Oat oven meatballs

My mom has made oven meatballs many times over the years, including for family parties. I’ll have to share that recipe sometime. This is based on her amazing meatballs but slightly different. I just always have to mess with a good thing.

I scaled down her recipe to serve about 4 to 6 servings instead of about 8. She makes hers with bread crumbs and red onion. I swapped the bread crumbs for oats and left out the red onion. You can almost get the original recipe out of this. Here I am pulling back the velvet curtain on recipe development.

What I love about these meatballs is that they’re so juicy, but they get slightly crunchy on the bottom from the pan. Also, you must make them with the sweet and tangy barbecue sauce listed below. These meatballs would also go great with other sauces, such as marinara or teriyaki. I recommend serving them with rice or another grain.

If you’re making them for a party, I recommend shaping them smaller and keeping them in a slow cooker with the sauce to keep them warm.

The meatballs can be frozen without the sauce and the sauce can be refrigerated for up to a month.

Oat Oven Meatballs

Meatballs
1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup oats
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine all ingredients; mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape into 4 dozen small balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Place in 15-1/2×10-1/2×1-inch baking pan. Brown for 25 to 30 minutes.

Barbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons light molasses
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons water

Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.