Easy Meatball Recipe

With just a handful of ingredients, this Easy Meatball Recipe makes the best juicy Italian meatballs. Simply flavored with Italian seasoning and parsley, these meatballs are perfect for meatball subs, spaghetti dinners, and more.

The Best Easy Meatball Recipe

There’s nothing quite like spaghetti and homemade meatballs or a meatball sub with some homemade marinara sauce and meatballs. And now, with this easy meatball recipe, you can make these classic, juicy Italian meatballs at home – in the time it would take you to drive to the store to buy the frozen version!

These homemade meatballs are made with beef, breadcrumbs, parmesan, and just a few seasonings. The parmesan, Italian seasoning, and Italian parsley give them the classic Italian flavor, that makes them pair so perfectly with spaghetti and marinara sauce. But you can easily adjust the seasonings and use these meatballs in almost any recipe under the sun.

Bonus? These beef meatballs freeze super well!

What You’ll Need

These homemade meatballs require just 4 ingredients, plus a handful of spices and seasonings.

• Ground beef – Choose fairly lean ground beef, like 80/20.
• Egg – Helps hold everything together.
• Breadcrumbs – Add some texture and helps bind the meat.
• Parmesan – Freshly grated parmesan will melt best.
• Seasonings – I used a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper, and some fresh Italian parsley to add flavor to this meatball recipe.

Can I Use Different Ground Meat?

While I opted for just ground beef in my meatballs, you can easily do a 50/50 blend of ground beef and ground pork for more flavor or even use this recipe to make ground turkey or chicken meatballs. Veal, lamb, and sausage are other options as well. Just note that if it’s very lean meat, like lean ground turkey, you may want to add a bit of fat in the form of olive oil.

How to Make Homemade Meatballs

When I say this is an easy meatball recipe, I mean it!

• Combine the ingredients. Mix the ingredients until well combined. I’ve found a wooden spoon and my hands work best.

• Bake. Use a cookie scoop to form the mixture into balls. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, turning halfway.
• Serve. Serve with spaghetti and marinara sauce or in other recipes and enjoy!

Tips & Variations

Here are a few tips and tricks to making the best homemade meatballs.

• Use a cookie scoop. It’s important that all of the meatballs are the same size, so they cook evenly. I like to use a cookie scoop as it shapes the dough while also ensuring they’re all the same size.
• Don’t overmix. Work the ingredients until just combined but not much more. The more you mix the meat, the less tender it will be.
• Switch up the seasonings. The seasonings I used are typical in Italian meatballs and perfect for spaghetti and meatballs. However, you can easily adjust the seasonings to whatever you desire, depending on how you’re going to use the meatballs.
• What if the mixture feels dry? As long as you’re using meat that’s not TOO lean (80% lean is perfect), this shouldn’t be an issue. But if needed, you can add either olive oil or milk to moisten the mixture.

Serving Suggestions

Oh, there are so many ways to enjoy these beef meatballs! Our favorite is to toss them with marinara sauce then add to some bread with melted cheese to make the most amazing meatball sub.

But, of course, you can’t go wrong with a classic spaghetti and meatballs dinner either.

Other ways to use these meatballs include making Swedish meatballs, BBQ pineapple meatballs, grape jelly meatballs, or pretty much any recipe that calls for frozen meatballs. That’s one of the reasons I highly recommend always having some of these in your freezer!

Can You Freeze Homemade Meatballs?

Yes, these freeze so well! Once they’ve cooled, freeze them on a baking sheet in a single layer. Once frozen, transfer to a ziploc bag or container. They’ll last for several months.

You can either thaw overnight in the fridge or reheat from frozen in the slow cooker.

More Meatball Recipes:

• Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Swedish Meatballs
• Sweet and Sour Meatballs
• Instant Pot Asian Meatballs