Mini Meatballs (Cocktail Meatballs)

Mini Meatballs are quick and simple to make! With juicy, tender, ground beef these homemade Italian meatballs make the perfect appetizer. A one to 2 bite easy recipe finger food that will disappear off the plate fast. With these tiny meatballs up your sleeve and my tips and tricks, your parties will get started right! These cocktail meatballs are freezer friendly, party food, kid approved and right up everyone's snack food alley.

Recipes like the Swedish Meatballs, Wagyu Meatballs, Sweet and Sour Pork Meatballs and Meatball Tray Bake get us rolling meatballs at home.

The Meatball Pesto Pasta. Meatball Bolognese, Meatballs Alfredo and the Baked Meatball Subs show us how to pair them with carbs for a deliciously satisfying feed.

🤍 Recipe Highlights

I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about this mini meatballs recipe in the points below:

• Simple ingredients: everything that you need to make these homemade meatballs can be found at your local grocery store. They are available all year round and easy to get your hands on.
• Versatile: these meatballs are very versatile and lend themselves to a number of serving ideas. You can pop them on a pizza, stir them through pasta sauce, use them in a salad or pop them in a hoagie roll.
• Budget friendly: this is an appetizer that is not going to set you back a lot of money. You might already have some of the ingredients needed to make the recipe in the pantry also. The beef mince will be the most expensive ingredient and you can purchase it when you see it on special and freeze it until you are ready to use it.
• Fun: nothing screams 'it's party time' more than the food! These mini meatballs will be popular across all ages of guests without any intense or usual flavors involved.
• Meatball appetizer: chips and snacks are great but they are less along the lines of 'real food'. As you know people often come to parties looking forward to the food as their main focus. A meatball appetizer is filling and satisfying and more along the 'real food lines'. You might even find they say that they were the best little meatballs they ever had!!

🥗 Ingredients

The photo below is to show you everything you need to make these easy mini meatballs. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.

As you can see the recipe calls for:

• Olive oil: we use a small amount of this to cook the meatballs in.
• Salt and pepper: we use a little bit of salt and black pepper to season the meatballs. Kosher salt (cooking salt) is recommended over regular table salt due to the large salt grain.
• Egg: the egg helps to bind the meatball mixture together so the meatballs hold their shape and form when being cooked.
• Garlic powder: a fantastic pantry staple that works for so many recipes. It is versatile and pairs extremely well with the onion powder.
• Onion powder: saving time, tears and chopping this is another fantastic to always have on hand. It can dry out in the bottle if not used regularly, so keep that in mind if you have it but haven't used it for a while 😉👍.
• Dried parsley: are we really talking Italian meatballs if they don't have the classic Italian flavor of parsley in them...me thinks not. I bet you think not too! This is a convenient herb to have at home as it works in so many recipes.
• Panko breadcrumbs: these bright white bread crumbs are popular in Japanese cooking. So you are more likely to find them in the Asian food aisle at the supermarket than with the flours and oils.
• Beef mince (also known as ground beef): ground meat is a a popular choice as it is economical, versatile and freezes exceptionally well.

Tasty Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making my recipes. If in doubt of any of the above ingredients, or wanting alternatives, read this section (further below) before jumping into the instructions on how to make the recipe which are coming next 😉👌.

🍳 Instructions

Here are the step by step instructions to make this mini meatball recipe. We start by gathering the ingredients to make the meatballs.

• Gather meatball ingredients (Photo 1)
• Use clean hands to combine (Photo 2)
• Portion mixture using a cookie scoop (Photo 3)
• Cut portions in half (Photo 4)

👩‍🍳 How to Make Mini Meatballs

We start by gathering the ingredients to make the mini meatballs.

Add the beef mince, panko breadcrumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, salt, pepper and egg to a large mixing bowl and use clean hands to combine.

Then take a mini cookie scoop and portion the mixture out onto a chopping board. Once done, take a knife and cut each of those portions in half.

Then using the palms of your hands to roll each portion into a small ball. Repeat this process until all of the meat mixture has been turned into round meatballs.

• Roll the portions into meatballs (Photo 5)

Once all of the meatballs are rolled, you can get ready to cook them.

Do this by placing a frying pan or large skillet on the stove and adding the olive oil.

• Cook the meatballs in batches (Photo 6)

Give it a squish around in the pan and then add ⅓ of the meatballs.

You want to cook these in a single layer in batches until they are golden brown and cooked through. It will take 8 - 10 minutes for the meatballs to cook. Once the meatballs are done you can use a slotted spoon to lift them up and out of the frying pan and place them into a paper towel lined bowl.

Repeat until all of the meatballs are cooked and then you are ready to serve them!

🍽 Serving Suggestions

The best way to serve these mini meatballs is on a serving platter with a bowl of sauce. This way they can be dipped, dunked or dolloped.

The sauce that you see in the photos throughout the post is the Horseradish Yogurt Sauce. I like serving this type of sauce with all kinds ofs of beef as it is such a complementary pairing. I like to think the horseradish has a little 'get up and go about it'.

You can see it being served with the Wagyu Burger or Wagyu Meatballs if you want to see it in more than the one context.

Other homemade sauce options are the Herbed Yogurt Sauce, Parsley Yogurt Sauce or Basil Yogurt Sauce. These options all work well as they have less of a sugary taste about them than store bought tomato (ketch up) or barbecue sauce (each having their own place and time).

Or you could try the Garlic Yogurt Sauce, Mustard Yogurt Sauce or Sweet Chilli Mayo.

For citrus sauces the Lime Yogurt Sauce or Lemon Yogurt Sauce are your best bet. For a cheese sauce you can try the Gorgonzola Sauce.

Each of these sauces are made in the food processor and thin the yogurt during the 'making process'. However when they are then left to sit for a bit the sauce thickens up again.

At the end of the day, if you have no time for homemade sauce, store bought tomato sauce will do the job just fine too! 😉👌.

👍 How to Guide

How to Store

Store leftover mini beef meatballs in an airtight container with a lid. They can be kept in the fridge up to 3 days and are best reheated before being consumed.

How to Reheat

The microwave is your best option to reheat the meatballs. Place them on a plate with cling wrap and heat for 2 - 3 minutes until they are heated throughout.

Or if you are making the small meatballs as an appetizer for a party and have made them in advance, you can add them to the bowl of the slow cooker, turn the setting to warm and allow these to heat through prior to serving.

How to Freeze

You can make the meatballs and freeze them then reheat and serve them as needed.

Allow them to thaw completely before reheating.

Frozen meatballs can be kept for up to 3 months.

😉 Substitutions and Variations

Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:

• If you want to use lean ground beef you can or for something different ground pork.
• You can use regular bread crumbs (equivalent amount) if you wish to.
• Other great Italian seasoning that will work are dried basil or dried oregano.
• For a tiny little touch of heat in the meatballs, you can add ½ to 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Or the equivalent amount of red pepper flakes.
• If you like the idea of these, yet want to make a dinner out of them, you can use them in the Baked Meatballs in Sauce recipe.
• Or you can use them in the Baked Meatball Subs.
• If you are feeding a crowd make a big batch of these meatballs by doubling the recipe to cater to a larger number of eaters.
• Add them to your favorite pasta with marinara sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese for an easy dinner option!

💡 Tasty Tips

Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:

• If you don't have a mini cookie scoop you can use a teaspoon to portion the meat mixture out before rolling the meatballs.
• A slotted spoon is best to use when cooking the meatballs. This is so that when you lift the cooked meatballs up and out of the pan, you are not taking all of the oil which is needed to cook the remaining meatballs.
• Line a bowl with paper towel so that you can transfer the cooked meatballs into the bowl. This will also allow any excess moisture on the meatballs to be absorbed before you serve them.
• Provide toothpicks or skewers either in the meatballs or on the plate alongside the meatballs. This makes it easy for people to grab them and keeps everyone's fingers off the whole plate of them.
• You can also push the multiple meatballs onto small skewers as a serving idea if you want to serve a 'meatball stick'.

🤓 Frequently Asked Questions

How many mini meatballs per person?

A good portion size to plan for is 2 - 4 mini meatballs per person. This will allow you to make a big enough batch that they can be served as soon as guests arrive with enough to go around and feed the crowd.

What's the best way to stop meatballs falling apart?

Ensuring you use an egg to bind the meat mixture together is the best way to stop meatballs falling apart. The egg acts as the glue that sticks the remaining ingredients together.

How to make evenly sized meatballs?

The trick to making evenly sized meatballs is to use a mini cookie scoop. This will allow you to fill it with the meat mixture and then place these portions onto a chopped board. Once done you can roll the portions into meatballs.

😍 More Easy Snack Recipes

Whether it be game day, a street gathering, dinner party, the kids birthday party or a family get together, snack food will feed the crowd and then some.

Here are some more easy appetizer style recipes that will tick a lot of boxes:

• Roast Beef Sliders
• Crab Tartlets
• Cocktail Sausages
• Pork Mince Meatballs
• Wagyu Meatballs
• Rolled Sandwiches
• Mini Sausage Rolls
• Jalapeno Pinwheels
• Roast Beef Roll Ups
• Cheese and Bacon Pinwheels
• Prawn And Chorizo Skewers

It is time to get our party food on my friend. You can also find all of my appetizer recipes in the one fun filled spot!

Adrianne

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