Elevate your meatball game with these Swedish meatballs! Toss aside the frying pan and let the oven work its magic, delivering juicy, perfectly seasoned bites that redefine comfort food. Simple, delicious, and sure to become your new go-to recipe!
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Welcome to the ultimate Swedish meatball experience, where comfort food meets easy weeknight cooking. If you’ve ever found yourself shying away from meatballs because you don’t want to get the frying pan out, we’re about to rock your world. Juicy meatballs, perfectly seasoned with classic, comforting, Swedish meatballs spices, all done in the oven, and all no-fuss.
These baked meatballs are here to simplify the dinner game – the oven does the heavy lifting – while still allowing you to deliver on flavor.
Looking for more easy meatball recipes? We’ve got you. These turkey meatballs are as classic as it gets, these Moroccan-inspired meatballs are an absolute showstopper of a meal, and these buffalo chicken meatballs are perfect for game days and gatherings alike.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s easy – though this recipe may look involved (it’s served with a gravy, after all), rest assured that it isn’t. The meatballs are baked (so all you have to do is mix, roll, then stick ’em in the oven), and the gravy is super simple to pull together.
- It’s big on flavor – if you’ve never tried Swedish meatballs, let me tell you, you are IN FOR A TREAT. With garlic, onion powder, cinnamon, allspice, and ground cloves in the ingredient lineup, you know they’re bound to be big on flavor.
Recipe Ingredients
These meatballs get their bold flavor from an assortment of spices and seasonings used. I’d be willing you bet you have almost all of them in your spice cabinet already, though! Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Ground pork – this recipe calls for ground pork, but you can absolutely use ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, or a mix of ground beef and ground pork. Either way, you’ll need about 1½ pounds.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Make it gluten-free – use a gluten-free all-purpose flour instead of regular all-purpose to make this recipe gluten-free (this is what we did!).
How to Make Swedish Meatballs
As mentioned above, this recipe is a cinch to pull together. You’ll start by mixing up the meatball ingredients, then rolling the meatballs, and finally, baking them. While they bake, you’ll make the gravy. Follow along below for the full how-to.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the ground pork, parsley, bread crumbs, garlic, olive oil, onion powder, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves, and egg to a large bowl.
Step 2: Use your hands to mix up the meatball mixture until it has an even consistency.
Step 3: Form the meat mixture into 1-inch balls using your hands or a 1 tablespoon scoop, and place the meatballs on the lined baking sheet. Bake for 18 minutes, or until slightly browned.
Step 4: While the meatballs bake, make the gravy. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the flour and whisk to combine.
Step 5: While whisking continuously, slowly pour in the broth and whisk to combine. Bring the gravy to a simmer, then stir in the cream, salt, and pepper, and reduce the heat to low to keep the gravy warm.
Step 6: Pour the gravy over the meatballs, serve with mashed potatoes, garnish wish parsley, and enjoy!
Recipe Tip
Keep things super simple by making our Instant Pot mashed potatoes to accompany the meatballs. This will allow you to have one less pan on the stove to keep track of!
How to Serve
Serve the meatballs on a bed of mashed potatoes, topped with gravy and extra parsley (if you wish). If you’re looking for a veggie side to accompany your meal, we suggest our oven roasted green beans.
How to Store and Reheat
Store any leftover meatballs in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
To reheat, simply pop a serving in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or heat in a skillet over medium heat for 7-10 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can definitely freeze your Swedish meatballs! To do this, simply cook them all the way through, let them cool completely (on the sheet pan), then stick them in the freezer (also on the sheet pan) for 1-2 hours, until frozen. Once completely frozen, transfer the meatballs from the sheet pan to a large bag or airtight container and store them in the freezer. Freezing them on the sheet pan first helps the meatballs to not freeze in one big clump.
Yes, you can absolutely make your meatballs ahead of time. Simply store them in the fridge until you’re ready to enjoy them, then either reheat them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, in a skillet for 7-10 minutes, or in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
More Favorite Meatball Recipes
If you tried these Swedish Meatballs or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Delicious Baked Swedish Meatball Recipe
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1½ pounds ground pork
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 large egg
For the Gravy
- 2 tablespoons salted butter or ghee
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400℉. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Work the seasonings into the meat with your hands until the mixture has an even consistency.
- Form the meat mixture into 1-inch balls using your hands, or 1 tablespoon scoop. Place the meatballs on the lined baking sheet. Bake for 18 minutes, or until slightly browned.
- While the meatballs bake, make the gravy. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the flour and whisk to combine. While whisking continuously, slowly pour in the broth and whisk to combine. Bring the gravy to a simmer, then stir in the cream, salt, and pepper and reduce heat to low to keep the gravy warm.
- Pour the gravy over the meatballs, serve with mashed potatoes, and enjoy!
Nutrition
Made these tonight and it was delicious. The meatballs have great flavor and the chicken stock gravy is so homey and comforting. Got rave reviews from my husband.
Yay! We are so happy y’all loved it, Bea!
We made these tonight to pair with our leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes and they were ON POINT. The spices made for a really nice fall flavor and was the perfect way to use up these leftover taters with a flavor spin that wasn’t post-Thanksgiving-leftover-overkill. Thank you!
What an amazing idea!!!! We are so happy you loved them!!