Easy Honey BBQ Meatballs
Sweet, tangy and smoky, these Honey BBQ Meatballs are easy to make and a sure crowd pleaser. Serve them as an appetizer or pile them onto a bun for a tasty sandwich!
The inspiration for these Honey BBQ Meatballs came from a couple different places. First, there was my homemade Cherry BBQ sauce. It was so good I wanted to use it everywhere!
And second there was a blogging friend’s meatball roundup that I had to pass on. Sadly, back then, I had not a single meatball recipe to contribute!
Yes, I know, how does a food blogger get to the age of bleep without making a meatball! Well that’s all fixed now!
Why You’ll Love This!
Tasty. Honey and BBQ is a great combo—and who doesn’t love meatballs!
Easy. Mix together a handful of ingredients and fry up the meatballs, then top with a 3-ingredient sauce. Easy-peasy!
Versatile. Meatballs are always a popular appetizer but these are also good as a tasty meatball sandwich!
What You’ll Need
Ingredient Notes
- Ground beef & pork. These provide the meaty goodness. You can use other ground meat combinations if you prefer, though it will change the flavor some.
- Bread crumbs. These help moisten and tenderize the meatballs.
- Dried minced onion. This adds flavor to the meatballs. You can substitute an equivalent amount of onion powder.
- Parmesan cheese. This adds flavor and richness.
- Egg. This helps the meatballs hold together.
- Garlic. This adds flavor to the meatballs.
- Salt. Salt serves as a flavor enhancer.
- Oil. For frying the meatballs.
- Honey. This provides the honey flavor in the sauce
- BBQ sauce. This provides the BBQ flavor in the sauce. I like to use my Cherry BBQ sauce, but feel free to use your favorite.
- Smoked paprika. This adds a nice smokey flavor to the BBQ sauce, but can be omitted if you don’t have it.
Special Tools
- No special tools required!
Step by Step Directions
Combine meatball ingredients until well mixed. Form into meatballs.
In a large frying pan, heat a thin layer of oil. Add meatballs and cook until browned on first side, about 4-5 minutes. Loosen meatballs if needed, then turn over. Cover and continue turning and heating until cooked through, about 5 more minutes. (You can confirm doneness with an instant read meat thermometer.).
Remove meatballs from pan and keep warm. Drain all but a tablespoon or two of fat, then add the honey to the pan with the meatballs to liquify. Deglaze the pan with the honey, scraping up any loose bits of crisp meat.
When the honey is bubbly, combine the smoked paprika (if using) and BBQ sauce then add to the pan. Stir until the sauce is blended. Add the meatballs back to the pan.
Serve warm.
How to Serve
Honey BBQ Meatballs make a perfect bite-sized appetizer. Serve them in the cooking pan or in a bowl with toothpicks on the side. And if you want to dress up a bit sprinkle with a little chopped parsley or green onions. Or to go low-waste, serve on a plate and insert a pretzel stick into each meatball, and skip the toothpicks.
Meatballs are versatile and will be welcome at many types of events from holiday party to summer picnic to Game Day!
While my main goal was to produce a tasty and fun appetizer, meatballs are also delicious served on a roll as a sandwich. You can use either a hamburger or hot dog/hoagie style roll for this. Serving dieters or younger kids? Use slider buns.
Consider topping your sandwich with a dollop of cole slaw for some extra nutrition. And serve a dish of extra BBQ sauce on the side so eaters can load it on if they’d like!
Variations
This recipes uses a combination of ground beef and pork. While I think it’s a good mix, if you don’t have or don’t eat one of these just substitute the other. I expect they’d be good made with ground turkey too! And here are some honey ginger and garlic pork meatballs.
Serving someone gluten free? Use the old keto bread crumb hack and grind up some fried pork rinds until they are bread crumb consistency and use these instead.
Now I should mention that over the years I have tried to make amends for my early meatball neglect! And so I have a couple other meatball recipes that I really like. These include my Low-Carb Swedish Meatballs and my Greek Meatballs in Egg Lemon Broth. All yum!
Leftovers
Refrigerate leftovers, sealed well and use within a few days. And if you’ve served these as party appetizers, consider eating the leftovers in sandwiches. You deserve an easy meal after a successful event!
Really a lot left? They should freeze well too.
Tips & FAQs
Natural honey will often turn into a solid if it’s been sitting around for a bit. But since good honey lasts practically forever (just keep it sealed so the ants don’t find it), don’t throw it out. Once it heats up, it will be soft enough to mix in with your BBQ sauce.
Now that I’m using smoked paprika more, I am absolutely in love with it. But if you don’t have any—or don’t like a hint of smoke, go ahead and leave it out. I do encourage you to try it however since it can really enhance flavor!
Honey BBQ Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese finely rated
- 1 egg
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced or pressed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For Frying
- 2 Tablespoons oil approximate
Sauce
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika optional
Instructions
- Combine meatball ingredients until well mixed. Form into meatballs.
- In a large frying pan, heat a thin layer of oil. Add meatballs and cook until browned on first side, about 4-5 minutes. Loosen meatballs if needed, then turn over. Cover and continue heating until cooked through, about 5 more minutes. (You can confirm doneness with an instant read meat thermometer.)
- Remove meatballs from pan and keep warm. Drain all but a tablespoon or two of fat, then add the honey to the pan with the meatballs to liquify. Deglaze the pan with the honey, scraping up any loose bits of crisp meat.
- When the honey is bubbly, combine the smoked paprika (if using) and BBQ sauce then add to the pan. Stir until the sauce is blended. Add the meatballs back to the pan.
- Serve warm.
Nutrition
Updated from original, published on April 19, 2018
I think your meatballs would be perfect as an appetizer.
I pretty much love any kind of meat ball! I’ve never had that with barbecue sauce… Something new to try this summer! (Well I’m not watching football!)
This has definitely swung me over to the meatball camp David. Can’t wait to try some more!
perfectly sticky and saucy! i’ve really come to love meatballs like this. 🙂
Yes, I don’t know what took me so long to try them!
This is so easy and tasked so great! I used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce-came out perfect.
Thanks Jack. I used a home-made BBQ sauce. Fo course a good sauce is critical 🙂
These sound so good. Excited to try these soon!
Hope you enjoy them Lynn!