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Appetizers are what I want for every meal. I like to snack, pick, and choose small bite-sized items. When someone asks me to bring an appetizer, or I need to make one at home… I freeze. All of a sudden, I feel like I have absolutely zero ideas of what to make. Appetizers really are best when someone else makes them.
Enter these meatballs! First, who doesn’t love a bite-sized meatball? Second, if you are going to have a meatball, it better have a lot of flavor and be utterly memorable. And let me tell you: these meatballs deliver.
This is the appetizer I always crave and can easily transform into an entire meal. Plus, the cranberry flavors are perfect for the holiday season!
Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs Ingredients
- Bread. This is an essential ingredient that no one will ever taste. Bread is the secret ingredient that, when mixed with milk, becomes the glue that provides a perfect texture and keeps the meatballs juicy.
- Milk. In these meatballs, I prefer to use whole milk. The flavor from whole milk will always give more richness to any dish and that holds true with this recipe.
- Onion. Grating the onion into the meat mixture allows the flavor to evenly distribute throughout the meatballs and melt into the meat.
- Garlic. A little garlic goes a long way, but is needed to round out the flavors.
- Worcestershire sauce. This is the ingredient that no one can ever place, but is needed to bring a dish’s flavor to stardom territory.
- Egg. The egg binds everything together and gives a lightness to the meatball.
- Ground beef. Lean ground beef offers both great flavor and texture.
- Ground pork. Pork offsets the beef to provide a lighter meat flavor along with a slight sweetness.
- Barbecue sauce. Your favorite jarred barbecue sauce will work great. If you love it already, this recipe will only make it better.
- Orange marmelade. This has a sweet and sour dicotomy going on and lends a welcome citrus undertone to the sauce.
- Cranberries. Fresh or frozen cranberries are the perfect festive ingredient. As they cook, their sour juice melds with the sweet marmelade and barbecue sauce to create a sweet, tangy, and sticky sauce that coats the meatballs.
These meatballs go together quickly, can be made a few days ahead, and stored in the refrigerator. I’m now making these often and find they are great added to a salad or just made into a meal. Really, these are the best meatballs that also happen to be a great holiday appetizer!
More Meatball Recipes
- Festive holiday meatballs
- Meatballs with spaghetti
- Cranberry chicken meatball sliders
- Chicken zucchini meatballs
- Sausage meatball kale soup
- Holiday pesto meatballs
- Meatloaf meatballs with Parmesan polenta
Have I Convinced You to Make This Recipe?
I hope you make this recipe and put some food on your table. Leave a comment and share a star rating so you can let others know how much you love this recipe. This helps show others that this is a recipe they, too, can make, enjoy, and love!
Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 2 slices bread (approx. 3 oz)
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp grated onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
For the sauce
- 12 oz bottled BBQ sauce
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1 cup orange marmalade
Instructions
For the meatballs
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, tear up the bread into pieces and add the milk. Mash the milk and bread together to form a paste. Add in the salt, pepper, grated onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and egg. Mix to combine. Add in the ground beef and pork.2 slices bread (approx. 3 oz), ¼ cup whole milk, 1 ½ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 2 tbsp grated onion, 1 clove garlic, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 large egg, 1 lb ground beef, 1 lb ground pork
- Use hands or an electric mixer to combine until all the ingredients are completely combined and smooth. Use a scoop or spoon to make 20 meatballs.
- Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat with 1 tbsp olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the meatballs. Allow the meatballs to brown on two sides, about 3-5 minutes. Once browned, place the meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until they reach 160°F, 15-20 minutes. While the meatballs are roasting, prepare the sauce.
For the sauce
- In the same skillet in which the meats were browned, add the barbeque sauce, marmalade, and cranberries. Over low heat, bring to a simmer. Continue to cook over a low simmer until the cranberries begin to burst and are softened, 12-15 minutes.12 oz bottled BBQ sauce, 1 cup orange marmalade, 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- Once the meatballs are baked and fully cooked, remove them from the oven and add them to the prepared sauce. Spoon the sauce over the meatballs coating them completely. Serve directly from the skillet or set on a platter.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below!
This recipe was the most amazing amazing recipe I’ve ever made for an appetizer for Christmas. The flavors were unbelievable. I’ve never made meatballs with ground pork before because let’s face it not the healthiest, but this came out so moist and so flavorful thank you so much for this recipe. I will make it again next year.
These come together beautifully! I made them for a family Christmas get together as an appetizer. They smell like a party and the cranberries add a pop of flavor and color! When they were totally done, I put them in a crock pot to keep them hot and easy transport. This glaze would be a wonderful way to finish seared salmon!
I made these last year for our family Christmas and am making them again right now. I freeze the balls once fully cooked. I take a crockpot to the party and add the thawed meatballs, bbq sauce mixture along with more bbq sauce and Diana sauce. It’s delicious.
I made these for Christmas Eve and they got rave reviews. Everyone loved them. I liked that the recipe was easy.
My only comment about the recipe, if I’m reading it correctly, is it say to roll into 20 – 1oz ball, but there is 32 oz of meat, so the math doesn’t add up. I didn’t know if I was reading something wrong. I went with the 1 oz ball, which is a nice bite size, and got plenty more meatballs. That’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Will definitely make again!
Please tell me what brand name of bottled BBQ sauce you recommend. Spicy, sweet, smoky or what? Thank you.
I love all your recipes