Meatballs

The ultimate meatball recipe - works with ground beef, turkey, chicken, pork or lamb

Having a good meatball recipe is an ace up your sleeve. Not only are they crowd pleasers for all ages; they’re incredibly versatile - great with pasta, marinara sauce, as an appetizer, in a sandwich, in soup, with polenta, or with garlic bread - and they freeze perfectly. I usually make a double or triple batch and freeze the extras for easy weeknight dinners. You can reheat them directly in tomato sauce in a pot on the stove, in a 325 F oven, or with the defrost setting on your microwave.

defrosting frozen meatballs directly in sauce or in an oven safe dish at 325 F

This is a classic meatball recipe that works with ground beef, turkey, lamb, chicken and pork. As long as you keep the ratio of meat, bread and egg right, you can switch up the seasonings. For pork I often add ginger, lime and mint. Lamb loves cumin, coriander and cinnamon. I make these a lot at parties for appetizers, usually paired with a marinara or arrabiata sauce, but sometimes peanut sauce, tahini sauce, or a chutney. (Going to link recipes for these asap!)

Tips for a great meatball:

• Roll gently so they don’t get too tight. I scoop the mixed meat with a measured scooper into my hand and then barely squeeze before dropping the meatball onto a sheet pan to bake. Linking an inexpensive 3 piece scoop set here. I usually do the small or medium scoop. The big one I like for cookies.

• You can pan fry but in my experience baking meatballs on a sheet pan is 1000% easier. There’s no grease splatter on your stove, they cook evenly, won’t burn (unless you completely forget about them), and you don’t have to flip or turn them. I bake them at 400 (this helps get some browning) until cooked. The other method I like is to cook them directly in a pot of simmering tomato sauce - they won’t brown but they will be ultra tender. You can also put a rack on a rimmed sheet pan and cook them on top of that if you want more fat to render from them.

• The internal temperatures (use a good digital thermometer) should be as follows:

  • 125 F for beef or lamb

  • 145 F for pork

  • 165 F for chicken or turkey

• Don’t use ultra lean meat. Using only lean meat can result in a dry meatball. Dark turkey or chicken meat will give you a tender and juicy meatball - you can always do half white and half dark with poultry. For beef I like to use an 85/15 meat/fat blend and will sometimes do half ground chuck (a richer, fattier cut) and half ground sirloin or ground round (made from leaner cuts.)

  In the grocery store, the four major varieties of ground beef (a.k.a. “hamburger meat”) are Ground Round, Ground Sirloin, Ground Chuck and Ground Beef. We know what you’re thinking. . . isn’t it all ground beef? The first three are source grinds that come from specific cuts of beef, which play the biggest role in the grind’s taste, texture and leanness.

  Normally the lean-to-fat ratio for source grinds are: 90/10% for ground round, 85/15% for sirloin and 80/20% for chuck. Ground beef comes in each of these ratios. The main reason people prefer various source grinds over ground beef is knowing exclusively what cut the beef came from, as opposed to regular ground beef being taken from a variety of cuts.

  - Beeflovingtexans.com

• Don’t over-mix or they will turn rubbery. Your hands are your best tool for mixing.

• Taste for seasoning! Before you cook off your meatballs, its a good idea to make a small meatball and cook it in a little pan so you can taste it for seasoning before you cook the whole batch.