Swedish Meatballs
Indulge in rich and savory Swedish Meatballs for dinner. These tender meatballs are smothered in an amazing tasting creamy gravy and served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
My family loves comfort food recipes and this is one of their most requested. You can prepare the meatballs ahead of time for a quick and easy weekday meal. This meatball recipe also makes a great appetizer to serve at your next party.
What are Swedish Meatballs?
Swedish Meatballs are a comforting, classic dish consisting of juicy ground beef meatballs smothered in a creamy gravy. The sauce is usually made with warm spices like allspice and nutmeg. My husband does not like allspice or nutmeg with ground beef so I like to flavor my sauce with a combination of Worcestershire sauce, beef stock or beef broth, dijon mustard, black pepper, and salt.
Tip
The key to making flavorful Swedish meatball sauce is scraping all the browned meatball bits off of the bottom of the skillet. Pan-frying in a cast iron skillet works perfectly for this. I use a combination of butter and olive oil when browning the meatballs because the olive oil helps prevent burning the butter. Burned butter will not make a great tasting sauce, so keep an eye on the heat while browning your meatballs!
How to make Swedish meatballs
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef, sautéed onion, garlic and oregano.
- Mix in salt, pepper, egg, and breadcrumbs.
- On medium heat, brown meatballs on all sides, carefully turning so they don’t break apart.
- Transfer meatballs to a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven while making your sauce.
- Add butter and flour to the pan to create a roux, then add in beef broth, cream, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard until sauce thickens.
- Add meatballs into sauce, cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste.
Substitutions
- Ground Beef – use a combination of ground beef and ground pork. You can even substitute ground turkey or chicken.
- Spices – add nutmeg or allspice for a more traditional Swedish Meatball recipe.
- Panko breadcrumbs – regular breadcrumbs, pieces of bread or saltine crackers.
- Substitute ground beef meatballs with this Turkey Meatball recipe.
What to serve with this recipe?
Serve Swedish Meatballs with broad leg noodles, rice, or this great tasting recipe for Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Top these juicy meatballs with different condiments such as classic Swedish lingonberry jam, cranberry sauce or mustard pickles
favorite recipes using ground beef
Budget friendly and versitile, ground beef is ideal for making so many family friendly meals.
Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano chopped or 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups beef broth warmed up
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine panko bread crumbs and milk. Let sit for 10 minutes until breadcrumbs have soaked up the milk.
- In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, sautéed onion, garlic and oregano.
- Mix in the salt, pepper and egg. Combine until the eggs are mixed into the ground beef.
- Add the breadcrumbs to meat mixture and combine well.
- Use a tablespoon or scoop to make equal sized meatballs. This recipe makes approximately 20 meatballs.
- Reheat the skillet used to sauté onions and garlic, adding a bit more olive oil and butter if needed.
- On medium heat, brown the meat balls on all sides, carefully turning so they don't break apart.
- Don't overcrowd the skillet with meatballs, work in batches.
- Transfer the meatballs to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you make the sauce.
- Add 4 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Once melted whisk in the flour and cook until golden brown.
- Slowly stir in the heated beef broth and cook at a temperature that keeps the sauce at slow bubble.
- Add in the cream, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard and simmer until sauce thickens at bit.
- Add the meatballs into sauce. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve over egg noodles, broad noodles or mashed potatoes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I just made these with my daughter. I can only describe them as manna from heaven. We tripled the recipe, in hopes of freezing some, but lets face it folks, we’re pigs, and they were that good, sadly they will not make it past the leftover stage! LOL. So if you’re thinking of making these, and dont have all the ingredients on hand, I say run, dont walk to the nearest grocery store, and be sure to buy extra because you want to double even triple this one!
what are you still doing here? I said RUN!!!!! GET!!! NOW!!!
Thank you for that wonderful comment, you sure made me laugh. So glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Making these tomorrow! Can’t wait! Will let you know how they turned out! 🙂
Great Shannon, I would love the feedback
I am going to make these this weekend. My 8 year old loves meatball anything!! We will have so much fun making these together! Thanks for the recipe~
This will be a great recipe to make together and your 8 year old will love eating his cooking with this recipe.
I made this last night and it was divine! I added some sautéed mushrooms and onions to the sauce as well! This was such a hit ! I couldn’t believe how tender the meatball was!
Awesome Madison, mushrooms and onions are a great addition!
Just made this! The sauce is just “saucalicious” is that a word? ….I mean just perfectly yummy for the meatballs!! I added some dill to the sauce and that made it even better! My kids loved it!! Thank you so much!
Nazia, love that saucalicious, describes this recipe very well!
I’m going to try this recipe. I love Beef Stroganoff. Have had Swedish Meatballs but only has an appetizer. Had a craving for Swedish Meatballs and have Sour Cream in the fridge.
Hi Caroline, I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as my family does.
Made this last night and followed the instructions all the way.. the entire family loved it! This will be a regular meal now.
Terrific Jamie, so glad you and your family enjoyed the recipe
So looking forward to trying this recipe out! I’m not a pork eater so I wanted to find a Swedish Meatball recipe without pork and this one looks like it is a winner. I’ve never made Swedish Meatballs before but have a little potluck at the end of our Bible study and was thinking what to bring…this just sounded yummy and perfect for the colder weather setting in. Thank you so much for the recipe…all all the helpful tips that others posted.
I’m planning on doubling the recipe for sure after that one comment 🙂
Okay, I made them tonight. I did refrigerate them first before cooking as one person suggested. Well, my refrigerator is tiny because I’m off grid, and it’s a propane refrigerator, but this time of year outside is my extra refrigerator….so I put them on a cookie sheet, two actually, wrapped them up and put them outside to chill them 🙂
They are pretty soft and fragile so the chilling and firming them up helps.
Okay, the sauce…wow is that rich! It is delicious, but when I make this again…I will probably use half and half rather than heavy cream. Also I wanted more of the mustard taste, so I kept adding more and more until I got the flavor I wanted, I also increased the Worcestershire sauce and added some white pepper. I didn’t have Dijon but I had a horseradish mustard which was is good flavor.
Thank you for the recipe!
The meatballs are a bit more delicate that the usual dense meatball recipes, but I think that’s what makes them so good. I haven’t chilled them myself before cooking but I will try that. Half and half should work well as a substitution, and perfect that you season to your liking. That is what cooking is all about. Thank you!
This recipe looks great! going to try it for thanksgiving, going to double the recipe by mixing 1lb of ground beed and 1 lb of sausagfe. I was thinking of doing this in the crockpot. I actually have a multicooker where I can brown/sear in the same pot and then change it over to slowcooking mode. Im thinking of searing the meatballs (not completely cooking), removing them. then making the sauce with tbe browned bits on the bottom, then add the meatballs back in. 2 hours covered on high, add the cream and heat another 30 minutes uncovered so the sauce thickens.. ..
Hi Alexis,
I have never tried this recipe in the crockpot and now sure how it would turn out. The one concern I would have is that the meatballs would fall apart doing this recipe in the slow cooker. I would give it a try ahead of time, so you don’t have a recipe that doesn’t turn out for Thanksgiving.
Hi Alexis! Just wondering how if you tried this recipe in a slow cooker and how it turned out??
Hi Randee, I have not tried this recipe in a slow cooker.
looks so delicious
Thanks so much.
This recipe is amazing. I doubled it and it is absolutely delicious. This will definitely be my go to recipe for now on. Thank you
Thank you so much Missy
I followed this recipe exactly (except for the Dijon Mustard because I didn’t have any) and it was AMAZING. My first ever attempt at meatballs, let alone Swedish meatballs, and I’m so glad I didn’t take a short cut and use cream of mushroom! This will be my go-to recipe and is going in the cookbook binder! You rock, Laureen!
Wonderful Kaitlyn, so glad you enjoy the recipe
Do you think half and half would work instead of heavy cream?
Hi Rebecca, yes half and half would work, but may not thicken up as much.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Jill, thanks for dropping me a note.
I made these meatballs about a month ago and they were absolutely delicious. Great as leftovers, also.
Thanks Pattie for dropping me a note, I really appreciate when people take the time to comment.
It might save some time to bake the meatballs wouldn’t it?
Made this tonight with brown rice noodles. So good. Only thing I changed was I used half and half and source am mixture to get the creamy sauce. I used an all natural beef broth paste which eliminated the need for Worcester and dijon. Thank you. This recipe was great!
Fantastic Stacy, so glad you tried the recipe
I just made this and it was really good. I followed recipe exactly. It was so good I had to run back to the store to get more meat to make another batch. 🙂
Thank you Lori for taking the time to drop a comment. So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
I’m going to cook this recipe later, has anyone tried it without the cream? Some of my friends are dairy intolerant.
Helen, I not sure what type of dairy substitute you could use because the cream is an important ingredient to making this dish taste as good as it is.
Tried the recipe tonight and it was great. Definitely a keeper.
Do you have a printer feature for your recipes? I can’t seem to find it
Hey Paul, its there, right under the small photo beside the recipe.
My Swedish Grandmother Maya always added allspice to her meatballs. I don’t think she used oregano.
Allspice is used in the authentic recipes I’ve found. But this recipe is my favorite!
Yes I have seen allspice in many recipes, but my husband is not a fan of allspice so I don’t add it. So glad you enjoyed the recipe Jennifer.
But they are not Swedish, sorry.
I’m Swedish and we use a equal parts beef, pork & veal mix for the meat. I will try this recipe, it sounds very tasty. My Greek husband will tell you that oregano improves everything. As for the non-Swedish aspect-we have our Christmas meatballs with a BBQ sauce that includes grape jelly. So there! Sounds kinda icky, definitely non-traditional, but very good and always a huge hit. Some of my family even prefer them without any sauce at all.
My grandmother used either nutmeg and allspice or just nutmeg. Definitely not oregano.
Grandma’s are the best cooks Danielle! Great thing about recipes, you can adapt them to suite your taste and sometimes just what you have on hand. I love the flavour of the meatballs in this recipe.
I made it once before using this recipe and it was great. Thinking of making it tonight, but I don’t have beef broth, do you think chicken broth might work as a replacement?
Hi Deidra, so for slow response, I was out all day. Chicken broth should work.
This looks so amazing!! I am so bummed I don’t have ground beef defrosted, but I will make this tomorrow. Awesome recipe! Thanks for posting!
Terrific Sarah, let me know when you make it.
These look very good and the picture is perfect. I love that it is also shown in a cast iron skillet, as that is how my mother made them for me every year for my birthday.
HOWEVER – this really shouldn’t be called Swedish Meatballs as the recipe, and the spices is not at all how Swedish meatballs are made. The only thing similar to the Swedish recipe is that it is in a creamy gravy.
Nonetheless, it looks like a good recipe for meatballs, regardless of not being a Swedish meatball.