Description
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
Scale
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!
I think they look wonderful but the sesame is a little overpowering and the sauce could use a little sweetness. Good recipe but will tweak a little next time.
These are amazing and so easy!
Can I make these and freeze
These turned out so good!
Sauce takes a little getting used to, but it is good.
Will definitely do again.
Making these right now and they are pretty good. I think I would prefer a sweeter sauce though. This is a very savory sauce..
I can’t wait to try this recipe. It’s making me salivate just reading it.
I can’t wait to try these ! I noticed that no sodium in meatball recipe, is it because sauce has enough sodium?
Saucy meatballs are one of my fav apps! I will have to try this :)
These were delicious. I subbed the breadcrumbs with gluten free bread crumbs from Ener-G and they still came out awesome. Thanks for posting.
Made these tonight and I think they were delicious. Great for appetizers for a party or can even create an entire little asian inspired dinner. Extremely easy to prepare too!!!
Did you use fresh ginger, or the kind on the spice aisle at the store? Thanks.
Thought I would comment since these were so sooo GOOD. I made these today with ground turkey and they were amazing!!!! The sauce is REALLY REALLY good!!! I made them in little muffin cups though as a meal and poured the sauce over, I’m pressed for time! Thanks for the recipe!! :)
Muffin pans are a great time saver idea, thanks!
Going to try these soon. They look fabulous. Where can I get the fancy toothpicks?
I made these for dinner tonight and they were delicious! I made them with ground turkey and ground beef and added a little brown sugar for a touch of sweetness. My family loved them and I think they’ll make great sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. Definitely a winner! I’ll make these again! Thanks for the recipe!
Ali, I made these for dinner tonight. The sauce was pretty strong-tasting and I might use a little less hoisin-sauce next time, but the overall flavour was very lovely . Thank you!!!
Ali, you’re the best—thank you!
Just made these. After reading comments I decided to use less hoisin saue. But the flavor for my taste was still a bit strong and tangy. I decided to add about 1/4 C Kikoman Teriaki glaze. Still a bit strong – not sweet enough- I added about 1/4 C brown sugar. Was very happy with the outcome. Wll definitely make again with a few tweaks :). Thank you for the receipe
I’m making these tomorrow for a party! Just want I was looking for.
has anyone made the meatballs ahead of time and frozen them with good results?
I made these as a Christmas appetizer and they were incredibly delicious and easy. I served them plain with a choice of sauces including a sweet and zesty bbq and General Tso’s sauce. I plan to try the Asian souce next time though. I just discovered your blog and I am really enjoying it so thank you very much!!!
Made these last night, New Year’s Eve. I think the recipe should include salt in the meatball mixture. The sauce was overpowering. Hoisin sauce has vinegar and think the additional rice vinegar is the reason for the strong taste. Think it needs more sweetness and spice. However, the meatballs were good and will give the recipe another try.
To a point, I followed the recipe as it’s posted. However, once the ingredients for the sauce were mixed together, I thought it was lacking something, so I added the juice of one lime and about 1/4-1/3 cup of orange juice. What a huge difference! The citrus really breaks through the heavy taste of the original sauce and adds more dimension. When I cook the sauce and meatballs, I plan on adding pineapple chunks.
These would make a great dinner with rice and a veggie!
Sticky rice and steamed broccoli – yummy!
These sound great. Any idea of the serving size?
oh my gosh, these look amazing. now i need to figure out an excuse to make them, do you usually eat them as a side/appetizer? or maybe with rice for dinner? yum!
A good excuse is that you want to make them for yourself!! :)
Thanks these were fast and transportable. So many times the hors d’oeuvres are soggy when they are make ahead of time.
I made these this past weekend for our Euchre card party night. They were a huge hit!! I used my pampered chef small scoop so the meatballs were uniform in size. I cooked them ahead of time in the oven, then at party tim I kept them warm in the crock pot.
Loved this recipe. Will definitely make them again.
My family every time say that I am killing my time here at net,
except I know I am getting experience all the time by reading
thes fastidious content.
This looks very good…I have the sesame oil and ginger…I may try them this weekend.
IN NYC there are so many restaurants. But the smell of home cooking is so good. And cheaper.
Love this recipe
It was really good! Thank you. I hope you don’t mind but I shared your recipe on my site https://www.ginious.nl/hapjes/aziatische-gehaktballetjes/ It has of course a link to your site. It’s in Dutch so everybody in Holland can enjoy these too :)
I made these for a party at my son’s house – Smaller, bite sized meatballs and they were a total hit!
made these with ground pork and chicken, big hit! https://cheekydid.blogspot.com/2013/09/happy-football-season.html
The meatballs are good, but the sauce is overpowering — way too much hoisin sauce and very, very salty. I was very glad I put the sauce on the side because everyone pretty much either ignored it or threw it out.
These were delicious!! I make them with vensison and they are a HUGE hit!
I really didn’t like the way you had to go from Pinterest to your website to get the recipe. I assumed the ingredients on P were right and made the meatballs – I’m not a stellar cook and have a party tomorrow. So when they seemed mushy I thought maybe I should go double check the directions and discovered I had the sauce in the meatballs. NOW I need to go back to the store… Whoever thought that was a spiffy way to get people to your web site didn’t care about the poor stupid people who are not cooks! This is the first time I have checked Pin for recipes and now I feel discouraged. It would have been better if you didn’t show the ingredients… Frustrated and tired. Merry Christmas
Hi Marie,
Sorry for the confusion with Pinterest. The ingredient list is an automatic feature with Pinterest that I cannot edit, but I’m sorry that they made the directions confusing. Best wishes if you try the recipe again. It really is one of my favorites!
~Ali
these are really fabulous . I have made them many times and everyone loved them. I am sorry that the other person had to comment on here negatively . when it wasn’t ALi who was at fault for the outcome of their meatballs.
Bravo Ali and thank you for sharing this great recipe! Happy Holidays to you all !!
I know sometimes recipes are hard to follow but I personally thought it was very self explainitary it was written in two sections each one labeled accordingly. In all fairness to Ali I thought it was very easy to understand, I don’t mean this comment in a bad way but I am sure this wasn’t meant to make you have a frustrating Christmas.
by the way these were delicious
These meatballs were great. I made them for an appetizer on Christmas. Everyone enjoyed them! :)
Sorry to say these were horrible! The hoisin sauce was so overpowering and my guests also agreed this not very good! Lesson learned for me don’t make something new when having people over to watch the game stick to my faithful recipes
The sauce was terrible. Couldn’t eat them.
I made these for New Years and they were a big hit! I changed up the meatballs by adding a bit more ground beef (didn’t want to waste my open package.) Added more sesame oil and garlic, but only had 3 green onions which was enough. For the sauce, I reduced the hoisin to 1/3 cup and halved the amount of ginger and it was great! I think fresh ginger would work great here. I paired the sauce with my vegetarian meatballs and it was perfect :) Oh, and 12 minutes was the perfect amount of time for my meatballs (I measured them out by the tablespoonful.) Thanks!
Made these for dinner tonight. . . Amazing! LOVE these!
Hi, I am bringing meatballs to a baby shower on Sunday, do you think I can make them in a crockpot? I have frozen meatballs which I never ever use, but due to a huge lack of time I gave in and bought premade meat balls!! If I add fresh ginger and garlic to the pot and a little brown sugar and the orange juice and lime juice I think it will be alright? What do you think!! I am excited to try this recipe the real way, but for now I have to improvise!!
Hi Martha,
Sorry for the late reply — I must have missed this comment! The details you suggested sound like they will definitely help flavor the frozen meatballs, and a crock pot has worked well for me in the past. Hope you enjoyed them!
~Ali
Good recipe…definitely need salt in the balls and I added a small amount of brown sugar and chili garlic sauce to bring the sauce around.
I made these for New Years and everyone loved them! I used extra beef that I had on hand and adjusted some ingredients accordingly (as best as I could without trying the meatballs themselves since I am vegetarian.) However, the sauce was to die for! I reduced the hoisin sauce and ginger, but it worked out perfectly. I used the sauce on my vegetarian meatballs :) Thanks for the awesome recipe! https://www.thecookiewriter.com/2014/01/homemade-meatballs-with-sweet-asian.html
These are delicious! I made a variation for my husband and he keeps asking for more. I used ground turkey and gluten-free breadcrumbs because that is what I had in the fridge/pantry. Your sauce recipe isn’t that much different than for homemade hoisin sauce, so I just made that. I served it all up with steamed veggies. There were sweet potatoes and a soft head of lettuce in the farm box this week, so I think I will try these as lettuce wraps and serve with a side of mashed sweet/golden potatoes and garlic carrots.
Where can I find the little picks you show with the meatballs?
I bought mine at World Market, but they are also available on Amazon.
I made these for a motorcycle club meeting and put them inside wonton wrappers so it would be easier for them to carry around. THEY LOVED THEM!! And have been requested for the next one!
Very delicious. Now, my wife and my daughter, appreciate my cook’s talents. Thank you and excuse I for the faults. I’m a french canadian and I don’t master English. Good day!
A new favorite in our house! It has the seal of approval from 5 kids (2 – 10yrs) and my husband. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It will be made again!!
Hi Ali,
Family member is allergic to eggs so swapped it out for milk. Tasted fantastic! Added your fried rice to the dinner and it perfect as well.
Thank you, Sharon
Tried your recipe tonight fantastic and easily prepared♡♥ looking forward to many more thank you :) all the best TT.