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Easy Teriyaki Meatballs come together fast and make such an amazing meal with the delicious teriyaki sauce. They have a sweet and savory flavor from the teriyaki sauce coating a moist and tender meatball. I am confident this will become a family favorite at your house like it has in mine!
I always love meatballs, especially when I can throw them in my crock pot and have them cooking all day. The smell is amazing and fills the whole house! My favorite slow cooker meatball recipes are Cranberry Balsalmic Meatballs, Swedish Meatballs and Porcupine Meatballs.
Easy Teriyaki Meatballs:
My latest version of a classic meatball are these Teriyaki Meatballs. This recipe is so so yummy. The meatballs come together super fast and while those bake, you can prepare the sauce and cook the rice (I use Minute Rice) and broccoli. In less than 30 minutes total, you can have this super delicious dinner on the table. I highly recommend using a cookie scoop for the meatballs. It is so much easier and faster than trying to roll them by hand. Although, my girls beg to help me roll the balls usually, so we have fun with that!
The flavorful meatballs mixed with the sweet teriyaki sauce is a perfect pair. I like to make big batches of these and then freeze them so that I am always ready if company stops by. Or if my husband calls and says he is bringing a colleague home for dinner. Knowing I am prepared for extra mouths to feed helps me so much! I just pull out a bag of frozen broccoli, cook some rice and I’ve got a crowd pleasing meal ready to go in no time!
Ingredients for Easy Teriyaki Meatballs:
Meatballs:
- Ground beef:I find 85/15 works best
- Panko bread crumbs: My girls would be happy to know panko bread crumbs are made from bread with no crust! They can usually be found in the Asian foods isle, since they are a Japanese bread crumb.
- Dry minced onion: A great shortcut to a great savory taste.
- Egg: Binding ingredient
- Milk: Keeps the meatball moist.
- Ground ginger: Sweet and zesty with a hint of citrus flavor to balance the flavors.
- Salt: Salt brings out all the flavors.
- Ground black pepper: Just a pinch!
Teriyaki Sauce:
- Cold water: adds to the cornstarch to make it a little sticky.
- Packed light brown sugar: Adds sweetness to the sauce.
- Low-sodium soy sauce: Regular soy sauce will work, just reduce salt if needed.
- Garlic powder: It tastes sweeter and much less assertive than fresh garlic, but also without the caramelly undertones that you get from roasted or sautéd garlic
- Cornstarch: Thickens the teriyaki sauce and creates a slurry.
- Sesame oil: This oil has a nutty flavor that adds to this sauce perfectly!
Optional for Serving:
-
- chopped green onions for color and texture
- Cooked white or brown rice: Serve meatballs over rice
- Broccoli florets: There is just something about broccoli, rice, and teriyaki sauce that just pairs so well!
How to Make Teriyaki Meatballs:
- Preheat and Prep: Set oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan; set aside.
- Mix meatballs: To a large bowl, add ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, milk, ginger, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until just combined.
- Form balls: Use a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop and scoop meat mixture into balls and place in prepared pan. Or, rub a little oil on your hands and then roll the meat mixture into roughly 1-inch balls. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Makes around 35 meatballs.
- Prepare the teriyaki sauce: Pour all of the sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan. Whisk together until no lumps remain. Heat over medium heat until it thickens, whisking occasionally. This should only take 3-5 minutes.
- Coat meatballs in sauce: When meatballs are done baking, dunk them in the teriyaki sauce.
- Serve: I love to serve these over cooked rice, garnish with chopped green onions, and serve with broccoli florets on the side.
Tips for working with Meatballs:
- Storage: To store leftover teriyaki meatballs, wrap them in foil and refrigerate. Properly stored, cooked meatballs will last for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or 3 to 4 months in the freezer. Do not re-freeze after thawing. Only defrost the amount you want to eat.
- Sauce it up! Add an extra water and a cornstarch slurry to this sauce to make enough to coat these meatballs without making the sauce too overpowering. Or add less cornstarch if you like your sauce less thick.
- Service, please: Serve with toothpicks as an appetizer or as a main course with rice or mashed potatoes.
- Mix your meats: Add an equal part lean ground pork to the ground beef (1:1 ratio) for extra flavor and texture in the meatball.
- Keep your cool. To keep the fat from melting and breaking down before you cook the meatballs, so keep your meat and ingredients as cold as possible.
- Be gentle! Don’t press the meatballs together too hard. That will make them tough, rubbery, and chewy. Instead use an ice cream scoop to form uniform sizes and density.
More Meatball Recipes to Try:
- Meatloaf Meatballs
- Sweet and Sour Meatballs
- Easy Chipotle Honey Meatballs
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Creamy Cajun Chicken Meatballs
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Easy Teriyaki Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef 85/15 works best
- 2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 Tablespoon dry minced onion
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
Teriyaki Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cup cold water
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 Tbl. cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- For serving:
Optional Add Ons:
- chopped green onions
- cooked white or brown rice
- cooked broccoli florets
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan; set aside. To a large bowl, add ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, milk, ginger, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until just combined. Use a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop and scoop meat mixture into balls and place in prepared pan. Or, rub a little oil on your hands and then roll the meat mixture into roughly 1-inch balls. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Makes around 35 meatballs.
Teriyaki Sauce:
- To prepare the teriyaki sauce: Pour all of the sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan. Whisk together until no lumps remain. Heat over medium heat until it thickens, whisking occasionally. This should only take 3-5 minutes.
- When meatballs are done baking, dunk them in the teriyaki sauce and serve over cooked rice. Garnish with chopped green onions and serve with broccoli florets on the side.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you freeze before or after cooking?
You will want to freeze the meatballs after cooking. I would place them on a baking sheet in the freezer for about an hour (this will help them not stick together). After that, place them all in an airtight or ziplock bag and label it with the date. They should last about 2-3 months in the freezer.
Hello, I prefer fresh ginger. What is the ratio between dry and fresh?
Hello! For every 1/4 teaspoon of dry, ground ginger, you can use 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger.
I followed the recipe exactly and they were outstanding!! I’ve made them several times now. I’m wondering about freezing them, do I freeze them with the sauce or do I need to keep the sauce separate?
I would freeze the meatballs seperately and then make the sauce fresh when you are ready to eat them!
I wanted to leave a picture but couldn’t
We made this tonight and it was wonderful! I was worried about not having enough sauce so I doubled it and should not have lol. Have plenty of sauce now. Thanks for great recipe!
Just made this recipe, we followed it to a T, except used ground turkey. It was delicious. 2lbs of turkey was enough to make a sheet full of meatballs, we froze almost half of them and ate the rest for dinner and lunch the next day 🙂
I made this for dinner and it was super easy. Due to the heatwave, I placed the meatballs on a pie tin sprayed with Pam, covered it with foil and grill it outside for 20 minutes. The sauce is absolutely divine. My family LOVED it. This definitely will be added to our weekly meals.
This recipe was so easy and delicious. I served it over rice with oven roasted broccoli. Was a huge hit with the family. The following week I made the sauce but used chicken breast in place of the meatballs again serving over rice and having oven roasted green beans as a side. Again, a huge hit with the family. Love both and will be included in my monthly dinner rotation. The meatball version will be a covered dish option as well! Thank you.
If I leave the ginger out of the meatballs will that alter the flavor too much?
No, not too much! That is a safe ingredient to avoid.
Just tried these tonight, and whew. First of all, the sauce is to die for. I can think of plenty of reasons to make just the sauce and use it for all kinds of things. The meatballs have great flavor to them as well. Easily scale-able if you need to make a bunch for a party, or cut it in half if you’re just cooking for one or two. The best part? Super duper easy. Brilliant!
I made this tonight! Granted it was only the sauce. I found some batch-cooked meatballs in the freezer than needed to be used and thought of this website first. The sauce is stellar! Super easy, super tasty and not too sweet! Just right. It’s not a suave that needs babysitting either and I appreciate that. Because my meatballs were already cooked, I thawed them earlier today and then put them in the sauce to simmer for 20-30 mins to heat them through. Perfect!!! Printing this out and putting it in my Favorites Recipe Folder! ❤️❤️
Julia!
Oh this makes me so happy!! I am so glad that you loved it! Thanks so much for the comment and for following along with me!!