The entire family will enjoy the hearty lunch of Swedish meatballs, which is customarily paired with boiled potatoes and lingonberry preserves.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine salt
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup plain bread crumbs
- ¼ cup milk
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 pound ground beef chuck
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 ¼ cups beef broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Make meatballs: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and salt in hot butter until onion turns translucent, about 6 minutes.
- Transfer onion mixture to a large bowl. Stir in eggs, bread crumbs, milk, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and cayenne. Mix in ground beef and pork until well combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Make gravy: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; whisk in flour and cook until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in beef broth. Increase heat to medium-high, whisk in cream, and bring to a simmer. Stir in sugar and Worcestershire. Simmer until slightly thickened, 6 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.
- Roll 2 to 3 tablespoons meatball mixture into a ball using wet hands; repeat with remaining meatball mixture. Place meatballs on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven until browned and cooked through, about 20 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
- Transfer meatballs to gravy and cook over medium-low heat until warmed through, about 5 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 479 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 10 g |
| Cholesterol | 194 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 17 g |
| Sodium | 1206 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 36 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These are great, but not as good as Chef John’s ricotta meatball recipe. That one is 5 stars. However, the browning of the meatballs in the oven from this recipe is a superiour technique – saves much hassle and the balls come out great. Also, the nice thick gravy in this recipe is fantastic, although I omit the cream when making the ricotta meatballs.
Haven’t made it yet but i know it will be great. To reviewer asking about quantity of Worchestershire sauce. He corrected ingredients to add 1/4 tsp to gravy. I compared other recipes and found some using up to 1 Tbsp for this size recipe. Can substitute soy sauce (low sodium?). Frankly, I’d split the difference on first batch (so 1-1/2 tsp)–I like it. Since it’s in the gravy, you can easily adjust. Probably need to cut back other salt to compensate.
I feed 3 of the pickiest eaters on the planet. Dinner time is a pain. The only change I made to this recipe is to keep everything separate so that everyone could pick and choose. This is the first gravy that hit our table that all three kids ate. (And I’ve made the KFC dupe that 2 of them wouldnt touch.) They want these meatballs used for spaghetti and meatballs. I’m here now to use this gravy for chicken and rice. This 1 recipe may have saved 4-5 of my dinner headaches. I can’t say thank you enough.
Riddle: What do you get when you mix 2 tbs butter with 3 tbs flour? NOTHING THAT CAN BE STIRRED. At THE END OF IT, THE ‘GRAVY’ WAS BROWN WATER. SHOULD HAVE READ THE REVIEWS FIRST.
I honestly had high hopes for this recipe but alas it fell flat…like pancake flat. The meatballs were so incredibly flavorless and the sauce was WAY to thin. Sorry Chef John, I REALLY wanted to love this! I didn’t give it 1 star because despite the way the sauce turned out, it did have good flavor
It was easy and it came out really good. I made it with egg noodles. Then I ran of that, and made it with fettuccine. It came out really good. I want to try mashed potatoes next.
Really good!
This recipe is excellent. The only thing I did differently was to simmer the sauce for much longer than the recipe calls for. It thickened up and came out perfect. I just leave the sauce on the stove for a couple hours while I’m doing other things and occasionally stir it. It’s worth the time, we love it!
No changes to the recipe. This was magnificent and easy. Next time I’ll likely use our ground venison and pork mixture, simply because I have it in the freezer.
I had trouble with the gravy, it turned out really thin but otherwise it was perfect!
This was very good. The 4 star rating is because the sauce did not thicken. I followed recipe and it didn’t become thick, I did an additional slurry ( before the meatballs were added) and it still did not become thick. Added meatballs simmered still not thick.
I made as written and the whole family thought it was delicious! Served with mashed potatoes and green beans.
These were DELICIOUS! I followed the recipe exactly as written. I served the meatballs and gravy over wide egg noodles. I did thicken the gravy before serving with cornstarch. The only change I will make next time is to decrease the salt in the meatballs to 1 tsp (instead of 1.5 tsp) as I thought they were a bit salty. My husband actually thought they were seasoned just right. I used my medium Pampered Chef scoop and the recipe yielded 30 meatballs. I froze half of them, after baking, and they will make for a quick meal one evening next week. Thanks Chef John, this is a keeper!
I found them to be rather bland. I would probably add more nutmeg, perhaps some garlic salt and do the same to the sauce.
I made this for my clients at a group home. It was a hit! Tasted like my Great Aunt Ann’s recipe! I’m making some tonight! Great flavor Chef John! Shared with my family and friends
These meatballs are absolutely sensational on top of being easy to make. I love swedish meatballs from IKEA but these blew them out of the water. We had them with buttered egg noodles and it was a great cold evening dinner. The only change I would make would be to increase the cayenne a little since we enjoy the heat. It might be nice to add some heat to the gravy too since it is so rich. This makes lots of meatballs and next time I will definitely freeze some. The husband confirmed we will definitely be having this again soon. Thanks, Chef John!
Easy recipe. I didn’t have any lingonberries laying around so I used cranberry sauce. I did add extra flour to the roux and ended up adding a cornstarch slurry at the end to get the gravy to thicken up. I would tweak the preparation a bit next time. I would let the raw meat mixture chill for 6 to 8 hours. I’d also cook the meatballs in an oven-proof frying pan so all the crispy bits are saved and just drain the grease and prepare the gravy in the same pan. The meatballs were even better the next day. My husband usually only takes leftovers once and then wants a “New Leftover” but this was one he kept going back for. High praise indeed from my husband.
The gravy should be brown, use a beef bouillon cube or some soy sauce to perk it up. Fresh Dill would be nice too. This dish is normally served with boiled potatoes alt. mashed potatoes, pickled beets, cucumber salad. Thank you for including the Lingonsylt !!!
Played around with the measured ingredients to make a little more sauce and punched it up with some Dijon. Kids and Scandi grandma loved it.
Meatball recipe is great. Perfectly seasoned. The gravy as-written is very runny and doesn’t coat the meatballs and egg noodles as desired. Would definitely thicken.
I thought it was bland. I even increased the worcestershire.