These delicious sweet and sour meatballs are a great and easy recipe that you can serve up and be sure the whole family will be happy. Plus they are so easy you can throw them in the weekly rotation by using frozen meatballs as a serious time saver.
Here are the ones I use, the all beef ones are great too.
Now if you have time and want to make meatballs from scratch, follow the meatball recipe from here- Teriyaki Meatballs
While we are at it, here is a salad recipe that goes well with it- Green salad with soy-chile dressing
The homemade sauce is so good. With acid from the ketchup and the the sweet pineapple juice, you get a great balance and a perfect sauce! I also use this sauce on chicken and as a dipping sauce for crab puffs.
These can be served up as a meal with a salad and jasmine rice or as appetizer/party food.
Doesn’t that look great?
To prepare we can do a few ways that are very simple and easy. We can bake or air fry the meatballs until golden brown.
Then toss in a pan with the sauce…
OR we can put the frozen balls in a crock pot with the sauce and cook up for 4 hours on high.
Any way is sure to be delicious, just depends on how you want to go about it or time.
Let’s get started!
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
- 25-30 small frozen meatballs recipe link above for homemade
- 2 cups pineapple juice
- 4 1/2 tbsp ketchup
- 6 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 tsp canola or vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 cup chopped pineapple
- 1 cup orange or red bell pepper, chopped
- sliced green onions for garnish optional
- chili crisp optional but an amazing topping
Instructions
Sauce
- In a sauce pan on med-high heat, combine all pineapple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, salt, pepper, cornstarch, vinegar, and oil. Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil and keep whisking. After 5 minutes you can move to the crock pot and let it thicken. If you are using on the baked or air fried balls, Let the sauce simmer a bit longer until it has thickened to your liking.
Air FRY
- On 390° Air fry for 8- 10 minutes, toss and air fry for 8-10 minutes more. They should be golden brown
Baking the balls
- Follow the directions on the bag for baking. After they a cooked, toss them in the pan with the sauce, add the pineapple and bell pepper. Let it all simmer about 10 minutes.
Crock pot
- Turn the crock pot on high, add the meatballs, pineapple, bell pepper, and sauce. Cook for 4 hours.
- Top all with chili crisp and green onions!
- ENJOY!
