Every time I make homemade meatballs, I can’t help but hum a song that I learned way back in elementary school. It was about someone who sneezed during dinner and their poor little meatball rolled off the table and right out the front door. Dumb, I know but I loved that song!
These bourbon-y, sweet and spicy meatballs are nothing to sneeze at, but, feel free to sing the song anyway! Monday is national meatball day and these little bites are perfect for sharing.
If you’re short on time, skip the homemade meatballs and pick up a bag or two of the frozen ones. It takes just a few minutes to make the glaze and it’s totally worth it!
Bourbon and Honey Glazed Meatballs
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 40 Meatballs 1x
- Category: Appetizer
Ingredients
- Meatballs
- 2 pounds lean (at least 80%) ground beef
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- Bourbon and Honey Glaze
- 1/2 small onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup bourbon
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper; place wire rack in the pan.
- In a large bowl, mix beef, Sriracha, soy sauce, garlic, salt and onion powder. Shape mixture into 40 balls (about 1 level measuring tablespoon each) and place on the rack. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until 160°F.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring sauce ingredients to a simmer. Cook 8 to 10 minutes or until thickened. Toss meatballs in sauce until well coated. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 Meatballs
- Calories: 117
- Sugar: 10g
- Sodium: 359mg
- Fat: 2g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 11g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 10g
- Cholesterol: 28mg
What’s your favorite meatball recipe?
Here are a couple other tasty recipes to try…
Baked Orange Chicken Meatballs from Just a Taste
Turkey Sriracha Meatballs from Budget Bytes
Chicken Quinoa Meatballs from Chez Us
I love meatballs, and we do not make them enough. These sound amazing, and the fact that you added bourbon, well, I am in! Thanks for sharing our Quinoa Chicken Meatballs – they are so good. Happy Monday to you!
Thanks! I always forget how easy meatballs are to make. Your quinoa chicken meatballs have been a hit at our house!
These meatballs look so perfect! The boozy honey glaze sounds fantastic! Gotta try these! Pinned.
Thanks! The bourbon honey glaze would be good on anything actually! I might even try it on chicken!
I made this last night for a cookout at a friends house. I made everything exactly as it was written on the recipe. I kept feeling like I was missing something in the recipe and had yet to find what it was, I was just craving to taste that pop of flavor and I never did. 🙁
I will say though that the garlic content was very strong smelling, almost to much in the bourbon sauce. I don’t know if it’s a recipe I’ll add to my recipe book but it was nice to try something new.
Hi Ariel, thanks for trying the recipe! I appreciate your comments and have checked to see if something was missing in the recipe but it doesn’t look like it. When we make them, I sometimes skip the homemade meatballs and start with purchased which have a very mild flavor, so the sauce is pretty heavily flavored. These wings might be a fun recipe to try next time… Bourbon and Honey Baked Chicken Wings