to use more green pepper. I didn't think 1/3 cup was enough! Overall-Very tasty and very simple!

I totally cheated and used a bag of trader joes turkey meatballs and I still think this is a 5 star recipe. I just added some fresh Ginger to the sauce since it isn't in the meatballs. I also used an entire green pepper. Next time I would reduce the sugar some, it was a little too sweet for us.

Love this recipe. If you use pineapple in syrup it is too sweet, but is great if you omit the sugar, otherwise use pineapple in pineapple juice. I could have this every night. Over rice is a good way to enjoy them.

This was quite delicious until I put them in the crockpot to keep warm! Don't do that! The steam waters it down. Bummer for my dinner. Wish I had stuck with keeping it in the pan.

Only changed a couple of things. First I reduced the vinegar, didn't use egg and used fresh ginger.

Way too sweet.

Yum!!!! No leftovers ;) Make them exactly as recipe states, no changes.

I was short on time so I used frozen Italian meatballs and this recipe still was wonderful. I used brown rice instead of white rice, too. Next time I will add strips of onion and give the recipes meatballs a try. Will make this one a regular for my family. Great. Maxine

If you like sweet and sour sauce and if you like meatballs, you're gonna like this. I didn't want my peppers to get mushy, so I sautéed just until slightly tender the bell peppers (used mixed colors to enhance appearance) and added some slices of vertically-cut onion in a skillet sprayed with olive oil. Then I added the meatballs and pineapple chunks to the skillet along with the sweet-sour sauce and heated all together. You easily could make a big of these meatballs, bake them at 350 until done (about 20 minutes or so), cool, toss into a zip-lock bag, and freeze. Then all you'd have to do for a quick & delicious weekday meal is saute the veggies and make the sauce (which takes no time at all) and add the meatballs. Delicious and going into my Favorites folder.****UPDATE: 2.20.19 Had a beautiful, perfectly ripe and sweet pineapple in the fridge, and this recipe was calling my name for dinner. My day was dedicated to yard work, so instead of making the recipe’s meatballs, I used a bag of frozen Casual Gourmet Hawaiian Chicken Meatballs with Pineapple, threw in lots of multi-color bell pepper slices, onion slices, pineapple chunks, and snow peas for a little crunch. This recipe never disappoints.

My grandmother used to make these - they are my favourite! The only difference was that I have never added the green peppers ... will have to the next time I make them. In our family, we like the sauce over rice so I always double it.

LOVE THIS RECIPE!!! I tweek it a little and add 1 .5 cup julienned carrots and serve it over white rice. With the yellow pineapple, orange carrots, green bell peppers, brown meatballs and white rice it has a great presentation.

Delicious. browned in pan then moved to slow cooker. Flavor was great and meatballs were "melt in your mouth", however sauce did not thicken in slow cooker so had to put it in sauce pan to thicken. Next time I will make sauce in pan 'till thick then move it to slow cooker with meatballs.

These were really good and very simple to make. The sauce is EXTREMELY sweet, so next time I would cut the sugar in half at least. The meatballs are just begging for some garlic, so I added some to the meat mixture. I used a tube of ginger paste rather than ground ginger. Fresh ginger would be awesome as well. I also baked my meatballs for 15 minutes at 375 degrees rather than pan fry them. Quick, easy, and less messy. Really enjoyed this with rice, thanks!

This recipe was easy to follow and simple to make. The meatballs were delicious!

These were delicious after a little bit of tweaking. I don't think I've ever made meatballs without some garlic, so I felt the need to add one large clove of minced along with a teaspoon of soy sauce, replacing the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, in the meat mixture. I also upped the amount of peppers used in the sauce and par-cooked them along with some chopped onion. I baked the meatballs instead of frying (350° for 22 minutes, flipping them halfway through the baking). Served over white rice. Next time I think I'll double the sauce.

He who never gets his way loved this. I make the peppers and onions in a seperate pan with a little evoo and toss in with mine later no onions in the meatballs. Except for that one change recipe stays the same. Wonderful, Thanks for the recipe CMAYBELL

This had a nice flavor, but made a little too much meat.

I am constantly being asked for this recipe, I am so glad I found it online now I can just e-mail a copy to all my friends. The only thing I changed is that I use frozen ready made meatballs. You can use turkey or beef just defrost them in the microwave for 3 minutes before adding to the sauce. This becomes a ridiculoulsly easy and fast party appetizer, or add over rice for a main dish.

I baked them as well and my family loved it. It could use more sauce.

This is a fave recipe in our family. I've made it as written and also modified it to make it Paleo-friendly. To do that, I used cooked ground beef mixed with the sauce (with aminos instead of soy sauce) and serve it lettuce-cup style using butter lettuce. You do have to chop the pineapple and other ingredients a bit smaller to make it easier to eat. It's a good meal and also makes a good appetizer.

My mother in law forwarded this recipe. Apparently she used to make it for my husband when he was little. It had the added benefit of requiring everything we already had that needed used up. So *I* give it 5 stars for that alone. :) DH said it was tasty and I should "add it to the rotation!" Even our 3 year old and 10 month old ate two portions.

They were ok, but nothing special. Probably wouldn't make them again. Really sweet!

Love this recipe. I used ground pork and onion powder in the meatballs and added chunks of onion with the bells and pineapple chunks. I also added more ginger and soy sauce to the sauce and everyone loved it.

Great meal, and still tastes wonderful the next day. Used bread crumbs instead of crushed crackers, too.

Very Very good! Meatballs were awesome, I cooked them low and slow in my deep skillet. I would suggest however to cut the brown sugar from a 1/2 Cup to a 1/4 Cup...it was just a bit sweet with the pinapple juice and pinapple chuncks. I served these with Orange Rice Medley and Sesame Broccoli (all recipes from this site). An asian flavored dinner without paying for take out. I would also like to mention this dish did take a bit more prep time than noted in the recipe...if you are in a hurry I would use a slow cooker or prep your veggies ahead of time.

YUMMY!!! Soooo deliciouss, i was a bit frustrated when i was cooking these meatballs since they were falling appart a bit but they tasted SO goood.

I enjoyed this. I followed the recipe for the most part. Just kicked up the sauce and meatballs with a little hot sauce. I baked the meatballs as others did rather than putting them in a pan. I served them over rice. I think the hot sauce is necessary to balance out the sweetness.

Blah...need I say more. I did not eat the leftovers.

Delicious and different. Followed the tips from previous reviewers and baked my meatballs before adding them to the sauce and veggies.

This was a hit - I used turkey meatballs and with the bell peppers I added onion. Used less vinegar as other users mentioned.

This was surprisingly good! I made two batches and froze one for later. I just dumped it into a large saucepan with a lid and heated it up. Turned out great! My 8 yr old helped me roll the meatballs and was very proud of her success.

Very delicious and easy to make. Served over rice is close to perfect. I added a chopped red bell pepper as well.

These are delicious, quick, and easy. I used a little extra pineapple juice and soy - but was quite sloppy with my ingredients so this recipe is very forgiving and still turned out great. Meatball fans will love this.

Love the flavor! Easy and delicious served over rice. Will be in my regular menu.

Tasty and easy for weeknight cooking. Just add it to some white rice and you've got a meal right there. I followed the recipe this time but in the future, I might switch up the vegetables. My 4-year-old daughter and husband both enjoyed it so it's a keeper!

This is from Betty Crocker's Red cookbook and we grew up eating it. And loving it! I usually double the sauce and use whatever citrus juice I have on hand to make up the difference. For some extra veggies I toss in matchstick carrots too.

This was very good/family liked it...just has a little too much vinegar bite for me....too sour on the sweet and sour end....will make it again but reduce the vinegar a bit.

This is something we've made in our family for years. Not sure where my mother got the recipe, but was very happy to see it here so I can stop writing it out all the time, and instead just print it! It is always a hit, seems I can never make enough. Great in a crock pot for an appetizer, or over white rice as a dinner.

I really liked the sauce but the meatballs were heavy and had very little flavor.

Very tasty! Next time I think I'll add more veggies, love the peppers, used both red and green. Great dish!

Wonderful and easy. Only reasons not 5 stars was I took this to work the following day and it didn't microwave well. Great fresh over hot rice.

I used frozen meatballs instead of the recipe given. I also added red pepper flakes per someone elses suggestion and I added fresh ginger. This was so sweet we can not eat it. I did everything else according to the directions and it just simply is way to sweet. If I had used 1/4 of the sugar we may had liked it but I seriously doubt I will ever make it again. :(

This has been a regular family recipe since I can remember. We use bread crumbs instead of crackers and double the sauce. I tried baking the meatballs as others suggested, but prefer the flavor of pan seared meatballs (without the oil), though you need to be attentive, regularly turning them in the pan.

These were fabulous!! My husband and son both loved them!!! We'll definitely add this to our "make on a regular basis" file!

Great recipe.. I just made a few changes: I used ground turkey instead of beef, I like to watch my sodium intake so I used low sodium soy sauce and unsalted top crakers. This made the recipe very good for people with high blood pressure. I also used Splenda brown sugar which made it low in calories. I will be making this again soon!

I thought this was OK. It reminded me of church potlucks and grandma's party food. My husband didn't like the sauce at all. He took his plate to the sink and rinsed the sauce off of his meatballs. I might use the meatball recipe again, but use a different sauce, BBQ perhaps.

This exact recipe is in my 1970's Betty Crocker cookbook.

I didn't think the vinegar was too much at all, as I've read in other reviews. I used rice vinegar and a few shakes of red wine vinegar and it worked beautifully. I'm gluten intolerant, so a piece of tapioca bread ground up finely in the mini chopper easily replaced the saltines. Big chunks of sweet onion were a nice addition to the sauce, and the possibilities are endless as to what could be added (bamboo shoots, carrots, celery, etc.). Great recipe – thanks for sharing!

These were FABULOUS! I used ground turkey and they still came out really tasty!

This is actually an old recipe given to me by a friend of mine. When you get to the sauce, sometimes it comes out a little thick after cooking. Unless you happen to have pineapple juice on hand, add about 1/4-1/2 C of orange juice to thin the sauce. Excellent! You can also substitute leaner beef and/or mix with ground turkey for a healthy alternative.

These were really good. I would recommend doubling the ingredients for the sauce though.

For the meatballs, I only used 1 tsp. ground ginger, and that was plenty for us, I grated the onion which made the meatballs more moist in my opinion. I, like other reviewers baked mine at 350 for 20 min. only because I wanted to use my toaster oven. I did saute the bell pepper and pineapple, on med/high just to brown slightly, for an added flavor. I used rice wine vinegar instead of white keeping with the asian profile. I also felt the 2 tbsp. of cornstarch was too much, making the sauce too thick so I added water to thin it out, I also added a little chicken base for added flavor. Next time I will start with one tbsp. of cornstarch and go from there. Very good recipe, thanks for posting CMAYBELL :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe. I double the sauce ingredients as I like lots of sauce for my rice...but this tastes just like those I would have (believe it or not) when I lived in Hawaii.

Very good! different. The ginger is so delicious and the sweetness from the pineapples and sugar is excellent! over plain white rice. So good!!

Wow, this was really good! I made the meatballs and sauce early in the afternoon, baking the meatballs for 20 minutes at 350. I set out to make half the recipe, but I wanted to add more peppers and some onion and realized I wasn’t going to have enough sauce for all of that. So, I had to improvise a little and made half the meatballs but a full recipe of the sauce. I drained an 8 oz. can of pineapple tidbits and realized that I needed more liquid, so I added an equal amount of orange juice. I cut the brown sugar in half and it was still plenty sweet. I wanted my peppers and onions cooked to crisp tender, rather than just “heated through” so I sautéed them in a little olive oil first and then added the sauce and meatballs. I simmered that covered for a few minutes and then added the pineapple to heat through. I served this over jasmine rice and it was excellent! Both Hubs and I were very impressed. I used a mix of red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers, which resulted in a very colorful, delicious dish.

This was very good and my husband really loved it. I did bake my meatballs instead of frying. I only had a yellow bell pepper, but next time will make with red and green. Served over white rice.

Delicious. My four kids loved it. I followed all the directions except I added only 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup vineagar and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. It tasted great and was not too sweet. I followed the suggestions of some other reviewers: I baked the meatballs in the oven (350 F for 30 minutes) and made the sauce directly in a sauce pan. I served it with rice and steamed vegetables. I will be adding this to my regulars.

Great recipe. I used the Costco small meatballs and this made it so much easier and it turned out delicious. Great find.

This was a great dish. I added fresh grated ginger to meatballs and baked them on a cookie sheet. I also added sesame seeds in the sauce.