Sweet and Sour Meatballs – Freezer Meal & Dairy Free Option
Enjoy an easy, delicious dinner that only takes a few minutes to prepare. This is a great recipe to make ahead of time and store in the freezer for another day. Sweet and Sour Meatballs is a classic dinner that everyone, including kids, will love.
What should I make for dinner?
Sweet and Sour Meatballs is a family favorite recipe for us. This is one of the recipes that I make sure I make a lot of because my kids will eat adult size servings. Our toddler thinks the meatballs are very fun to eat since she is able to cut them up themselves. These meatballs are fall-apart tender! Every time I make this recipe, I double it so I can stock my freezer with an easy meal. Having 3 kids under the age of 4 means I need a well-stocked freezer with meals that are easy to pull out last minute for a delicious, nutritious dinner. As a result you can always find this Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe in my freezer.
What makes a great meatball?
Meatballs should be tender, juicy, and delicious with every bite. This Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe meets every one of these requirements. In this recipe the ground meat is mixed with bread crumbs and milk, which helps hold in all the moisture to create a tender and juicy meatball. No dried out meatballs in this recipe! The meatballs are baked in the sauce at a low temperature to ensure they absorb all the amazing flavors from the sauce.
What makes meatballs not fall apart?
Many recipes call for eggs to hold meatballs together, but breadcrumbs and milk can be used to create a superior meatball. Through experimenting, I have found that eggs only act as a binder and do nothing else to further increase the quality of the meatball. So in the Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe, I use breadcrumbs and milk. The breadcrumbs and milk act as a binder, just like the egg, but additionally helps capture all the yummy flavors and juice to create THE MOST tender, juicy meatball!
Sweet and Sour Meatballs Tips:
- Do not overmix the meatball ingredients. Overmixing will cause the meatball mixture to become slimy. Simply use a fork or even your clean hands to mix the ingredients until everything is incorporated.
- To create uniform size meatballs, use a cookie scoop. Uniform size meatballs cook evenly and create a picture perfect looking dinner. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, use your hands to create similar size balls.
- Breadcrumbs can be replaced with crushed crackers or even a gluten free substitution. The texture may be slightly different, but the meatball will remain just as tender and delicious.
- The recipe calls for 1 lb of ground meat – beef, pork, venison, or a combination will work for this recipe.
- Remember: the more you break down an onion, the stronger the flavor it produces. My kids don’t like onion chunks so I cut my onions smaller. Cut your onion according to how you like the taste or texture of onions.
Tools needed to make Sweet and Sour Meatballs:
- Medium size bowl – for the meatball ingredients
- Knife – for cutting the onion
- Cutting board – for cutting the onion on
- Measuring spoons and cups – for accurate measuring for the meatballs and sauce
- Fork – for mixing the meatball ingredients or used your clean hand
- Small size bowl – for the sauce ingredients
- Whisk – to mix together the sauce ingredients
- Cookie scoop – to create uniform size meatballs
- 9×13 pan – to bake the meatballs and sauce together
- Foil – to cover the meatballs and sauce for the first 30 minutes of baking
Find all of my favorite kitchen tools here and check them out on Amazon.
Meatball Ingredients:
- Ground meat – beef, pork, venison, or a combination works
- Bread crumbs – or other substitution as mentioned above
- Milk – almond milk can be used to make it dairy-free
- Onion – finely chopped
- Salt – helps create a delicious meatball
- Pepper – a great partner to the salt to help season the meatball
Sweet & Sour Sauce Ingredients:
- Brown sugar – the Sweet part of the sauce
- Apple cider vinegar – the Sour part of the sauce
- Worcestershire Sauce – helps to brighten and round out the sauce
- BBQ sauce – I use an “original” BBQ sauce flavor
- Ketchup – helps add another layer of flavor
- Water – thins out the sauce to the correct consistency
Check out these other delicious dinner recipes:
Easy Cast Iron Pork Chops – Gluten and Dairy Free
Easy Grilled Chicken Alfredo Recipe – 3 Ingredients
5-Ingredient Chicken Casserole
Homemade Buffalo Wild Wings Ranch Copycat Recipe
Dairy-Free Chicken Noodle Soup
How to make Sweet and Sour Meatballs:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium size bowl, mix bread crumbs and milk together with a fork.
- Add ground meat, minced onions, salt, and pepper to bread crumbs and milk mixture. Mix well with a fork.
- Use a cookie scoop or your hands to create 1 inch sized meatballs.
- Place meatballs in a 9×13 pan. Make sure the meatballs aren’t touching.
- In a small size bowl, mix together brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, ketchup, and water with a whisk.
- Pour sauce mixture over meatballs.
- Tightly cover the pan with foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes covered with foil. Then remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Serve with your choice of rice or preferred side and enjoy.
Pin this recipe for later!
Sweet and Sour Meatballs Freezer Meal:
Meatballs with Sweet & Sour Sauce make a great freezer meal because the meatballs freeze well and thaw quickly. Prepare the meatballs just as the recipe calls for, through step 4. Place the meatballs in a freezer container and cover. Meatballs can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to cook the meatballs, thaw the meatballs in the refrigerator overnight. Mix the sauce and bake the meatballs with the sauce as the recipe states. To make this freezer meal even more convenient, I place the meatballs in an aluminum pan and cover tightly with foil. With a permanent marker, I list the sauce ingredients and amounts needed and the baking time and temperature. Then it is easy to pull the pan out of the freezer, thaw, add the sauce, and put straight into the oven without having to transfer into another pan or pull out your recipe.
High Altitude Sweet and Sour Meatballs:
This Baked Sweet & Sour Meatballs recipe works great at high altitude. I have baked this recipe at 8,000 feet elevation.
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb Ground meat – beef pork, venison, or a combination works
- 1/2 cup Bread crumbs – or other substitution as mentioned above
- 1/2 cup Milk – almond milk can be used to make it dairy-free
- 1/4 cup Onion – finely chopped
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Pepper
Sweet & Sour Sauce
- 6 Tbs Brown sugar
- 2 Tbs Apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce
- 1/2 cup Ketchup
- 1 cup Water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In medium size bowl, mix bread crumbs and milk together with fork.
- Add ground meat, minced onions, salt, and pepper to bread crumbs and milk mixture. Mix well with fork.
- Use a cookie scoop or your hands to create 1 inch sized meatballs.
- Place meatballs in 9×13 pan. Make sure the meatballs aren't touching.
- In a small size bowl, mix together brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, ketchup, and water with a whisk.
- Pour sauce mixture over meatballs.
- Tightly cover pan with foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes covered with foil. Then remove foil and bake another 30 minutes.
- Serve with your choice of rice or preferred side and enjoy.
Notes
If you make these meatballs leave a comment below and let me know how they turned out. If you have any questions, post them below and I would love to help you out.
