Easy & Delicious BBQ Meatball Recipe
This recipe is a huge family favorite. It is one of the dishes my son requests when he comes home to visit, and it is always a hit with everyone. I was always asked to bring this to school potlucks, and it is great to serve as an appetizer and to take to parties. It can be made ahead of time.
When I take it places, I bake the meatballs about 15-20 minutes then put in the crock pot and pour the sauce over. Cook on low about 4 hours.
You can make this recipe with any ground meat. I find it is a great use for venison – I usually mix 2 lbs of venison with 1 lb of ground beef or pork. These first pictures below show me making just half the recipe, since I had 1 1/2 pounds of meat I had to use up.
Easy BBQ Meatballs
This will be your new favorite BBQ Meatball Recipe for dinner, parties or picnics.
- 3 lbs. lean ground meat
- 12 oz. evaporated milk
- 2 cups dry plain oats
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 5-6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed or celery salt
For The BBQ Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (or use 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 3-4 cloves minced garlic (or can use 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
- dash chili powder
- salt, and pepper
- Mix all together with your hands and form into approx. 1 ½ inch balls. You can see the melon baller I used to form the balls – it seriously cuts the amount of time way down. Put the meatballs on a foil covered jelly roll pan.
- Mix the sauce and pour over the meatballs. Bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes.
One things every cook needs is a “melon baller” or small ice cream scoop to easily form nice uniform meatballs.
** I have only made these this way, but I would imagine you could make up any sauce to pour over the meatballs. I live in BBQ country, so we can never get enough of the stuff. Perhaps this is something I will try with a different sauce at some point, and I don’t know why you couldn’t put some Italian seasonings in with the meat mixture and cover it with marinara sauce. Hmmmmm.
This makes about 70 meatballs, so I usually cook half and use the food saver to freeze the other half for another day. Trust me, people will ask for this recipe!
