These oven-baked meatballs are so easy to make and are the perfect make-ahead freezer meal! Make a double (or triple!) batch and freeze them for later use, like in my meatball soup recipe or my meatball sub that I just made!
These are also great in any recipe that you need meatballs in, like my crockpot meatballs with creamy mushroom gravy or my grape jelly meatballs.
Oven Baked Meatballs
Meatballs are a classic for a reason – you can use them to add a small bundle of meaty goodness to any savory recipe, plus they’re great just on their own when baked using this simple recipe.
Use whatever meat you want but try to make sure you are getting good quality here. When the only real ingredient is the meat, you can definitely taste when the meat isn’t very good.
Ingredients
- Ground meat – can be turkey, chicken, pork, or a combination to suit your needs. Remember that ground chicken and turkey can be dried out with too much cooking, so adjust your times accordingly.
- Eggs
- Saltine crackers
- Parmesan
- Dried parsley (or any other preferred herb, just nothing too strong)
- Garlic
- Salt, oregano & black pepper
How to Make Baked Meatballs
Making meatballs is incredibly easy, as it is really just a case of mixing together all the ingredients and cooking them.
- Mix all the ingredients together with your hands until the mixture is combined completely.
- Roll small amounts into balls about ½ inch in size and bake for 15 minutes at 400°F
- Remove, drain on paper towels and serve.
How to Freeze Baked Meatballs
The best part about this recipe is how incredibly versatile it is; you could scale this recipe up and make a huge amount of meatballs and freeze them in ready-made portions, either as a lunch or just to use in other recipes!
To freeze these meatballs, the best thing to do is to freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Once frozen solid, you can then store your meatballs in a freezer-safe bag and taken out as many as you need at a time.
If you don’t mind them sticking together into a solid lump, you could also just portion them out into a bag and then defrost them as a whole in whatever recipe you are planning to use them in.
How to Cook Meatballs From Frozen
Cooking frozen meatballs from frozen is really easy because they are already so small and precooked. You really only need to bring them back up to temperature to get them ready to eat.
If you are planning to use them in a sauce, you could actually just defrost your meatballs by heating them up in the sauce itself. After a good 15 minutes of cooking, the meatballs will come up to temperature and, as a bonus, start taking on the flavors of the sauce.
If you just want to eat the meatballs on their own, you could either thaw them out in the fridge overnight or just bake them still frozen in the oven. Set the oven to 350 Fahrenheit and place it in a covered baking dish for 15-20 minutes until thawed and sizzling.
Tips and Tricks
- A useful tip when forming these meatballs is not doing it dry; wet your hands first! Once your mixture is ready to roll, dip your hands in some cool tap water and shake off the excess. The water will keep the meat from sticking to you and make rolling dozens of meatballs a lot easier.
- The warmer that the meat/your hands get, the greasier it will be, try to keep everything cool.
- Use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to mix the ingredients together with the ground beef. This is my Mom’s trick to save her hands from getting sore!So, only mix until you are sure that everything has come together, and there are no clumps of ingredients anywhere. When mixing your meatballs, the only thing you really need to be careful about is not to over mix. If you stir and stir your ingredients for longer than you need, the mixture will start to get gummy and almost sausage-like, which will result in an odd-tasting meatball. So use the mixer but carefully.
What to Serve with Meatballs
Try some of these side dishes that are reader favorites!
More Meatball Recipes for You to Enjoy!
My kids love meatballs, so I have tons of meatball recipes that are family favorites!
- Sweet and Sour Meatballs – a reader favorite and it made it into my cookbook!
- Meatballs with Homemade Mushroom Sauce – this is one for the mushroom lovers!
- Crockpot Meatball Shepherd’s Pie – one of my kids favorites!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
Easy Baked Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup crushed saltine crackers
- 1/4 cup powdered parmesan
- 1 1/4 tablespoons dried parsley or 1/4 cup fresh chopped
- 2 whole fresh garlic cloves, minced finely
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 °F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
- Put all the ingredients for the meatballs in large bowl. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Once the meat is well mixed take a small amount and roll into a ball that's around 1/2 inch to an inch in diameter. (depends what size of meatballs you want) Place on the baking sheet. Repeat until you have used all of the meat mixture.
- Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes until browned all over and have reached an internal temperature of 165 °F.
- Remove and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain them. Add to your favorite sauce, use in soup, etc.
Notes
- Use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to mix the ingredients together with the ground beef. This is my Mom’s trick to save her hands from getting sore!
- Yield and cook time will vary depending on what size you make the meatballs
Nutrition
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Peter says
could i put the pineapple chopped up into the meatballs before I fry them