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The Best Swedish Meatballs are smothered in the most amazing rich and creamy gravy. The meatballs are packed with such delicious flavor. Savory, comforting and smothered with a sauce that melts in your mouth. You will quickly agree these are the BEST you have ever had!
Serve these scrumptious vittles over buttered noodles or rice with a Caesar Salad, Fruit Salad and Rolls for a dinner to satisfy!
The Best Swedish Meatballs
Swedish meatballs have always been super delectable, and Ikea has made them popular. With this recipe you can make them in the comfort of your own home without the making an adventure to the store. And I dare say they are even better! Super easy to make you’ll be surprised you haven’t made them sooner. So what are you waiting for?!
The secret to these heavenly swedish delights is the unique spices of allspice and nutmeg. And then in the sauce you add worcestershire sauce and dijon mustard for tantalizing flavor. The combination is irresistibly the best meatballs ever!
Swedish Meatball Ingredients
There’s a list of ingredients here, but don’t stress, it’s super simple and totally worth it.
- Ground Beef: Regular ground beef
- Bread Crumbs:Â I used Panko
- Parsley: Freshly chopped
- Allspice and Nutmeg: Trust me, these spices are what make it uniquely delicious.
- Onion: Finely chopped
- Garlic Powder: Gives flavor without the bulk.
- Salt and Pepper To taste.
- Egg: The binder for the meatballs
- Olive Oil: To brown the meatballs in.
- Butter: Creates the perfect flavor while helping the beef brown, you’ll add more for the sauce.
- Flour: The thickener.
- Beef Broth: Creates the base for the sauce
- Heavy Cream: This creates the creamy velvety sauce.
- Worcestershire Sauce: Secret ingredient that creates a rich flavor.
- Dijon Mustard: Spice
Constructing these Swedish Vittles
These will come together quick and cook in about 30 min total, so dinner is quick.
- Mix: In medium sized bowl combine ground beef, panko, parsley, all spicee, nutmeg, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper and egg. Mix till combined.
- Roll: Roll into 12 large meatballs or 20 small meatballs. In a large skillet heat olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter.
- Brown: Add the meatballs and cook turning continuously until brown on each side and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
- Sauce: In the same skillet add 4 Tablespoons butter and flour and whisk till it turns brown. Slowly stir in beef broth and heavy cream. Add the worcestershire sauce and mustard and bring to a simmer till it starts to thicken.
- Simmer: Add the meatballs back to the skillet and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Tips and Variations
A few ideas to keep in mind for a dinner that’ll tickle the taste buds.
- Meat: You can use a combination of beef and pork for this recipe. Using pork add extra fat which will give a moist tender meatball. You can also use ground turkey, chicken or combination of meats.
- Spices:Â The nutmeg and allspice are unique to this swedish dish. Don’t leave them out if you want truly divine fare.
- Overmixing:Â Be Careful to not overmix the meat mixture or it can become tough.
- No Bread crumbs:Â You can get the same result by making a panade (bread and milk mixture) Use two pieces of bread and process till crumbs, add in 1/4 cup milk to create a paste. Add the egg and mix. Add to your meat mixture.
- Saute:Â For softer sweeter flavor to your onions saute them first.
- Bake:Â Brown the meatballs in the skillet in oil and butter. Then remove to a baking tray and finish cooking in the oven at 350 degrees F. till done. There shouldn’t be any pink.
- Cream:Â Do not substitute out the heavy cream for half and half, it could separate. You can also cut some of the cream for sour cream for a nice tang to the sauce.
Freezing and Storing
One of the best things about this recipe is I can double it and freeze some for another meal.
- Freeze:Â After cooking the meatballs transfer to a cookie sheet. Make sure they are not touching or they will freeze together. Freeze for 2-4 hours on the cookie sheet, then transfer to an airtight container or freezer bag. These will keep for up to 3 months. To thaw you can cook in the microwave,or oven. I like to partially cook them in the microwave and then finish heating them in the sauce.
- Don’t freeze the Sauce:Â Dairy, especially a sauce with heavy cream can sometimes separate when thawing and turn grainy. I don’t recommend it. Make the rich gravy fresh when ready to serve.
- Freezer to Pan: As long as you cook them through you can also freeze these raw and cook them in the pan the same way. They will take longer to cook through however. This is a great way for your meatballs to keep their shape. Frozen will hold up better than fresh. Just be sure to cook till no longer pink.
More Meatball Loving Recipes
Meatballs are just fun to eat and the flavors in these recipes are spot on!
- Saucy Asian Meatballs
- Easy, Delicious Porcupine Meatballs
- Chipotle Honey Meatballs
- Creamy Cajun Chicken Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Cranberry Balsamic Meatballs
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Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup onion finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- â…› teaspoon Pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 5 tbsp. butter
- 3 tbsp. flour
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl combine ground beef, panko, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, onion, garlic powder, pepper, salt and egg. Mix until combined.
- Roll into 12 large meatballs or 20 small meatballs. In a large skillet heat olive oil and 1 Tablespoon butter. Add the meatballs and cook turning continuously until brown on each side and cooked throughout. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
- Add 4 Tablespoons butter and flour to skillet and whisk until it turns brown. Slowly stir in beef broth and heavy cream. Add worchestershire sauce and dijon mustard and bring to a simmer until sauce starts to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the meatballs back to the skillet and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Serve over egg noodles or rice.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made the meatballs and my daughter made the sauce. She added baby bella mushrooms to the sauce.She did sauté the mushrooms after I cooked the meatballs. This was served with small egg noodles and was delicious!!.We will definitely cook this again
Love this recipe. Heading to Swedish midsummer this weekend and I will make the meatballs ahead and freeze them. Is it ok to freeze the sauce or do you think it’s better to make the sauce on the day? I will double the recipe as I have 10 to feed.
It is best to make the sauce 2 to 3 days ahead rather than freezing.
This was amazing. I have wanted to make Swedish meatballs and was often intimidated by other recipes, until I found yours. My 5 kids, 8 years and under gobbled this right up. Next time, I’ll have to double the recipe so we can have it for leftovers!
This recipe is fabulous! I had some ground pork to use up so I did a beef and pork mixture. I’m also Gluten Free so I subbed almond flour for panko in the meatballs and GF flour for the gravy. Highly recommend!!
I made this tonight with a couple of tweaks. I used pre-made meatballs & I used half & half instead of heavy cream (saves 500 calories). It was really good!
Great recipe! My brother and I made this yesterday and didnt have allspice, Panko breadcrumbs or cream so left out the allspice, used regular breadcrumbs and milk. Still amazing! Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe!
Delicious and easy to make. I like where you can change the serving size, it’s hard cooking for just one person. This is something I will make again and it is going into the family cookbook.
This was one of my favorite dishes my mother would make when I was a kid. I don’t know what recipe she used but this one brought back fond memories! Thank you! My family loved it and I am now a culinary god! It will definitely be added to our book of recipes.
I’ll have to admit that I was in a hurry and used store bought frozen meatballs. I was a bit worried it might not turn out good but the sauce was unbelievable so it didn’t matter. Next time I’ll follow the recipe completely and see if it turns out even better.
Excuse me,
can i use chicken broth instead of beef broth?
Please advice
Yes, that will work great. Thanks for trying one of my recipes!
I made this tonight and the meatballs and sauce were amazing…. I served it over rice and was truly disappointed because it took away from the flavour of the sauce and made it seem bland to me. Cant wait to try it again with mashed potatoes lol
Such a delicious recipe. Will be making it again
Best Swedish Meatballs ever. The creamy sauce is just delicious
For those who are lactose intolerant, you can get lactose free half and half. While not as rich as cream, it does better than milk.
So good, even my Swedish grandma would approve, just don’t tell her I used ground turkey. Since I was using turkey, also used extra panko to get them to hold together. Didn’t have heavy cream, but less milk, plus a bit of cream cheese worked great. Kiddo claimed they were better than grandma’s and Ikea.
I am looking Forward to trying this recipe
Yum! These were so good! I will definitely be saving this recipe for the next time I make them. Thanks for sharing!
Not sure what happened to this but we really disliked the sauce. Meatballs were fabulous and I would definitely make those again but the sauce was terribly bland. We added extra salt, pepper, Worcestershire, hot sauce, smoked paprika, and HP sauce. Nothing really helped and I am a seasoned cook who followed the recipe exactly. What saved it for us was adding cranberry sauce on the side. It added a brightness that just seemed to be lacking. I’ll have to research other sauce alternatives before making this again.
Amazing recipe! I’ve followed some before where there was a little to much Dijon Mustard, but not this one it was perfect!