15+ Easy Meatball Recipes

These 15 Easy Meatball Recipes perfect for appetizers, snacks, and even a main course, especially during football season or for entertaining! Here’s a roundup of my favorite ground beef, chicken, turkey, and pork meatballs!

Easy Meatball Recipes

Remember these Slow Cooker Asian Sesame Meatballs I made recently? Well, I wanted to keep the meatball fun going and share with you 15 Super Easy Meatball Recipes.

It’s no secret I love meatballs. They are not as hard to make as one would imagine and they can be made in so many ways and with so many variations. They make perfect appetizers or main dishes! Below I am sharing my favorite easy meatball recipes. Most of these recipes can be made in 30 minutes or less! Feel free to substitute either ground chicken, beef, pork or turkey for any of the meatballs. I always use what I have on hand! I have also included my tips for making the best meatballs below!

Tips for Making the Best Meatballs

• Don’t overwork your ingredients: Just like baked goods the more you work your meatball dough the tougher and chewier the cooked meatball will be. I like to mix the meatballs with my hands just until they are combined.
• Sear your meatball: I always like to brown my meatballs on all sides over very high heat. This adds so much flavor and helps to lock in the juices.
• Buy 80 / 20: When possible I like to use 80 / 20 in my meatball recipes to ensure the meatballs stay juicy and don’t dry out.
• Portion out meatballs: I like to use a cookie scoop to portion out meatballs. This keeps everything uniform and helps all of the meatballs to cook evenly and not dry out.
• Grease hands: When you are shaping the meatballs by hand I recommend lightly greasing or wetting your hands. This helps the meatball from sticking to your hands and help you to form a perfectly shaped meatball!
• Appetizer/Entree: I like to make my meatballs a lot smaller if I plan to serve the meatballs as appetizers so they are bite sized. Entree meatballs are a lot bigger and are about the size of a golf ball.
• Use different meats: I like to use a combination of meats when I am making meatballs. This adds so much flavor and helps add needed fat to leaner cuts of meats.
• Season your meatballs: Seasoning your meatballs are key! To test the seasoning of your meatballs take a small teaspoon of your meatball mixture and cook it in a hot pan. The mixture will only take 30 seconds or so to cook and you can taste test your meatballs before cooking the full batch.
• Keep your ingredients cold: This helps keep the fat from breaking down. I keep my eggs, cheeses and meats in the fridge and take them out right before I plan to use them. I also try not to overwork the dough with my hands. This will warm up the mixture as well.

Pork and Beef Meatballs

The majority of these easy meatball recipes are the classic combination of ground beef and ground pork. You can always make them exclusively beef or pork, but the combination results in a super juicy, ultra flavorful meatball every time.

Chicken Meatball Recipes

While homemade meatballs are traditionally made with a combination of beef and pork, you can lighten them up by using ground chicken. This style of easy meatball recipes pair especially well with lighter sauces, but they can also be swapped for red meat-based meatballs found in more standard recipes like spaghetti.

Turkey Meatball Recipes

Ground turkey is a healthier and lighter swap for traditional red meat or pork in meatball recipes. I recommend using either 80/20 or 93/7 ground turkey. I find 99% lean ground turkey will make the meatballs too dry.

Easy Meatball Soup Recipes

Homemade meatballs aren’t just for sub sandwiches and entrées. They are the perfect addition to soup too!