Baked Swedish Meatballs
Baked Swedish meatballs made of ingredients you probably already have in the refrigerator. Adapted from a recipe found online several years ago and altered. Recommended to be served over rice or egg noodles.
Baked Swedish meatballs made of ingredients you probably already have in the refrigerator. Adapted from a recipe found online several years ago and altered. Recommended to be served over rice or egg noodles.
- Carbohydrate 25.7657382237342 g
- Cholesterol 127.158029752234 mg
- Fat 36.5260322840665 g
- Fiber 1.23883958262205 g
- Protein 34.6088345960884 g
- Saturated Fat 16.518059822631 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (343g)
- Sodium 596.103108745943 mg
- Sugar 24.5268986411122 g
- Trans Fat 4.12612484685296 g
- Calories 577 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine bread crumbs, onion, salt, pepper, nutmeg and 3/4 cup milk in a large mixing bowl. Let milk soak into crumbs for a few minutes.
- Gently stir in ground beef until well blended (can use your hands for this to get a consistent texture) and form into balls about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
- Melt butter in the skillet and cook meatballs for 2-3 minutes or until brown on one side, flip and brown other side for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove with a slotted spoon to a 2 1/2-quart baking dish.
- Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of drippings in the pan and the stir flour into drippings. Cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly.
- Stir in beef broth and cream. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens and boils for a minute.
- Pour over Swedish meatballs in baking dish.
- Bake Swedish meatballs at 350° for 35 minutes.
- Serve over rice or egg noodles. If necessary spoon a bit of the gravy from the dish over the meatballs.
Bread crumbs do the heaviest structural lifting in this recipe by absorbing the milk and retaining moisture inside dense ground beef. Many cooks rush the initial soaking phase. Allow the milk to hydrate the crumbs completely for three full minutes before adding the meat. Skipping this hydration step leaves hard pockets of dry crumb throughout the mixture. Handling the meat gently prevents toughness. Form portions uniformly to ensure even cooking rates across the batch. Sear the exterior in butter for two to three minutes per side to develop a caramelized crust, but do not cook the interior through at this stage. The oven finishes the cooking process. Making the pan sauce requires active management of the leftover drippings and flour. Whisk the flour into two tablespoons of fat and cook until bubbly to eliminate the raw starch taste before pouring in the beef broth and cream. Simmer the liquid until it thickens visibly and boils for one full minute to activate the thickening agents properly. Transfer the browned meatballs to a two-and-a-half-quart baking dish, pour the hot gravy over the top, and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Determining doneness without a thermometer relies entirely on visual and textural cues. The internal meat should feel firm to the touch and the surrounding gravy must bubble actively at the edges of the dish. Serve the finished meatballs over egg noodles or steamed rice to absorb the rich dairy-based sauce.
