The other night, I had a craving for a glazed meatball recipe I made one time years ago. Problem was I couldn't remember for the life of me which of my cookbooks it came from.
After going through a dozen or so books, I gave up and just decided to wing it. NO REGRETS!
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These sticky, sweet, and spicy meatballs are also semi-inspired by a few recipes I've seen floating around Pinterest. Last summer I pinned a recipe from Rasa Malasia for sriracha honey chicken and it has now been re-pinned more than anything else I've ever pinned!
I gotta admit the thought of that combo of spicy sriracha with the sweetness of honey makes my mouth water every time. If you're into it too, you must try this sriracha salmon recipe. SO GOOD.
I was really pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to get this meal on the table. Easily doable on a weeknight.
But that said, if rolling 40 tiny meatballs sounds really tedious to you, feel free to make fewer bigger ones!
If you do make them bigger, I would consider baking them instead of pan frying, to make sure they cook through. A 450 F oven for about 15 minutes should do it for 20 1-inch meatballs.
To be honest though, rolling them took me about 10 minutes and I consider it time well spent because they were so CUTE!
How to Make Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Meatballs
- To make these meatballs, start by mixing up your ground meat with the breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, salt and pepper. I used healthy lean ground turkey, but you could use ground beef, pork or any other meat.
- Roll your tiny meatballs.
- Cook in a hot nonstick pan for a few minutes until cooked through, shaking the pan now and then to brown all sides.
- Put the meatballs aside and sauté some snow peas (they add nice crunch, but feel free to use other vegetables if you prefer, or just skip them).
- Sauté some garlic and ginger and stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients. Simmer until slightly thickened. Add the meatballs back to the pan and stir to coat. *Note: these are fairly spicy, so feel free to reduce the sriracha from 3 to 2 or even 1 tablespoon according to taste.
- Serve over rice noodles, rice, quinoa, or whatever you prefer. Alternatively, stick some toothpicks in them for a fun party appetizer!
Simple, healthy and super tasty!
Enjoy xx
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Honey Sriracha Meatballs with Rice Noodles
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb lean ground turkey
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola or vegetable oil
Vegtables
- 1 cup snow peas
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil or canola or vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons sriracha *see note!
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup honey
To Serve
- 8 oz rice vermicelli
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
Instructions
Meatballs
- In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, panko breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Using your hands, roll about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture into a ball and put it on a large plate. Repeat until you have about 40 small meatballs.
- In a large non stick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. When hot, place the meatballs in the pan and cook, shaking the pan every minute or so, until the meatballs are browned on all sides and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Do this in two batches if necessary. Remove the meatballs to a plate.
Vegetables and Sauce
- Put the empty meatball pan back on the stove over high heat, add a ½ tablespoon of oil, and quickly stir fry the snow peas (about 3-4 minutes). Remove to the plate with the meatballs.
- Lower the heat to medium and return the pan to the burner. Add a ½ tablespoon more oil, the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the sriracha, soy sauce, honey, and rice vinegar. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 5-8 minutes until slightly thickened.
Noodles
- While the sauce is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and add the noodles. Soak the noodles until tender (about 5 minutes), and drain. Set aside.
- Add the meatballs and vegetables back to the pan with the sauce and stir to coat. Serve the meatballs and vegetables on top of the rice noodles. Drizzle with extra sauce and sprinkle with green onions.
Anna
Just made these & used chili garlic sauce instead of sriracha because I was out, and OMG it was to die for. Thank you so much for such a fun new staple!
Ann
Chili garlic sauce is a great sub! I'm so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
KM
I love this recipe!!
But my question is for the nutritional info, I have just started to count my calories. How many meatballs is considered a serving size?
Thank you!!
Ann
It depends on how large you make them, but I usually make 40 little guys that are about 1/2 an inch in diameter, I'd say. In that case, 10 meatballs = 1 serving. However big you make them, a serving size is 1/4th of the recipe :). Hope that helps!
Heather Hennen
These are amazing! I used ground pork because that's what I had. Will be in the regular rotation!
Ann
Fantastic!! Thanks Heather 🙂
Kristine Barrett
Made this and absolutely loved it !!
Loved the meatballs. I will make these to go with spaghetti and sauce as well. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us !!
Ann
Fantastic Kristine! I'm so happy you loved them 🙂
Jessica
These are amazing! I have been making them for my meal prep. When I heated them up at lunch, a couple of my coworkers came sniffing around to see what I had. I ended up pointing them to your website for the recipe.
Ann
You are so sweet! That totally makes my day 😊
Angela
So good! Easy, fast and inexpensive. Kids loved it.
Ann
That is so great to hear!! Thank you!!
Jessica Rose
this is so delicious! made this for me and my boyfriend a while back and now i'm looking to make it again, but I was wondering what the nutritional info represented? is that for 1 serving out of 4 or is it for all 4 servings? thanks!
Ann
Ohh I’m so happy to hear that!! The nutrition info is for a single serving. So the whole recipe divided by 4 🙂
Danielle
Could you cook the meatballs in the air fryer?
Ann
I don’t see why not! 6-8 minutes at 400F should do it 🙂
Emily
I couldn’t find pure rice vinegar , I only found one that had a blend of brown sugar in it, will that be okay?
Ann
I’m sure that will be fine! You can always reduce the honey a bit if the vinegar seems very sweet.
Kristina
I made 16 meatballs to have 4 per serving for meal prep. Cooked in oven at 450 for just over 15 minutes. I just did the meatballs and sauce - the flavor is so good! Just like take-out, but better for you. I plan on eating with quinoa/rice and broccoli. Great and easy recipe! Thanks!
Ann
Awesome!! You’re right, they’re perfect for meal prep!
Kaitlin
This was truly excellent! I usually find “spicy” recipes to be a bit bland (but I LOVE spicy food so my taste buds are skewed) and this was truly sweet and spicy and so so good. I used bell peppers instead of snow peas but that’s because of the pandemic.
Ann
Yay!!! That makes me so happy Kaitlin! 😊
Katie
I have a great sweet and sour turkey meatball recipe that my family loves, but (this was a couple of weeks ago) I realized when I went to start dinner I was missing a main ingredient for the glaze. So I went on Pinterest and found your recipe and just made the sauce. Yum! Yum! My whole family loved it! So tonight I am making just the sauce to use in stir fry- smells great so far! Thanks for the recipe😊
Ann
I love that Katie!! Thanks so much for reporting back! 🙂
Mandi
SO TASTY!!! I only used 1.5 tablespoons of Sriracha which was plenty spicy for me.
Here is what I changed: I only cooked 1/2 of the meatballs but made the sauce as directed so I had extra. The sauce was a little watery so I added a slurry of 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tsp water to thicken it up. Once the meatballs were coated in the sweet and spicy yumminess I tossed them with stir fried bok choy stems, red onion and Lo Mein noodles (flavored with sesame oil and a few drops of fish sauce), using only a few spoonfulls of the meatball sauce to wet and spice up the noodles. It was ridiculous. I'll definitely make this again.
Ann
Awesome! Love those twists! 🙂
Dori
We loved this recipe! I wanted to save some calories and mess so I baked the meatballs while the rice was cooking. Then I tossed them in the sauce. The sauce was a little thin so next time I think I’d put the meatballs back in the oven for a couple minutes to thicken up. I also decreased the honey to 1 TB so that could have affected the consistency. Very good though and I will definitely make again.
Ann
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Dori!! 😊
Leta Maloley
I would however try 2 tablespoons of siracha next time!! Hot, hot
Ann
I'm so glad you liked them Leta! I just added a note about the spiciness, thanks for mentioning it. The sriracha can definitely be adjusted to taste 🙂
Adrienne
My boyfriend and I made this for dinner tonight and it was great! We didn't have snow peas but swapped it for zucchini and added white onion. No vermicilli either but had linguine rice noodles that worked just fine! Would definitely make again with snow peas 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Ann
So great to hear Adrienne! Thank you so much 🙂
Patty
Mouthwatering delish! That glaze is so tempting, I really must make your meatballs, I bet my family will devour them in seconds!
Danielle
We love Asian meatballs. Perfect with some noodles and pak choi for a healthy and comforting meal.
Natalie
These meatballs looks so delicious and the shiny glaze is so tempting! I have to try this recipe soon!
Colleen
I'm such a fan of meatballs, and also Asian flavours, so this recipe is calling my name! Thanks for sharing!
Marie
These meatballs look scrumptious! The sauce sounds amazing. I love anything sweet and spicy and it's a great idea to serve them with snow peas and noodles.
Ann
Thank you so much Marie!