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Meatballs

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My favorite baked meatball recipe — it’s easy to make, full of great flavor, and incredibly versatile. Serve it with Italian marinara sauce, Swedish cream sauce, American bbq sauce and beyond!

The BEST Meatball Recipe

Friends, do you have a go-to recipe for amazing homemade meatballs in your repertoire?

If not, bookmark this one. Like, seriously. ♡

After having made who knows how many millions of meatballs in my life, I’ve officially landed on this easy meatball recipe as my forever favorite. And I love it for so many reasons.

Mainly, I’m partial to this particular meatball recipe because it is BIG on flavor. I’ve always considered it such a missed opportunity when I’m served meatballs that are bland and boring because, quite frankly, it’s so easy to make them delicious! We shouldn’t have to rely on a sauce to make meatballs interesting. So this recipe goes big on all of my favorite flavors, including a base mix of ground beef and pork (win-win), classic garlic and onion (grated to avoid chunks), lots of Parmesan (adds amazing flavor), and a generous helping of zesty herbs and seasonings.

I also love these homemade meatballs because they are baked instead of fried, which makes them a touch healthier and also considerably easier to cook. They can easily be made gluten-free if you would like. They freeze beautifully for later, if you would like. And while I often love to just eat these meatballs on their own, the flavors here are versatile enough to pair with any of your favorite sauces, from Italian marinara sauce, to American bbq sauce, to a Swedish cream sauce, to a spicy Thai curry and so much more.

Basically, this is the meatball recipe that I use for pretty much everything and it is always, always a winner. So be sure to bookmark this one, and let’s make a batch together!

The BEST Meatball Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Easy Meatball Recipe Ingredients

Homemade Meatballs Ingredients:

Alright let’s talk about the ingredients you will need make this easy baked meatball recipe. (Full amounts included in the recipe below!)

  • Panko breadcrumbs: I’ve found that Panko breadcrumbs work best in baked meatballs, but you are welcome to use any type of breadcrumbs (seasoned or not) that you have on hand.
  • Milk: We will mix a bit of milk with the breadcrumbs to form a panade, which will help to keep our meatballs nice and moist.
  • Ground beef and pork: I like to use a 50/50 mix of the two to make meatballs, but you can also make all-beef or all-pork meatballs if you prefer.
  • Fresh garlic: Minced or pressed.
  • Eggs: Which will help to bind all of our meatball ingredients together.
  • Parmesan: As always, I highly recommend using freshly-grated Parmesan (instead of the pre-grated stuff) for maximum flavor and freshness. And if you have a kitchen scale, I recommend weighing the Parmesan to be sure that you have the correct amount — 1.5 ounces.
  • Fresh Italian herbs: I always love the taste and extra color that fresh herbs add to a batch of meatballs. So I used a mixture of basil and parsley here. But if you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, no worries, just read my substitution options below.
  • Grated yellow onion: Yes, grated. Even as someone who really loves onions, I always get a little weirded out by diced onion chunks in my meatballs. So I recommend using a box grater (or the grating attachment on a food processor) to grate the onion into smaller pieces before adding it to the mix.
  • Worcestershire sauce: Adds such great flavor!
  • Dry seasonings: A simple mix of dried oregano, sea salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.

How To Make Meatballs

How To Make Meatballs:

To make these homemade meatballs, simply…

  1. Make the panade. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Panko and milk until combined. Set mixture aside to soak for 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients. Then use a fork to briefly mash the mixture into a paste.
  2. Combine remaining ingredients.  Add the ground beef, ground pork, garlic, eggs, Parmesan, fresh herbs, onion and Worcestershire sauce to the (same) mixing bowl. Sprinkle the oregano, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes evenly on top. Use your hands to mix the ingredients until evenly combined, being careful not to over-mix the ingredients.
  3. Chill (optional step). To make the meatballs easier to form, I recommend covering and chilling the mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour. But if you’re pressed for time, you can skip this step.
  4. Prep oven and baking sheet. Heat the oven to 425°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Form the meatballs. Using a medium cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop and roll the mixture into 2-tablespoon balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. (I recommend greasing your hands with a bit of olive oil to prevent the mixture from sticking.)
  6. Bake.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer measures the internal temperature of the meatballs to be 160°F. Remove pan and transfer to a wire cooling rack.
  7. Serve.  Serve meatballs immediately and enjoy!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Possible Meatball Recipe Variations:

There are countless ways that you could customize this homemade meatball recipe, so please don’t hesitate to experiment and get creative! For example, feel free to…

  • Use ground turkey or chicken: For a lighter option, feel free to use ground turkey/chicken to make turkey meatballs or chicken meatballs. Just note that they will need to be cooked to 165°F instead of 160°F, and will be a bit less moist than the beef and/or pork meatballs.
  • Use all dried herbs: If you don’t have access to fresh basil and parsley, I recommend adding in an extra 1 tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning instead.
  • Make them gluten-free: Just use gluten-free Panko (or other gluten-free breadcrumbs), and double-check to be sure that the brand of Worcestershire that you are using is also gluten-free. (French’s, Heinz and Lea and Perrins’ Original are all gluten-free in the United States.)
  • Make them spicier. Feel free to double or triple the amount of crushed red pepper flakes used to give the meatballs more of a kick.
  • Make them more garlicky. Also feel free to double the amount of garlic if you like extra-garlicky meatballs.

Homemade Meatball Recipe (Baked Not Fried)

Ways To Serve Meatballs:

This baked meatballs recipe is incredibly versatile and can be served a number of ways! You could use it to make…

  • Spaghetti and meatballs: Pair the meatballs with a 1-pound package of spaghetti (cooked until al dente) and a batch of my favorite marinara sauce recipe to make Italian meatballs.
  • Swedish meatballs: Pair with your favorite Swedish cream sauce recipe to make Swedish meatballs.
  • Alfredo meatballs: Pair with a batch of my favorite Alfredo sauce recipe to make Alfredo meatballs.
  • BBQ meatballs: Pair with a batch of my favorite homemade BBQ sauce recipe to make BBQ meatballs.
  • Grape jelly meatballs: Pair with a grape jelly sauce (just simmer together 1.5 cups ketchup and 1 cup grape jelly) to make retro grape jelly meatballs.
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Best Meatball Recipe

Meatballs

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 277 reviews
  • Author: Ali
  • Prep Time: 35 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 24-30 meatballs 1x

Description

This classic baked meatball recipe is easy to make, full of great flavor, and totally versatile.  Pair it with your favorite Italian marinara sauce, BBQ sauce, Swedish cream sauce…and beyond!


Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Make the panade.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together the panko and milk until combined.  Set mixture aside to soak for 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
  2. Combine remaining ingredients.  Add the ground beef, ground pork, garlic, eggs, Parmesan, fresh herbs, onion and Worcestershire sauce to the (same) mixing bowl with the panade.  Sprinkle the oregano, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes evenly on top.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients until evenly combined, being careful not to over-mix the ingredients.
  3. Chill (optional step). To make the meatballs easier to form, I recommend covering and chilling the mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  But if you’re pressed for time, you can skip this step.
  4. Prep oven and baking sheet.  Heat the oven to 425°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Form the meatballs.  Using a medium cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop and roll the mixture into 2-tablespoon balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet.  (I recommend greasing your hands with a bit of olive oil to prevent the mixture from sticking.)
  6. Bake.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer measures the internal temperature of the meatballs to be 160°F.  Remove pan and transfer to a wire cooling rack.
  7. Serve.  Serve meatballs immediately and enjoy!


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446 comments on “Meatballs”

  1. I’m never satisfied with the meatballs I make and I’ve used many different recipes. Made this today and I have found the keeper recipe. Perfectly tender and juicy. Really nice flavor.
    Thank you






  2. These are the best meatballs I’ve ever had. Seriously!






  3. It came out pretty good even t ho this is the first time im making it. I added 1.5 tsps of salt instead of 1, 3 tsps of worchestister sauce instead of 2, 1 tsp red chilli flakes instead of 1/4. Also, 12 min was NOT enough to cook. I kept adding 4 more minutes every time! So total time of baking was about 40 min. I still kept it on 425 but that was certainly not enough time to cook it. Otherwise it was pretty good considering i had to make these changes.






    • Truly the best meatball recipe. Have made several times and I think I’ll use this for the rest of my life. I’ve used panko and breadcrumbs depending on what I had on hand and both work great.






    • So you went off recipe, overcooked them and rated them mediocre. Sounds about right.

    • Better check your oven or the size of your meatballs.

    • As someone else said, you changed the recipe to nothing close to the original and rated with only 3 stars. If you HAD to change this recipe so much why did you start with it???

  4. These came out absolutely amazing! The best meatballs. Juicy, flavorful and addictive ;) I cut the recipe in half for my small family. The fresh herbs make such a difference! I used Fresh Oregano and Parsley. I added milk to my bread crumbs and set aside while I prepped everything. 1/2 breadcrumbs.. 1/2 milk. Thank you for the recipe. I wish I could post the pic of these bad boys! Lol. 🤤

  5. I made this recipe without basil. No red pepper flakes. No fine sea salt. Used regular salt. Used dried parsley. . Included 1l2 ground pork and 1l2 ground beef. I finally found a good use for those Panko crumbs! We liked this recipe. I know I changed it up a bit. ;). I had the meatballs with mixed vegetables, no sauce.

  6. A most excellent recipe with the most delicious flavor !!! … an awesome appetizer with a dipping bowl of hot marinara sauce !!!






  7. Delicious meatballs! I used all beef and they came out perfectly seasoned. The only recipe we will use from now on!






  8. We loved these meatballs better than any other! I had to use only ground beef since my family can’t eat pork. I made smaller balls as an appetizer for a party and it came out to 52 meatballs which was a lot more than stated on the recipe so that was a nice surprise. I’m gluten free so I took others comments to heart and added GF crumbs to the mix and added milk very last and mixed it all in. I was very generous with the Parmesan and packed it in the measuring cup pretty tight. I believe I should’ve measured it loosely because I feel the extra Parmesan made the meatballs a bit salty and cheesy for my taste but still very yummy. I’m trying to decide what sauce to use. They are so good even without sauce in my opinion.






  9. mixing pancos with milk was definitely a mistake. the mixture clummed up and took forever to break down

    • Yes, thank you! I had the same problem!after trying to break it down, the mixture still turned out lumpy. Tastewise, it turned out well, but next time will add milk last.

  10. Fantastic even with all ground beef!






  11. These are the best meatballs I have ever made!
    I used half and half instead of milk, no milk in the house and dried herbs and they still turned out amazing. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

  12. READ IF YOU’RE GLUTEN FREE!!

    Excellent all around. Have made it several times. Easy to sub whatever is necessary. We make ours with beef, pork and chicken. I increase everything else by 50% to accommodate the extra pound of meat.

    PLEASE update your Gluten Free footnotes, though. The breadcrumbs soaking in milk will congeal into a rice-dough that will be gluey and completely inseparable and un-mixable. Add GF breadcrumbs last, just before mixing, do NOT soak. Otherwise it’s delicious!






  13. These are delicious. I made some with ground chicken and they were so good. The beef ones are delicious too






  14. This recipe works great for ground chicken






  15. These came out amazingballs!!! I used my Meatball Maker from Bakenfry and made them perfectly shaped. Also we ate them and I stuck the other half in the freezer. It was a big hit!

  16. This is the most fantastic meatball recipe ever!!!!!!!!!!! I made a batch and cooked them and froze some. I can’t stop making meatball subs!! I will definitely triple the recipe next time!!! Thank you so much!!

  17. Do I still need to add the spices if I have italian style panko bread crumbs?

  18. Made this today and they are a huge hit!! This will be my “go to” recipe for meatballs from now on. Thanks so much…
    Liinda B






  19. My husband and I agree ; delicious!!!
    the best meatballs that we ever had!!!






  20. These are incredible! I made a triple batch with 4lbs hamburger and 2lbs sausage. It made just over 8 pounds of meatballs. I froze them on trays and then bagged them. They bake up just fine from frozen. They are so much more tender, juicy, and delicious than store bought. Also, because I got the materials on sale it came out significantly cheaper than premade.






  21. Made these many,many,times.Awesome!
    The only thing I noticed every time was the milk to Panko ratio mentioned resulted every time in a glob of hardened mass that could not be broken up enough to distribute properly in the mix.So just suggesting recipe should have more liquid for the amount of Panko breadcrumbs mentioned.






  22. I doubled this recipe for a potluck and served it with a mushroom onion gravy. There were a few left and people asked to take them home! I’ll be making this one again and again.






  23. Will these hold up in a crockpot with barbecue sauce on warm after they are baked?

  24. Family favorite! My daughters request this when the come home between college terms.






  25. This truly is the best meatball recipe! My husband loved them! I will be keeping this one!






  26. The recipe never states when to add the breadcrumb mixture but I assumed prior to chilling. Also, the breadcrumb mixture formed large chunks that I had to break up up in the mixture. I did not have panko but regular breadcrumbs so that may have made the difference. .

  27. This is the only meatball recipe I use! I generally use the 1 1/2lb package of ground beef from Costco and keep all the mix ins the same amount (minus the red pepper flakes bc of my young one). If I do have the extra 1/2lb of pork or ground beef I’ll use it, but I kinda prefer it with just the 1 1/2. I make them a little larger, and still have enough to freeze for a future spaghetti and meatball night or for subs! Thanks for such a tasty recipe!






  28. I’ve never attempted homemade meatballs, mostly because spaghetti is a quick dinner in our house. I tried this recipe and I will never buy store bought again! These are delicious and better than restaurants. I’m going to try freezing.






  29. Although I can’t have these because of dietary problems my husband said they were absolutely delicious. This recipe is an absolutely keeper.

  30. Just made a triple batch of these meatballs and cooked them on my pellet grill. These are outstanding. The flavors lingered in my mouth for over 30 mins.
    Thank you so much for sharing this taste treat sensation.






  31. I made this recipe, but found it easier to add the eggs to the milk first, and then adding the bread crumbs.






  32. Delicious! The GF panko crumbs that I used actually worked out pretty well following the recipe directly, but I also didn’t soak very long–closer to 5 min.






  33. These were the BEST meatballs ever!!! I didn’t have milk so used a mixture of heavy cream and water. Definitely will make these again! Just delicious!!!






  34. Hi I’m planning on making this but is it possible to pan fry the meatballs to get a sear on them then cook them in your marinara sauce recipie? Will it turn out good? And if it will how much time should I cook them?






  35. Yummy






  36. These meatballs are the best i have ever made! I toasted the Panko breadcrumbs, used all ground beef and left out the worcestershire and baked in oven for 20 minutes then added them to sauce. The house smelled like an italian restaurant!






  37. Oh man, these were DELICIOUS! I’m not a fan of meatballs in general, but I’m a huge fan of these. They were moist and FULL of flavor. I didn’t have panko so I used Italian bread crumbs. I had the parmesan in a can and used the dry herbs because I didn’t have the fresh. I was worried I was going to ruin it, but man oh man, these were good! Thanks for the recipe!






  38. I’ve made your meatballs so many times and they’re delicious! This time ate a batch for a party the next day. Will they be OK as I saw you said to serve them immediately?






  39. Amazing recipe. I did one lb of turkey instead of beef. Came out juicy and delicious. I cooked 10 minutes flipped them and cooked 10 more minutes. Will definitely make again. Thanks for the recipe.






  40. These are some of the tastiest meatballs I have ever made. GREAT recipe! Thank you!!!

  41. These were amazing! Saving this one.






  42. Hi ! Can I deep Fried it ? Thanks

  43. I made these last night and it is now going into rotation. It was rainy and cold here last night and it was the perfect warm me up comfort food. Thank you!!!






  44. Awesome meatballs, everyone loved them and one person even said they were the best meatballs they’ve ever had! Will definitely be making again:) Thank you!

    I measured each to between 42-46 grams and cooked closer to 20 minutes.






  45. hey this recipe’s pretty dope but just FYI i am not going to grate the onions. i like the chunks. thanks again. -dolly

  46. Delicious! Definitely my favorite meatball recipe. Followed the recipe exactly except used gluten free bread for my bread crumbs. Loved the seasoning on the top.






  47. I’m assuming these can go in the crockpot as well covered in sauce?

  48. Make these meatballs!

    These are seriously the BEST. Perfect every time. I definitely add more fresh herbs and a little more salt/ garlic etc. But following the recipe to a T they are fantastic.

    When I feel like changing it up I will switch the herbs to fresh cilantro/ thai basil etc. and add grated ginger/ lemongrass…skip the parm and do green onion instead of white. Makes it an asian style and super tasty, will serve with curry sauce/ peanut sauce/ butter chicken sauce etc on jasmine rice.

    My only question is if these can be prepped and frozen? Or cooked and frozen?

    • I have cooked these and then frozen them. Make sure you thaw them completely before reheating. I find they reheat best in sauce so they don’t dry out.

  49. Fast and easy meatballs! Great flavor. There are no leftovers. Versatile.






  50. I made these today for a family dinner. They were a hit – I will be making them again.