Sweet & Sour Muffin Meatballs
I love when I find a good recipe. Better yet, I love when I find a good recipe that I can improve on 🙂 A while back, I wanted to make meatballs but not just regular plain meatballs – nothing boring. I came across Sweet & Sour Muffin Meat Loaves from myrecipes.com so I decided to try. The first time I made it, I wasn’t sure of the texture and it certainly did not have the colour I was hoping for. I tried again, taking notes on the changes I made and I never looked back. Instead of calling them meat loaves, I’ll say that these are awesome baked meatballs, full of flavour and a nice rich colour.
I wanted to serve it with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots but.. since the meatballs were super spectacular, I’d have to jazz up the company! This was such a great meal! It was different and comforting.
Sweet & Sour Muffin Meatballs, Carrots & Baked Potatoes
- 1½ lbs Ground Turkey
- 1 Cup Ketchup, divided into 2½ cup portions
- ¼ Cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- 1 Egg
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- ½ Cup Breadcrumbs
- 1 Tbsp Oregano
- 2 Tsp All Purpose Seasoning
- Salt & Pepper
- 4 Large Carrots, cleaned and chopped into ½ inch pieces
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 2 White Potatoes (or any kind you like suitable for baking)
- Olive Oil for the potatoes
- Preheat your oven to 450F
- In a saucepan, set carrots to boil about 20 minutes until soft. Drain and then mash with butter and maple syrup. Set aside.
- In an oven proof pan, grease the potatoes with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Pierce the potatoes with a sharp knife. Cook for 1 hr, until the skin is crispy and a knife goes through the skin with no resistance
- Grease a 12 Cup Muffin Pan
- In a 1 Cup measuring cup, mix ½ cup ketchup, brown sugar and vinegar
- In a medium bowl, combine ground turkey, egg, onion, breadcrumbs, soy sauce and remaining ketchup
- Add salt and pepper, combine well with a fork or better yet, your hands
- Add about a tablespoon of ketchup mixture to each muffin cup, reserving about half of the liquid
- Form the meat into 12 meatballs, as equal in size as possible
- Place in each muffin cup, pressing down to flatten the top slightly
- Bake for 30 minutes
- After 20 minutes, brush each muffin with the remaining ketchup mixture and continue baking until cooked through
- Remove from oven and allow to rest before carefully removing the meatballs.
- When the potato is cool to the touch, slice and serve
And here’s the fun part!
Add ketchup mixture into each muffin cup
Add each meatball on top of the ketchup mixture
After about 20 minutes, the meatballs will look something like this
Partially cooked meatballs
Brush the meatballs with the remaining sweet and sour mixture
Meatballs brushed with sauce
Pop them back in the oven for about 10 minutes or so. Your kitchen will smell marvellous. Don’t let your meatballs burn! Watch them carefully. Cover with foil if needed.
Sweet and Sour Meatballs - cooked!
I especially love the dark, caramelized sweetness of the meatballs and the sweet and sour sauce. I found that it paired well with the carrots and potato. Each component complimented each other quite nicely.
Dinner is served!
Take a bite!
Meatballs, Carrots and Baked Potato - Stacked
Seriously. I’m hungry.
Happy Monday, friends! ~ Lyn
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
Oh wow! This looks and sounds insanely good! Love the colors, wish I was having this for dinner tonight. Yum!
Aww thanks Lacy! Whats stopping you from having it for dinner tonight? There’s time! Go grab some ground turkey! 🙂
Hey Lyn! Could ground chicken mince be substituted for the turkey? I want to make this on the weekend.
Hi Nicky! Absolutely! Ground Chicken and Ground Turkey are very similar in taste and texture. However, Turkey is a leaner meat. Realistically I know it may not be available everywhere. Let me know how it goes 🙂
How incredibly innovative to make these in a muffin pan!
I don’t know about innovative – I just know I didn’t have to brown them in a skillet. It takes much longer that way 🙂
I love sweet & sour and I love muffins so this one is a winner for me all around!! Making it now as I’m typing this and loving the smell in my kitchen!! Pity I can’t eat any 🙁