Swedish Meatballs
Indulge in rich and savory Swedish Meatballs for dinner. These tender meatballs are smothered in an amazing tasting creamy gravy and served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
My family loves comfort food recipes and this is one of their most requested. You can prepare the meatballs ahead of time for a quick and easy weekday meal. This meatball recipe also makes a great appetizer to serve at your next party.
What are Swedish Meatballs?
Swedish Meatballs are a comforting, classic dish consisting of juicy ground beef meatballs smothered in a creamy gravy. The sauce is usually made with warm spices like allspice and nutmeg. My husband does not like allspice or nutmeg with ground beef so I like to flavor my sauce with a combination of Worcestershire sauce, beef stock or beef broth, dijon mustard, black pepper, and salt.
Tip
The key to making flavorful Swedish meatball sauce is scraping all the browned meatball bits off of the bottom of the skillet. Pan-frying in a cast iron skillet works perfectly for this. I use a combination of butter and olive oil when browning the meatballs because 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!
How to make Swedish meatballs
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef, sautéed onion, garlic and oregano.
- Mix in salt, pepper, egg, and breadcrumbs.
- On medium heat, brown meatballs on all sides, carefully turning so they don’t break apart.
- Transfer meatballs to a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven while making your sauce.
- Add butter and flour to the pan to create a roux, then add in beef broth, cream, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard until sauce thickens.
- Add meatballs into sauce, cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste.
Substitutions
- Ground Beef – use a combination of ground beef and ground pork. You can even substitute ground turkey or chicken.
- Spices – add nutmeg or allspice for a more traditional Swedish Meatball recipe.
- Panko breadcrumbs – regular breadcrumbs, pieces of bread or saltine crackers.
- Substitute ground beef meatballs with this Turkey Meatball recipe.
What to serve with this recipe?
Serve Swedish Meatballs with broad leg noodles, rice, or this great tasting recipe for Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Top these juicy meatballs with different condiments such as classic Swedish lingonberry jam, cranberry sauce or mustard pickles
favorite recipes using ground beef
Budget friendly and versitile, ground beef is ideal for making so many family friendly meals.
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 tablespoon fresh oregano chopped or 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups beef broth warmed up
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine panko bread crumbs and milk. Let sit for 10 minutes until breadcrumbs have soaked up the milk.
- In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, sautéed onion, garlic and oregano.
- Mix in the salt, pepper and egg. Combine until the eggs are mixed into the ground beef.
- Add the breadcrumbs to meat mixture and combine well.
- Use a tablespoon or scoop to make equal sized meatballs. This recipe makes approximately 20 meatballs.
- Reheat the skillet used to sauté onions and garlic, adding a bit more olive oil and butter if needed.
- On medium heat, brown the meat balls on all sides, carefully turning so they don't break apart.
- Don't overcrowd the skillet with meatballs, work in batches.
- Transfer the meatballs to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you make the sauce.
- Add 4 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Once melted whisk in the flour and cook until golden brown.
- Slowly stir in the heated beef broth and cook at a temperature that keeps the sauce at slow bubble.
- Add in the cream, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard and simmer until sauce thickens at bit.
- Add the meatballs into sauce. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve over egg noodles, broad noodles or mashed potatoes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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!
Peter, in the United States “Swedish meatballs” has evolved to be a generic term for meatballs that are smaller than the larger Italian meatballs. Swedish cuisine and culture. make that Scandinavian, is pretty much non-existent to the general public except for Ikea. I live just outside Chicago. At one time (1890s) Chicago had more Swedes than any other city except Stockholm. The last Swedish deli here closed in 2007. There is little Swedish presence today except for a small Swedish American Museum, one restaurant and North Park University.
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!
Would I be able to freeze this recipe?
Hi Danielle, this recipe should freeze well.
Not with cream in it though. It will separate in the freezer. After its thawed put back in pan to warm through and then add the cream
thanks for the tip Karla.
I have made this several times and freeze them just fine. I double the sauce though. This is for my mother and I-me; we eat 4 meatballs for one dinner then freeze 4 meals. My mother really likes the sauce.
The best, simply the best! These have become a family favourite
Thank you for sharing
Denis
Thank you Denis!
Could you make this with ground turkey?
Absolutely, ground turkey is a great alternative.
I love this recipe! I make it every other week. 🙂
Thanks Jeanette, that is awesome to hear!
I made these tonight, and my family loved them! I served the meatballs over noodles. Delicious!
Hey Laura, thanks for the comment. Super that your family enjoyed this recipe. Its one of my family’s fav as well.
Hi Laureen! I’m trying this recipe tonight. When making the meatballs do you use 1 tablespoon per ball?
Awesome Rachael, I usually do a heaping tablespoon.
These were perfect Swedish meatballs! I cooked them in the oven at 400 for 18 minutes and used onion powder in place of sauteed onion. A little sour cream and a little heavy cream made for a great sauce, the worcestershire and dijon adds lots of flavor. Definitely will use this recipe again and again! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you Crissy, appreciate taking the time to comment and leave star rating.
Amazing!! Have you ever made and froze?
Absolutely delicious!!!!! Followed recipe to the T! Server over garlic chives mashed potatoes. This is definitely a keeper!!!!! THANK YOU for this!!!!
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe tonight! Do you have a recommendation for substituting the heavy cream or is that a “must have” ingredient that makes the recipe?
Hi Eleanor, the heavy cream adds great flavour to the recipe as well it thickens the sauce. You could try milk but would have to use some kind of gravy thickener. The taste would not be as good.
Best recipe ever!!!
Could I use cream cheese and milk instead of heavy cream
Have not tried that Emilie, but sounds interesting.
I’ve made these several times and my family LOVES them.
I’m crunched for time this evening and wondered if I could bake them off instead of frying them?
Hi Deborah, yes you can bake them in the oven but you won’t get the nice brown bits from pan frying them so your gravy won’t get the brown color to them and may require a bit more season. They still taste great and you can make large batches of meatballs using the oven method.
I absolutely love this recipe. I want to make these for an appetizer at a little party. I’m wondering if this recipe would work in a Crock-pot?
I would make the recipe in a skillet to make sure you get a good gravy as shown and then transfer to crockpot to keep warm or even use to reheat the meatballs.