Anyone looking for a fun new appetizer (or even main course!) for the big game this week?
These saucy sesame meatballs are some of my favorites!!!
I first made them a few months ago when I was experimenting with multiple meatball recipes to serve for a fundraiser. And when my friends graciously “helped me out” with some taste testing, these little guys were the clear winner! My friend’s 1-yr-old son was even crazy about them as well. ;)
Definitely easy, quick, and bursting with yummy flavor. And everyone commented on how they’re a nice twist from traditional marinara meatballs. Give them a try!
Saucy Sesame Meatballs
You will love this delicious saucy sesame meatballs recipe! It’s so flavorful, saucy, and perfect for game day or as an appetizer for special occasions.
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. ground pork or ground beef
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 2 eggs
- 3 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
- optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions
Sesame Sauce Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- In a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined. Shape into balls (I made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs, but 1 inch is probably standard), and place on a greased baking sheet or in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.
- While the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended. Once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually (using a toothpick) in the sauce mixture. Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered.
- Serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired. (I served mine on these cocktail forks.)
Notes
You can also keep these warm (after cooking) in the crockpot on a low setting!
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
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Does the sauce has to be cold or cold
Warm is preferable, we hope you enjoy!
These look very tasty but would like to make as a main dish with pasta or spaghetti squash? Any suggestions on a sauce for noodles?
We think that’s an excellent idea Nikki! We would actually suggest just making extra of the sauce in this recipe, because any other sauce might clash too much. Or were you wanting to just make the meatballs and not the sauce? If that’s the case, we think this Thai peanut sauce would be really yummy! We hope this is helpful!
I don’t have any hoisin sauce, have the rest of the ingredients, what can I substitute for the hoisin?
Hi Janet, you could try a combination of these ingredients as a good substitute!
Hi, what were the ingredients listed for hoisin sauce sub
hi, just made these tonight and served over rice. The recipe was ridiculously quick and easy and although I might have made my meatballs a tad bigger, they cooked beautifully in 15 minutes. Thanks for a new go-to for my rotation
Thanks Andrea! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
I love your blog. I discovered it only a few weeks ago and have tried at least 4-5 different recipes. My daughter loves hoisin sauce, so I gave it a shot. Minimal prep, done in a ridiculously short amount of time including the kale fried rice I had made to accompany it with for a wholesome dinner. I thought I had all ingredients, but no scallions so I subbed for yellow onion. Then the worst part I think I only had about less than half a cup of hoisin. So a little water in the bottle to shake out whatever little hoisin I had left + 1tsp cornstarch and 1tbsp honey. I know it’s not the way the recipe was written, but good thing hoisin is such a strong flavor, even with my makeshift this recipe was awesome! Thank you, my kids thank you, their most favorite meatball dinner yet. Take that aidelis meatballs (cheaper too)!
Thanks so much Kim, I really appreciate that, and I’m so glad you and your kids liked these! : D
these were so good! thanks for sharing
Is there any nutrition facts to this recipe?
Hey Christine, I’m sorry but but we currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site. The nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. But many of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. Hope this helps, thanks!
We just made this for dinner- it was so delicious we couldn’t stop eating the meatballs until the rice was cooked (we put them over rice). So easy my husband made it, and we devoured it!!
I’m a bit confused by the “Yield: 12-18 meatballs” contrasted with your comment within the recipe that you got 35 1 1/2″ meatballs. Help?
Oops – typo! Should read about 30-35 meatballs. I just corrected it. Thanks!
I’ve tried making these 3 times now, using beef, and they never fully cook! The meat is always pink on the inside! I tried adjusting the time, temperature, etc… but nothing works
I’ve made them in 3 different ovens too, so I know it’s not the oven. Haven’t tried it with pork yet, so that might be it, otherwise is there something I’m missing?