Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Homemade BBQ Meatballs

I know, I am a big, fat, loser for not posting for so long. You have to forgive me. Anyways, I was looking for a good meatball recipe and The Pioneer Woman has two different recipes for meatballs. Well, I didn't have all the ingredients for either one or the other... so I combined and made up my own. I liked them, mu husband liked them, my brother liked them, and my brother's friend liked them. Should I name more people? In general, they were soft and not dry which is what I was trying to get at since I don't make meatballs often (or ever). Now that I have found a good recipe, I have already made them twice. I hope you like them too.

Homemade BBQ Meatballs

Here is what you'll need:

* 1 1/2 lbs. of ground beef
*3/4 cups bread crumbs
*3/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
*Splash of milk
*2 cloves garlic
*Salt and Pepper to taste
*1 medium yellow onion
*1/4 cup chopped parsley or cilantro
*Olive oil
*1/2 cup (approx.) flour (not pictured)

For the sauce: See Below.


1. Combine the ground beef, parmesean cheese, breadcrumbs and the eggs. Mix together.
2. Now add in the parsley, diced onion and minced garlic. Also, add some black pepper and a little salt. (Do not over salt, as the cheese already gives it some salt). Mix together again.

3. Now, you need to make even and uniform meatballs. I used an ice cream scoop to scoop out meat and then with my hands formed it into a round shape.
4. As you make round and even meatballs put them into a baking sheet. I ended up with 20 medium sized meatballs. You could make them smaller if you wish. Now... you need to put them in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. This will make them much easier to handle.
5. In the meantime, while your meatballs are in the freezer, put about 1/2 cup of flour into a bowl. You could also prepare the sauce at this point if you are organized and timely, unlike me.
6. After about 10-15 minutes, take the meatballs out of the freezer and roll them until they are coated with flour evenly.
7. Heat up some olive oil in a large skillet and brown about 1-2 minutes on each side on medium-high heat. We are not cooking them at this point, JUST browning them. Do not crowd your meatballs. I had to do this step 3 times.

8. Now, you can prepare the sauce for which you will need:
  • 1 cup Ketchup
  • 2 Tablespoons Sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons Vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
  • 1 dash Tabasco

Pretty much all you need to do is to combine all of these ingredients and mix well.

Start with 1 cup of Ketchup.....
...add 2 tablespoons sugar...
...and 3 tablespoons white vinegar...
...and dash of Tabasco...
...2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce...
...and mix well. That is all there is to this BBQ sauce.

Now you have all of your browned meatballs (which I put in a PYREX dish) and your prepared sauce.
9. Evenly pour the sauce over the meatballs.
10. Bake at 350F for about 40-45 minutes.
and VIOLA!!! Homemade BBQ Meatballs!
I usually serve them next to some mashed potatoes, but since we had mashed potatoes the previous day, I served them over some pasta.


.... Oh yeah, and the next day when I had leftover meatballs but no pasta, I just put them in a sub roll and sprinkled some cheese on top and toasted the BBQ Meatball Sub. Yummy lunch.

2 comments :

  1. Mmmm... Sounds delicious i will try to make them tommorow:)

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  2. Homemade BBQ Meatballs sooooooooo good. Had my brother come over my house today, he said its very delicious. Alla he usually doesnt like anything but this time he did. YEAh!!!!

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