These Sweet & Tangy Meatballs are delicious, easy and perfect for parties! We have them for our main course or more often, as a crowd-pleasing appetizer.
These might be the best meatballs ever! I'm sorry - that's not very humble of me, but they are SO fantastic! When I make them for parties, I can never. make. enough. When I make them for my family, I can never have enough!
They're bold and a little spicy and tangy and sweet and they have kick! They're wonderful and totally homemade (unless you skip making the actual meatballs) and well...then they're somewhat homemade. Either way... you should make them a.s.a.p! These can work as a main dish, side dish or a fantastic appetizer or party food!
If you like meatballs, that is. If not, forget I mentioned it =)
Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
So, at the request of my husband, I put these on our menu for this week, and well, since I had that impromptu freezer cooking day afternoon, we had half the work already done (the meatballs, that is) and waiting for us in the freezer!
Are you ready? Here's the recipe for the meatballs, and the superb sauce. Wait, on the subject of the meatballs, when I'm in a pinch, or having a large party, or just being lazy I buy pre-made frozen meatballs at Walmart or Sam's Club and they work just fine for this recipe...just skip the first part and go straight to the sauce.
But most of the time...I use my Make-Ahead Meatballs out of the freezer. I freeze them in Tupperware then dump them in a 9x13 when I'm ready to cook (as seen here)...or dump them in a pot if I use them for Spaghetti!
Looking for more Meatball recipes? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Super Bowl Meatballs and check out these Hawaiian Roll Meatball Sliders.
PrintRecipe
Sweet & Tangy Homemade Make Ahead Meatballs
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 50 1x
Description
These Sweet & Tangy Make Ahead Meatballs are delicious, easy and perfect for parties! We have them for our main course or more often, as a crowd-pleasing appetizer.
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 3 lbs lean ground beef
- 1.5 cups quick oats
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup minced onion
- 3-4 cloves minced garlic
- ½ Tbsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
For the Sauce:
- 1 ½ cups ketchup
- 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped or minced
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 3 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. pepper (or to taste)
Instructions
For the Meatballs:
- Mix all ingredients together thoroughly with your hands - I don't know any other way to get it all mixed up really good!
- Scoop out into balls - I use a my medium cookie scoop scooper thingy onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Cool and freeze. It should make around 50-60 meatballs, if you make them the size I do.
For the Sauce:
- Whisk all the ingredients together. Pour over the frozen meatballs and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for about 30 minutes, uncover and cook for about 15-20 more minutes. Then hurry and grab as many as you want before they're gone!!
- *This is enough sauce for about 2-3 lbs. of meatballs...the perfect amount for the above meatballs recipe. This recipe can be cut in half or doubled if you have more or less meatballs.
- **You can also do this in the crockpot for 3-4 hours!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Cooking
Do you have any questions about this recipe? Please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help if I can!
Linda Stuckey
Rose, I came to tell you that I made your white cake mix recipe with the sour cream and white chocolate pudding, along with the crusting cream cheese buttercream for a 1 year old birthday today..and it was a huge hit..everyone was asking..who made this cake?..it's sooo good! Thank you for sharing your recipes..I will definitely be using it again, so moist and flavorful! The reason this comment is under the meatballs...is while I came to comment on the cake..I was also looking for a bbq meatball dish for a luncheon at church tomorrow and just happened to find this! lol
Printing this one to try and again...Thank you for sharing!
Rose
I am so happy to hear it! That is wonderful!! Ooooh, and you are gonna love those meatballs! They are delish!!
Linda Stuckey
They were a big hit at the luncheon...all gone! I usually keep frozen meatballs for last minute meals, and usually have bbq sauce on hand and use that, but this time I was out! This recipe is so easy and quick to put together, and uses on hand ingredients..Perfect! Thank you, Rose, it's a keeper!
Rose
I'm SO glad to hear that it was a hit for you!
Freida Thomas
Rose,
I would like to use the fully cooked frozen meatballs with your sauce. Could I put all of this in the
crock pot together? How long and what temp. would you put the crock pot on? Thanks for your advice!
Rose
Hmmm - I would just be guessing, but I'd probably put it all in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours - or on high for maybe 4-5 hours!? I have cooked them in the crockpot before and they turn out great - I'm just really bad about noting how long I cook things in the crockpot!
Freida Thomas
Thanks! I had to make these for a party today, and didn't have that long to cook them. They turned out great cooking them on high for 2.5 hours. Everyone loved them! Thanks!
Kym
My freezer is never without meatballs, I make them up in 5 lb batches. Will try these next week. Thought i'd also mix up the sauce and portion,bag and freeze it alongside the meatballs. Then on busy nights we can hit the easy button!
Rose
YES! That's a fantastic idea!
Colleen Simmons
O Rose ~ I'm so excited to find your blog of awesome family, fun, delicious recipes~~ I am filling out my info....but my email is not working at the moment ~~ LOL ....AOL wants to own everything~~~ Anyway so glad I found your site!!!
Rose Atwater
Awww, thank you so much! I'm so happy to have you here reading!
Jessy @ The Life Jolie
This sounds like the perfect game day appetizer! Pinning!
Jessy @ The Life Jolie
This sounds like the perfect game day appetizer! Pinning!
Rose Atwater
Thank you!
Carlee
Yummy! My friends love meatballs, I'll have to make a batch of these for our next get together!
Cynthia Rusincovitch
I've loved meatballs since I was a little girl. This looks like a delicious recipe to add to my favorites list! Thanks for linking up at delicious dishes recipe party!
Shirley
The Sweet and Tangy Meatballs are delicious i had to try 3 I made a pasta salad to go with it got my dinner for tomorrow thanks for your recipes Happy New Year to u and ur family!