Meatloaf Meatballs are tasty, bite-sized meatloaves with a sweet ketchup sauce. Baked meatballs are a quick and easy weeknight dinner or holiday appetizer!
Craving comfort food like Classic Meatloaf, but short on time? You’ll love this easy, hearty Main Dish made in just 30 minutes!
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Meatloaf Meatballs Recipe
Meatballs are an ultimate jack-of-all-trades recipe – they can be dinner, an appetizer, lunchbox meal prep, or a snack. You can throw meatballs in a hoagie for a sandwich or keep them in a crockpot with sauce for an easy party dish. There are almost as many ways to make meatballs as there are ways to serve them.
These Meatloaf Meatballs are comfort food meets convenience. They have the same tasty flavors as your favorite meatloaf recipes you grew up with but in a bite-sized portion perfect any time you need a meaty dish quick. In less than 30 minutes, you can have a main dish, appetizer, or meal prep for later. You may never go back to making regular meatloaf again!
You can serve Meatloaf Meatballs just like you would a traditional meatloaf with classic sides like Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans. Leftover meatballs would make the ultimate meatloaf sub on Garlic Bread and smothered in Marinara Sauce and provolone cheese. Portion out meatballs with Brown Rice and freeze up to 3 months for a ready to serve healthy meal prep.
Tips for Making Meatballs
- You don’t want to handle the meat mixture too much, or you will end up with tough, dry meatballs. You want mix just enough to combine your meatball ingredients.
- Rolling Meatloaf Meatballs is certainly fun, especially for kids, but you can handle them too much trying to get them all the same size. Use a cookie scoop to make Meatloaf Meatballs uniform so they all cook evenly and keep you from packing the meat mixture too tight.
- Another way to keep from over-mixing or handling your meat mixture too much is to mix the dry ingredients first and whisk the egg a few times before adding everything together.
- If you want to lessen the onion flavor, sauté the minced onion and garlic for a couple minutes, until just soft and fragrant, before adding to the meatball mixture.
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Variations
- Meat: You can use a traditional meatloaf mixture of 1 part ground beef and ½ parts ground veal and ground pork. To use leaner meat, like ground turkey or ground chicken, add 1 tablespoon olive oil to keep the meat juicy.
- Bacon: Wrap your meatballs in a slice of raw bacon or add cooked bacon crumbles to the meatball mixture. Instead of the meatloaf sauce, try maple syrup and dijon mustard as a glaze with the bacon.
- Seasonings: Add up to ½ cup minced veggies like celery, carrots, or green bell peppers. Other classic meatloaf seasonings you can add are Italian herbs, onion soup mix, and parsley.
- Sauce: Double the meatloaf sauce and reserve half for serving, either with the meatballs in a crockpot or heat the sauce on the stovetop. Use your favorite Barbecue Sauce in place of ketchup, or use half ketchup and half BBQ sauce.
- Breadcrumbs: Any breadcrumbs will work, like panko breadcrumbs or Italian breadcrumbs. Try other meat binders like quick oats, diced bread soaked in milk, or crushed crackers. For low carb Meatloaf Meatballs, use crushed pork rinds.
Slow Cooker Meatloaf Meatballs
- Spray slow cooker insert with cooking spray.
- Double the sauce recipe ingredients and mix in a medium bowl. Pour half the sauce into the crockpot.
- Prepare and shape the meatballs. Nestle meatballs in the sauce in slow cooker.
- Top meatballs with remaining sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours.
- Optional: Transfer meatballs to baking sheet and broil for a few minutes before returning to sauce to serve.
MORE DELICIOUS MEATLOAF RECIPES
Turkey Meatloaf
Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Meatloaf Meatballs
Glazed Brown Sugar Meatloaf
How to Store
- Serve: These Meatloaf Meatballs can be at room temperature for up to 2 hours before they should be stored. You can keep Meatloaf Meatballs warm in a slow cooker for up to 4 hours.
- Store: Cool Meatloaf Meatballs to room temperature before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freeze: Place Meatloaf Meatballs on a baking sheet and freeze for one hour. Transfer frozen meatballs to a sealed container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating Meatloaf Meatballs in the oven on low.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 2 pounds ground beef , 90/10
- 1/4 yellow onion , minced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Meatloaf Glaze:
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large bowl mix the ground beef, onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper until just combined.
- Roll mixture into 25 meatballs and place into 9×13 baking dish.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Turn oven onto broil.
- Glaze with sauce then broil until the sauce caramelizes, about 1 minute. (If you prefer not to broil, cook at 450 for 5 minutes)
Nutrition
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The following photos were used in other versions of this post:
Can you freeze these before cooking and also after cooking?
Yes!
So yummy! I did use instant oatmeal instead of the breadcrumbs & also added a little chopped bell pepper- green. SAUCE IS GREAT!
How many meatballs does this make?
Thanks
Katherine
20-25 depending on the size.
My second request how many meatballs does this make, the directions say to roll into 25 meatballs but the photos show 20 meatballs in the dish?
Thanks
Katherine
It makes 20-25 meatballs depending on the size you roll them.
Why does the recipe directions say to make 25 meatballs when all the photos show 20 meatballs? What size cookie scoop did you use?
Thanks for a prompt reply!
Katherine
Sorry I missed this comment. It made me 25 but I recipe test as I go so I taste test the mixture as I go. I had twenty left to shoot but would’ve had 25 if I wasn’t testing. I use a cookie scoop, leveled.
Yum – there wasn’t a single meat ball left on the tray!
Yay! I’d definitely call that a hit!
These really were like eating bite sized meatloaves! My family is seriously addicted!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them.
Made these with the Bacon wrapped variation and they turned out so good – the whole family loved them!
Bacon is always a welcomed addition in my family too.
Delicious! I subbed the breadcrumbs with almond meal for gluten free, but the flavor was great and I loved that I could put them on a sheet pan lined with parchment for easy clean up. Loved the glaze too! I will be putting these in my dinner rotation.
Thanks for the GF suggestion, Lauren. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.