Kirbie's Cravings

Honey Garlic Meatballs

These easy baked meatballs are coated in a delicious honey garlic sauce. This honey garlic meatball recipe is great as an appetizer, main dish, or for your weekly meal prep.

overhead photo of Honey Garlic Meatballs

Lately I’ve been obsessed with meatballs. Especially meatballs covered in a sticky glaze. These turkey meatballs are covered in my honey garlic sauce, which gives the meatballs so much flavor. It’s all about the sauce! I couldn’t stop eating them.

I used to make meatballs all the time but for some reason I stopped. And now I don’t know why. Homemade meatballs are so easy to make and you can mix and match different ground meats to change things up. I usually do pork, chicken or turkey.

close-up photo of Honey Garlic Meatballs

Meatball Ingredients

  • Ground turkey: Or you can use ground beef, ground pork, or ground chicken.
  • Seasonings: Garlic powder and onion powder flavor the meatballs.
  • Plain bread crumbs
  • Large egg
  • Green onions: Or you can use finely chopped yellow or white onions.
  • White sesame seeds
  • Honey

Meatball shortcut: You can also use frozen meatballs for this recipe to save time. Just make the sauce and then simmer them in it until they are heated up.

Sauce Ingredients

  • Honey
  • Garlic
  • Onion powder
  • Cornstarch slurry (water mixed with cornstarch) to thicken the sauce
  • Low-sodium soy sauce
  • Sriracha sauce

Recipe Tips

  • The sauce recipe yields enough sauce to coat all the meatballs and have some leftover to mix with rice or for another half batch of meatballs.
  • The honey garlic sauce is sweet with a little bit of spice and savoriness. If you prefer a less sweet sauce, you can reduce the amount of honey.
  • The sweetness of the sauce is balanced by the onion powder, garlic, soy sauce and sriracha. If you plan on leaving any of those ingredients out, you will need to adjust the honey as well so that it is not too sweet.
  • I used low sodium soy sauce. If you wish for a darker glaze or a less sweet sauce, you can use regular soy sauce.
  • The meatballs here are made with lean ground turkey. You can also substitute with ground pork, chicken or beef. Cooking time may need to be adjusted if you use a different meat.
  • I use this 1 ½ tbsp cookie scoop*to portion out the meatballs.

photo of honey being drizzled on meatballs

More Easy Recipes to Try

*This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

Honey Garlic Meatballs

Servings: 20 meatballs
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Easy baked meatballs coated in a flavorful honey garlic sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lean ground turkey
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ cup plain bread crumbs
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 green onions thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp white sesame seeds

FOR THE SAUCE

  • 6 tbsp honey
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 6 tbsp water + 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
  • In a large bowl, add turkey, garlic powder, onion powder, breadcrumbs and egg. Stir and mix until everything is evenly mixed.
  • Scoop 1 ½ tbsp of meatball mixture. Use hands to roll and shape into a ball. Place onto baking sheet. Repeat with remaining meat, spacing balls about 1/2 inch apart.
  • Bake meatballs for about 20-23 minutes or until fully cooked.
  • While meatballs are cooking, prepare the sauce. Add all sauce ingredients except water + cornstarch into a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce is slightly reduced. In a small bowl, completely dissolve 2 tsp of cornstarch into 6 tbsp of water. Add to sauce mixture and stir immediately so that the cornstarch does not cook and clump up. Gradually bring sauce to a simmer again and cook until sauce is thickened. This should only take a few minutes.
  • Using a pastry brush, brush meatballs with sauce. Let some of the sauce absorb and then coat them a second time. Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.

Notes

Recipe Tips

  • The sauce recipe yields enough sauce to coat all the meatballs and have some leftover to mix with rice or for another half batch of meatballs.
  • The honey garlic sauce is sweet with a little bit of spice and savoriness. If you prefer a less sweet sauce, you can reduce the amount of honey.
  • The sweetness of the sauce is balanced by the onion powder, garlic, soy sauce and sriracha. If you plan on leaving any of those ingredients out, you will need to adjust the honey as well so that it is not too sweet.
  • I used low sodium soy sauce. If you wish for a darker glaze or a less sweet sauce, you can use regular soy sauce.
  • The meatballs here are made with lean ground turkey. You can also substitute with ground pork, chicken or beef. Cooking time may need to be adjusted if you use a different meat.
  • I use this 1 ½ tbsp cookie scoop* to portion out the meatballs.
Some of the product links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).

Nutrition

Serving: 2meatballs, Calories: 162kcal, Carbohydrates: 20.1g, Protein: 10.8g, Fat: 4.6g, Saturated Fat: 1.2g, Sodium: 165.9mg, Fiber: 0.6g, Sugar: 10.9g, NET CARBS: 20

The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.

Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!
Honey Garlic Meatballs

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