Never Buy Frozen Meatballs Again! (Best Meatball Recipe EVER!)

Meatballs are an absolute CLASSIC appetizer! You can find them at everything from weddings to funerals, baby showers to birthdays.. and every event in between! Today, I am showing you the BEST way to make them homemade AND a bonus recipe at the end. Let’s #makeithappen

Here’s the full recipe https://mrmakeithappen.com/make-it-happen-meatballs/

In the written recipe above, I used a different fruit preserve but you can easily swap in the grape jelly from the video. I also used cocktail sauce instead of honey.. otherwise, exact same recipe. Thanks for your support!

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All right, people. There’s nothing more classic when it comes to appetizers than meatballs. You can get them at baby showers, funerals, game day, NFL Sunday, you name it. Meatballs are usually on the menu. Today, I’m going to show you an old school version with a new twist and an extra credit recipe at the end. Meet me in the kitchen. Let’s make it happen. All right, people. We got a old school recipe with a new school twist. Some flavor enhancements, some secret ingredients, all that good stuff. You guys probably didn’t have it like this downstairs after church. We’re g to go ahead and grate our onion. I like to do it this way. That way the onion just dissolves into the meatballs. You don’t have big old chunks of onion. So, this technique right here works well for soups, stews, basically anything where you want the the vegetable to dissolve. I use this technique with my she crab soup. Grate the onion and celery. You can also just puree it if you have a, you know, a good uh blender or immersion blender, something like that. But the cheese grater works really well and most people have one of these. So, that’s what we’re using today. Little pro tip for you right out the gate. All right, guys. For these meatballs, we’re using a combination half and half split of ground beef and ground pork. Obviously, if you don’t eat pork, you can just use all ground beef. This recipe works great with uh turkey or chicken as well. I’m going to first mix the beef and the pork together. The pork’s going to add some extra flavor here. Uh, this is a really good blend for for meatballs in my opinion. I really enjoy this. If you’re super into like Italian cuisine, you could even add ve here. That’s very common or popular in Italian style meatballs. This recipe is kind of more like a hybrid version. Uh, this meatball recipe is actually really good with marinara or spaghetti and meatballs or whatever, but today we’re making more like uh what the kids call baby shower meatballs on the internet. That’s more of like the traditional version that we’re doing today. So, we’re gonna give that a good mix. Then, I’m gonna start to incorporate my other ingredients. We have a few things that gonna make this nice and juicy and tender. We’re going to add sour cream. We’re going to add some bors and garlic and herb cheese, which is a secret ingredient for me. It makes these meatballs absolutely amazing. So, one of the key takeaways here is that you should be making your meatballs at home from scratch. And that’s because you don’t half the time have no idea what’s in those frozen meatballs that you get from the grocery store. Um, a lot of additives and things like that. Not the best quality meat either. So, you’re making them at home. It’s super easy. These freeze really well, too. They’re going to be a lot better. Hell of a lot better. So, we got a tablespoon or two of garlic going in. A couple tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley. 5.2 2 oz of bors and garlic and herb cheese that we’re going to give a good mix to. About 1/4 cup of sour cream, some parmesan, the seasoning of your choice, and then we’re going to mix it together. Add the breadrumbs and the eggs. All right, guys. So, when you’re working the meatball mixture, you want to fold in all of the ingredients and add just enough breadrumbs to hold everything together. It’s going to end up being about a cup and a half or so. The important thing to look for is that the the structure of it, right? So when you’re folding it, it should basically form into one large meatball hold together like a little structural integrity. That’s what you’re looking for. After that, you’re going to roll the meatballs into whatever size you like. Again, I like, you know, for something like this, we’re talking 1 and 1/2 oz max. You can go a little smaller if you want. You use ice cream scooper. The key with that is coat the ice cream scooper in some oil. That way, the meat doesn’t stick to it. But this is about the size that we’re looking for uh for, you know, the purposes of this particular recipe. Finish that process till all your meatballs are ready to go. And then we’re going to sear them in a skillet, get some good crust, pop them in the oven, and then finish them in a delicious sauce that you’re about to see. Make sure you guys stick around so you see the next recipe I’m going to show you guys what you can do with the leftovers or just to make a delicious meatball sub at the end of this. Quick reminder, guys, all the specific measurements and ingredients for this recipe and every recipe on the channel can be found at mrakeitappen.com. [Music] Next up, it’s time to develop a crust. We’re going to get a nice skillet warm with some oil, little avocado oil. Nice, beautiful skillet. If you’re in the market for a new skillet, you can grab this at mrmaheaven.com as well. Go ahead and get these meatballs seared up. Pop them in the oven to start the cooking process while we start on our sauce. And then finish the meatballs in that sauce the way the good Lord intended. Let me know in the comments your favorite way to eat meatballs. If you like to throw grape jelly in there, like the old school way, little barbecue sauce and grape jelly right in the crock pot. Those frozen meatballs, we didn’t know how bad they sucked at the time, but if you know something now, this the recipe you need to be making. [Music] Next time, my friends, it’s time to make the sauce. Now, back in the day, this was just your favorite barbecue sauce, some grape jelly. And way back in the day, you used to throw a little cocktail sauce in there. Adds a little tang, a little bite to offset the sweetness that you get from the barbecue sauce and the grape jelly. We’re going to keep it pretty traditional with that. Now, we’re going to use my barbecue sauce, Mr. Make It Happen. Uh, you can, you know, grab this if you want to or just use whatever your favorite barbecue sauce is. Probably not better than this one, but, you know, it’s out there. You can get it from the grocery store. And give it a try. I’m going to add this about a cup and a half. And I’m going in with roughly a cup of grape jelly as well. And then just like a tablespoon or two of cocktail sauce, depending on how much bite you want to add to the party. I’m going to just finish this off. I don’t need to be making no midnight peanut butter and jellies this week anyway. So, in goes the jelly. In goes the barbecue sauce. Going to mix that together and then add the cocktail sauce. [Music] After about 15 minutes in the oven at 400°, the meatballs are just about done. Around 160° internal temperature. You finish them in the sauce for 5 or 6 minutes. Get them up to 165 170. Caramelized, glazed beautifully. Little extra sauce cuz why the hell not? Now it’s time to get in here for the taste test. Before we do that though, please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel. Make sure you hit that bell to enable notifications as well. It’s not much better on the world in the world. There’s not many things better in the world than some homemade meatballs. Very juicy. Probably want a closeup of that. These are incredible. You got to make this recipe for your next get together. Or if you just want to be a big back and eat these on the couch by yourself. I wouldn’t be mad at you. Next, I’m going to show you what to do with the leftovers. If you have a big party, make a bunch of these. You got some leftover. My favorite thing to make the next day is this meatball sub. All right, people. So, for the purposes of this barbecue meatball sub, I like to add fried shallots to mine. It adds a nice crunch, texture, and fried shallots are delicious. If you’re feeling a little lazy the next day and you don’t feel like doing any extra work, you can get some fried onions that you can buy like the Frenches fried onions. Same thing applies. Not homemade, but they’re pretty good delicious. You made the meatballs the other day homemade, so give yourself a little credit. Take a break and use that. But if you’re overachiever, you can use this fried shallot recipe. Real simple. We’re going to do that. A little pepper jack cheese. I like the little bit of spice that it provides. Offset a little bit of the sweetness from the meatballs. Again, if you want to use your favorite item in that cheese category, then go for it. You use mozzarella, cheddar, whatever you got. For me today, it’s going to be pepperjack. Good loaf of bread, fried shallotss, barbecue meatballs, delicious lunch. Everybody will love it. All right, guys. If that don’t get you going, you need to check for a post. This looks good. Yep. New favorite sandwich right here. My favorite thing about it is that it got so much meat on it. Here we go.