My family absolutely loves this recipe for Swedish Meatballs! It is one of their favourite meals and I’m sure it will become one of your family’s favourites as well. Serve Swedish Meatballs with broad egg noodles, rice, or even this great tasting recipe for Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
The key to making the sensational sauce is scraping all the browned meatball bits off the bottom of the skillet after frying the meatballs. I use a combination of butter and olive oil when browning the meatballs, 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! Serve with egg noodles or even mashed potatoes and you’ve got a recipe the family will be asking you to make often!
Meatballs covered in a rich, creamy sauce! Whats not to love about that!
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 tbsp fresh oregano chopped or 1 tsp. dry oregano
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 cups beef broth warmed up
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- In small bowl combine panko bread crumbs and milk. Let sit for 10 minutes until bread crumbs have soaked up milk.
- In large skillet heat 1 tbsp. olive oil with 1 tbsp. butter, medium heat.
- Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes, add garlic and oregano and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.
- In large bowl, combine ground beef sautéed onion, garlic and oregano.
- Mix in salt, pepper and egg, combine until egg is mixed in.
- Add bread crumbs to meat mixture and combine well.
- Use a tablespoon or scoop to make equal sized meatballs. Recipe makes approximately 20.
- Reheat skillet used to sauté onions and garlic, adding a bit more olive oil and butter if needed.
- On medium heat, brown meat balls on all sides, carefully turning so they don't break apart.
- Don't overcrowd skillet with meatballs, work in batches.
- Transfer meatballs to baking sheet and keep warm in oven while making sauce.
- Add 4 tbsp. butter to skillet, when melted whisk in flour, cook until golden brown.
- Slowly stir in heated beef broth, cook at temperature that keeps sauce at slow bubble.
- Add in cream, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard, simmer until sauce thickens at bit.
- Add meatballs into sauce, cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste.
- Serve with egg or broad noodles or mashed potatoes.
Video
Nutrition
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I have made these meatballs several times, and the only thing I changed was I used 50 percent beef, and 50 percent ground pork. These meatballs are so tender and flavorful. I am so glad that I tried this recipe. I make it at least once a month.
Made these tonight for dinner. O.M.G. best meatballs ever!!
I just made these for dinner and my brother and I devoured them! They were so delicious. We did use ground turkey instead of ground beef and they were still just as juicy and tender! I also paired it with oven-roasted sweet potatoes and it was perfect! Great recipe, and easy-to-follow directions.
Thank you Maria, Ground turkey is a great substitution and I bet it tasted great with sweet potatoes!
I just made these on Monday – went back today to print the recipe and it has changed?? I’m not seeing Allspice and nutmeg and the Worcestershire sauce was 1 Tbsp not 1/2…am I missing something??
Hi Mommadubs, I have a feeling you were looking at a different recipe, because mine has not changed since I 1st posted it. Do you have a link or the photo, maybe I can help you find the recipe you originally looked at.
Just made it tonight , the Hubster and I loved it. Thank you!
Made these last night and we all enjoyed them! My boys loved the gravy and I liked that their was enough gravy to go over our mashed potatoes as well. Will definitely make again and again!
Fantastic your family enjoyed it! I love this recipe with mashed potatoes!
Thank you so much for this recipe! My dad would’ve been so proud!
Hi Lauren,
Whatever people calls it, the name doesnt matter, it is the taste of the food that matters. The outcome really👌👌👌
My thoughts exactly Beth.
This was amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. Loved the sauce especially.
Thank you Saunny, the sauce is my favourite, love this recipe with mashed potatoes as well as pasta.
Made this over the weekend and we both loved it. Next time I’ll put more garlic and onions but that is just a personal thing for us. Great recipe and it tasted good as leftovers the next night. Just let the sauce warm up really slowly and steamed the pasta in a double broiler. Thanks so much.
thanks Sam, glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I just made this exactly as listed. It is fantastic!!!
thanks so much Lori for leaving a comment, Glad you enjoyed the recipe
this is such a great recipe and I think is even better than IKEA’s ones. Thank you!!
Thank you so much Nerissa
This is the fourth time that I have made this recipe. My family loves it!
Wonderful Lisa, means a lot to mean when people take the time to comment on my blog. So glad you found a recipe the family loves.
Hi Laureen,
I don’t usually follow recipes to the letter, but I did on this one and my boys just loved it, all 3 requested I add it to our arsenal of top ten recipes. For years their mum took blue ribbon on Swedish Meatballs, now dads got it!
Thanks Laureen for such a great recipe.
Hey Guy, I am truly humbled by your comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. So great your boys enjoyed the recipe!
can we use half and half? I dont have heavy cream in the house? thank you
Yes you can use half and half, it may not thicken up quite as much and in that case use a bit of cornstarch (2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tsp water) stirred in to thicken it up.
I have made these a few times and they are AMAZING!!!! I do have a question. I want to make them ahead of time. Is that possible? Would I just keep them warm after searing or should I refrigerate? I want to make them around noon – 2pm and serve around 8pm. Thanks!
Hi Debbie, I would definitely keep them refrigerated. You can reheat in oven. I would suggest 30-40 minutes before serving at 300º
I’m sure these are tasty meatballs. PLEASE do not call them authentic Swedish meatballs. Authentic one always have allspice in them and no oregano. These lean towards Italian. Also Swedish ones have beef, pork, and veal in them.
Absolutely delicious! This is my 9 year old son’s favor meal! Thank you.
I would recommend serving this with lingonberries (or cranberries) to make it even more traditional Swedish. Nice recipe!
Great idea Robert! thanks
This is a household favorite. We don’t really eat red meat much so I’ve used ground turkey and then I use chicken broth. Tastes delish. I also cook brown rice with it. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Has anyone ever baked the meatballs? I’m doubling it and I know would be much easier to bake the meatballs instead of cooking 2 pounds worth in a pan!
Hi Alison, you can bake the meatballs in the oven but then you won’t have the tasty bits that add incredible flavor to the sauce.
My stomach can’t take heavy cream, did you ever use whole milk to see how it came out? I’m sure not as thick , but any other suggestions?
Using whole milk can work but you will probably have to thicken the gravy with a thickening agent like cornstarch or a flour slurry.
I use ground turkey and substituted Coconut cream, I’ve made it so many times…family favorite…thank you!
You could possibly try sour cream (like stroganoff) or lite sour cream. It would give it the richness that heavy cream would, and thicken it a little too. Worth a shot!