Honey Garlic Pork Meatballs

Packed with flavourful ingredients and incredibly juicy, these ground pork meatballs are so delicious and easy to make. Once baked, the pork meatballs are generously coated in a sweet and savoury honey garlic sauce. Make them once and you’ll be craving them time and time again!

I can’t say no to a homemade meatball. You too? And that’s especially true when we’re talking about these honey garlic pork meatballs.

Not only are they juicy, savoury and incredibly tasty (I could eat them as is, without anything else to be quite honest), they can be whipped up quickly and are so versatile (serve them as an appetizer or main dish, for instance) and they go well with so many things.

These saucy baked pork meatballs are always a crowd favourite around here, so if you do give them a try, you might want to make a double batch (they disappear fast).

Ingredients

• Fresh bread crumbs: Fresh bread crumbs act as a binder for these meatballs. You can usually find bags of bread crumbs in the grocery store, typically in the bread aisle. You can also make your own using some sandwich bread. Just blend some slices in a blender or food processor until you have a fine crumb consistency. White or whole bread bread are great options.
• Milk: A tiny bit of milk is used to moisten the bread crumbs. Use something like 2% or whole milk.
• Lean ground pork: The star of this ground pork meatball recipe!
• Egg: A large egg is used as another binder for the meatballs, plus it adds moisture.
• Carrot: Shredded carrot adds colour, a bit of flavour and moisture.
• Seasoning: Includes yummy things like five-spice powder, onion powder, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt and black pepper.
• Ketchup: The base of the pork meatball sauce.
• Honey: Adds a lovely sweetness and stickiness to the sauce and balances out some of the savoury flavours.
• Soy sauce: I prefer to use a reduced sodium soy sauce but feel free to use a regular variety if that’s what you have on hand or prefer.
• Sriracha: Adds some spice. Because of the sriracha in the pork meatball sauce, these meatballs do have a bit of spice. I used 1 tablespoon of sriracha, but you could use less or omit altogether if you like. Not sure on how much to use? Start with a little, give the sauce a taste, then add more if you feel it needs it.
• Butter: Used to sauté the fresh garlic. In a pinch, substitute with margarine.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic really adds a yummy punch of flavour to the sauce.
• Garnish: Which includes green onion and sesame seeds. Garnish is optional (but delicious) because it adds colour, flavour and texture to the meatballs.

How To Make Honey Garlic Pork Meatballs

Here is an overview of how to make honey garlic pork meatballs (full details are in the recipe card below):

Make the ground pork meatballs

1. In a bowl, stir the bread crumbs and milk together.
2. In another bowl, combine the milk-soaked bread crumbs, ground pork, egg, carrot and seasoning, and then mix to combine.
3. Roll the ground pork mixture into meatballs and place onto a parchment paper-lined sheet pan.
4. Bake the pork meatballs until they’re fully cooked through.

Make the meatball sauce

1. In a bowl, whisk the ketchup, honey, soy sauce and siracha together.
2. Melt some butter in a frying pan, then sauté the garlic until fragrant.
3. Add the ketchup mixture to the frying pan, and then whisk to combine. Cook until it’s thickened a tad.
4. Place the meatballs in a clean bowl and pour over the sauce. Stir to coat them in the deliciousness! Easy, right?

What To Serve With Pork Meatballs

You can serve these baked pork meatballs on their own as an appetizer or with a side if enjoying them as a main dish.

If served as an entrée, they’re great served with noodles (like ramen noodles) and a jammy soft-boiled egg. I particularly enjoy these soy and scallion noodles (not sponsored).

Other than noodles, these honey garlic pork meatballs pair wonderfully with some fluffy rice, peanut noodles, a simple green salad or baked Japanese sweet potato.

Want to mix things up? Try the meatballs on a sub bun for a yummy meatball sandwich.

Tips for Making the Best Meatballs

• Don’t forget to line your sheet pan with parchment paper. It makes cleanup that much easier!
• When combining the pork meatball ingredients, don’t overmix the ingredients. Mix everything just until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
• If you want to know that the meatball mixture is seasoned to your liking before baking, take a little bit of the mixture and fry it out in a frying pan over medium heat. Once cooked through, give it a taste and see how you like it. If you want more five-spice powder or onion powder, for example, add a little more to the meatball mixture before forming the meatballs.
• The meatballs should be equally sized so they’ll cook evenly and be done at the same time. For each meatball, I used about 1.5 tablespoons of the ground pork mixture. I used a small cookie scoop to measure the amount for each meatball, and then rolled it into a ball shape with my hands.
• When forming the meatballs, to help minimize the ground pork mixture sticking to your hands, it helps if your hands are a tad dampened with some water or lightly oiled with some cooking oil.
• For the perfect cook, use an instant-read meat thermometer to test for doneness. It’s a great kitchen tool to have.

More Easy Meatball Recipes

• Cheesy Jumbo Meatballs
• Buffalo Turkey Meatballs
• Bison Meatballs
• Moose Meatballs

If you try this recipe for honey garlic pork meatballs, be sure to leave a comment below!