These tasty Maple Meatballs will disappear quickly at any gathering, and they’re so easy to make. You can serve them directly from the oven, or serve them from a crock pot to keep warm during a party or on game day during football season.

Maple Meatballs Appetizer Recipe for Party

Hello Maple Meatballs! If you’re looking for an easy meatball appetizer recipe for a party, this is it!

This maple meatball recipe is one of my go-to party meatball recipe. To me, the best part of serving this is that it’s a spin on the traditional BBQ slow cooker meatballs often served at parties. If you’re looking for other easy meatball recipes, check out our Cranberry Meatballs or Teriyaki Meatballs.

Why I Love This Maple Meatball Recipe:

These meatballs are BIG on flavor. The sauce combines soy sauce, real maple syrup, dijon mustard and ketchup. This combo of simple ingredients may sound slightly strange, but the flavors work so well together. The end result is slightly sweet, yet savory meatballs that will make you come back for more.
The meatball mixture is baked on a sheet pan, not friend. This makes the recipe a bit healthier, and clean-up is a breeze.
These can be prepared in advance, frozen, and then you can pull them out for the next party when you need an appetizer.
Typically, we serve this as an appetizer. However, it also makes an easy weeknight dinners that the whole family enjoys.

Best Type of Meat for Party Meatballs

What makes meat juicy and flavorful? The answer may surprise you (hint: it’s not the sauce). Fat is what makes meat juicy and flavorful. This isn’t something people usually want to hear, but with beef, fat equals flavor.

However, when making party meatballs, you need to be careful that you use slightly leaner meat so that they’re not sitting in a lot of fat while cooking. Otherwise, the glaze ingredients won’t shine through.

Typically, we like to use beef for this recipe that’s either 85/15 or 90/10. When cooking ground beef for other recipes, we sometimes like other lean ratios.

How to Make Maple Meatballs:

1. Make homemade meatballs. If short on time, you could also use prepared meatballs from the grocery store or Costco, but we think they taste better from scratch. Homemade meatballs are easy to make. Soak bread in milk for about 3-4 minutes. Then, mix eggs, horseradish, ground beef, and salt and black pepper in a large bowl. Form into small meatballs and arrange on a nonstick baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 450-degrees for 10-minutes.

2. Mix Sauce Ingredients. In a spearate bowl, mix together ketchup, pure maple syrup, soy sauce, Dijon mustard and water.

3. Coat with sauce. Remove meatballs from the oven, and coat with the mustard-maple sauce. Bake for an additional 8-10 minutes, or an instant read thermometer reads 160°F.

4. Serve warm garnished with chopped green onions, if desired

Storing & Reheating

To store, keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container. To reheat, place them on a baking sheet in a single layer, cover with foil, and bake at 300°F until heated through.

Maple Meatballs

Clover Meadows Beef

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Servings 10

Ingredients

MEATBALL Ingredients:

3 slices bread
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons horseradish
1 ½ pounds ground beef
Salt and pepper

SAUCE Ingredients:

½ cup ketchup
¼ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup water

Instructions

Meatball Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450-degrees
In a large bowl, soak bread in milk for about 3-4 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, and mix well. Form into small meatballs and arrange on a nonstick, rimmed baking sheet.
Bake at 450-degrees for 10 minutes.
Drain excess grease from meatballs, if any.

Sauce Instructions:

While the meatballs are baking, mix all sauce ingredients together in a separate bowl. After the meatballs have baked for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and pour sauce onto meatballs. Coat thoroughly with the sauce.
Place back into oven and back for approximately 15 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 160 degrees.
Remove from oven. Serve warm and garnish with chopped green onions or parsley, if desired

Other Favorite Appetizer Recipes:

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Nice to Meet You!

We're Matt & Jessica, fifth-generation cattle farmers & the owners of Clover Meadows Beef. Good food starts with knowing where it comes from. On our blog, you'll find easy beef recipes, cooking tips, stories of how we raise our cattle, and how to buy farm-fresh beef locally. Our goal is to make cooking beef easy so you feel confident cooking any cut of beef in your home kitchen.

Maple Meatballs Appetizer Recipe for Party