Barbecue Meat Balls

The inspiration for this recipe is rooted in the meatloaf recipe I found in a book I randomly pulled off of the library shelf a year or so ago: The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family by Elizabeth Coblentz and Kevin Williams

I’ve made the meat loaf several times and it is very good. What I loved about it is the simple list of ingredients and the fact that the recipe does not call for bread crumbs. I never have bread crumbs in the pantry and its pain to make them just for meat loaf. I do always have oatmeal on hand though!

When I experimented with using the meatloaf recipe to make barbecue meat balls this recipe made its way into a regular rotation of meals made at home. The meatballs can be made ahead of time and chilled in the fridge, or bake them off and freeze or chill and reheat later. This recipe is versatile and delicious.

Meatballs:

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds ground beef

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

½ cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pepper

4 eggs, beaten

Bottled Barbecue sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and form into golf ball sized meatballs and place into rows in a 13″ x 9″ baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. If you want to make clean up easy line the pan with foil then spray the foil.

Bake meatballs for 60 minutes. You can top the meat balls with a drizzle of barbecue sauce. It will dry and caramelize while baking. More sauce can be added after cooking or serve on the side if you like it extra saucy. Makes about 24 meatballs.

Serve over rice or with a side of coleslaw and corn bread.

Alternate preparations:

These are also good with marina and spaghetti or with an Asian brown sauce and fried rice.

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