Friday, January 27, 2012

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

I have been wanting to start a blog for a long time. Didn't get the gumption up until recently, when I made Sweet and Sour Meatballs when we had some friends over the other night. I wanted to "pin" this recipe to share with others, but there was no picture, hence the new blog post!

This was a favorite family recipe, but I didn't have the recipe handy. Dug up one from Cooks.com and modified it a bit so I could put my yummy little meatballs in the Crockpot. These guys turned out just how I remembered them. The sauce is made, oddly enough, with a mixture of grape jelly and Heinz chili sauce. Sounds kind of weird, but trust me on this one.

One modification that I made to the recipe was that I used half a pound of ground turkey and half a pound of natural ground pork. I am not a huge beef fan, but I often find straight turkey meatballs unsatisfying. The half and half combo worked really well! The recipe called these "cocktail meatballs," but we served these as our entree with homemade double baked potatoes and a nice salad. It would be an excellent appetizer as well, but I would probably double the recipe.

Forgot to take a picture of them when I had the whole bunch done, but here are a few of the leftovers.


Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Serves four


1 lb. ground meat- I did half pork and half turkey
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 tsp. chopped parsley
1/4 onion
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. pepper

SAUCE:
1 (12 oz.) bottle Heinz chili sauce
1 (10 oz.) jar grape jelly
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. soy sauce

Put sauce ingredients in the crock pot on low. Plan to let the sauce sit for about an half an hour before you put the meatballs in so everything has time to meld together. Meanwhile, mix the meatball ingredients together with your hands and make medium size balls and put them on greased cookie trays. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

When the sauce has melded together, toss in your meatballs. Stir every half hour or so til you serve them. I left them to sit for about two hours before serving so they had time to soak up the sauce. 


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