Perfect Swedish Meatballs

The best homemade Swedish Meatballs with the most perfect sauce come from this easy recipe.

Ikea can’t compete with these! Perfectly seasoned pork and beef meatballs are smothered in a thin creamy gravy. This is the perfect comfort food that everyone will love.

Why this recipe works:

Isn’t it great when you make a recipe and your husband (or wife) and kids fight over it? That’s what happened when I made these. They are an easy and comforting beef dinner recipe.

• I also used half pork and half beef because that is the absolute best combination for a delicious meatball.
• There is a ton of creamy sauce so you can enjoy these over homemade pasta or mashed potatoes.
• the sauce starts with a roux and is finished with broth and cream. I chose to use heavy cream which still adds a ton of richness but keeps the sauce thin.
• The sauce also picks up a lot of flavoring from the meatballs because you cook the sauce in the same pan that you cooked the meatballs. A bit of added Worcestershire sauce along with Dijon mustard adds that zing to the recipe.

How to make them:

Making Swedish meatballs for dinner or even a heavy appetizer is really super easy to do.

1. The first step is to mix and form the meatballs. They are then browned in a skillet.
2. Once all of the meatballs have been cooked, transfer them to a plate and cover them with foil to keep them warm. Now it’s time to make your Swedish meatball sauce.
3. Start by making a roux by melting butter in the same pan you cooked the meatballs and adding some flour. Continually stir this mixture until it’s nice and fragrant.
4. At this point you’ll whisk in the beef broth and heavy cream, followed by the Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard. Once the sauce is done, add the meatballs to the sauce, let it simmer for a bit, and they’re done!

Cooking tips:

• The smaller your onion, the better the meatball, so don’t be afraid to break out the food processor unless you’ve got some mad knife skills.
• As with any recipe that calls for ground beef or ground pork, don’t over work the meat. Just mix the ingredients together well enough so that they are evenly mixed.
• Before you start cooking the meatballs, take the time to form all of the meatballs. It’s much easier to keep an eye on the meatballs that are cooking and constantly turn them to achieve even browning if you aren’t trying to multitask and form the remainder of your meatballs.
• Unless you have a crazy large skillet and burner, you’re going to need to cook these in batches. Don’t over crowd your pan. Your Swedish meatballs will brown perfectly if you give them enough space.

Serving recommendations:

• As I understand it, authentic traditional Swedish meatballs are most often served with mashed or boiled potatoes and lingonberry jam.
• Because we Americans can justify serving just about anything over pasta, that would be an obvious choice as well.
• I’ll have you know that I happened to have some caramelized onions leftover from a different recipe, so I added those along with a large handful of fresh baby arugula to the sauce and I think that combination was downright heavenly!

Related recipes:

Love meatballs? Me too. Then you’ll have to try these recipes:

• Swedish Meatball Pasta
• Meatballs that taste like Meatloaf
• Easy Teriyaki Meatballs with the best meatball sauce
• Mushroom Baked Meatball Recipe for sliders
• Pressure Cooker Cocktail Meatballs with the best meatball sauce
• Slow Cooker Meatballs can be made from my Meatball Parmesan recipe
• Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs
• Green Chile Baked Meatballs with Cheese Sauce
• Spaghetti and Meatballs