This Easy Swedish Meatballs recipe is made with ground beef, pork, breadcrumbs and a savory cream sauce. I love serving these tender meatballs over mashed potatoes for a hearty dinner idea!
Easy Swedish Meatballs with Sauce
This meatball recipe uses traditional Swedish spices and the creamiest homemade gravy sauce ever. It makes a great holiday party appetizer or weeknight dinner for your family. The breadcrumbs in these meatballs keep them moist and tender, and they taste so good over freshly mashed potatoes!
Serve with a little cranberry or loganberry jam to make your own IKEA dinner at home! It’s one of our favorites for an easy family dinner idea. Everyone cleans their plates!
What Makes Meatballs Swedish?
Swedish meatballs are like the meatballs you know and love, but better. They’re made with beef, pork, onions, warm spices and a classic Swedish meatball sauce. These meatballs are super popular in Sweden and became popular in the states thanks to IKEA. Now you can make them at home!
Looking for more meatball recipes? Try these homemade Italian Meatballs!
What You’ll Need
These are the most flavorful meatballs you’ll ever make! Make sure you have these ingredients:
For the Meatballs
- Ground Meat: I like to use a combination of ground beef and ground pork. This gives them the best flavor, but you can use whatever type of ground meat you like the best.
- Yellow Onion: Finely dice your onion before you begin making the meatballs.
- Garlic: Freshly minced garlic will give you the most flavor. The pre-minced garlic has a lot less garlic flavor.
- Panko Breadcrumbs: Make sure you are using Panko breadcrumbs, not regular breadcrumbs. Panko breadcrumbs have a lot more texture to them, creating a great final meatball.
- An Egg: To prepare your egg for this recipe, lightly beat it in a small dish.
- Whole Milk: You can use a less fattening milk, like 2% milk as well. Whole milk will add a little more fat though, giving you a juicier meatball.
- Salt & Pepper
- Allspice
- Olive Oil: The oil will be used to fry your meatballs to perfection! You could also use avocado oil.
For the Cream Sauce
- Butter: salted or unsalted, both work. If using unsalted, keep that in mind to add a pinch more salt, to taste.
- All-purpose Flour
- Beef Broth: This will give your sauce an explosion of savory flavor. If you don’t have beef broth, chicken or pork broth will also work in a pinch.
- Heavy Cream: Sour cream also works for this recipe.
- Worcestershire Sauce: You could opt for low-sodium soy sauce instead, if desired.
- Dijon Mustard: Make sure to use a good dijon mustard, not regular yellow mustard.
- Salt & Pepper
For Serving
- Fresh Parsley: To add a pretty garnish to your dish, sprinkle some fresh parsley overtop the meatballs.
- Mashed Potatoes: My roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes go amazingly with these meatballs!
How to Make Swedish Meatballs
Make Meatball Mixture: In a large bowl, combine ground beef and pork. Mix in all the other meatball ingredients by hand, except for the olive oil, until well combined.
Shape Meatballs: Using a cookie scoop or your hands, shape the mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place them on a clean platter, cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, if possible – this helps them retain their round shape when cooking.
Fry Meatballs: In a large non-stick skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Working in two batches to avoid overcrowding, add meatballs and cook, turning continuously until browned on all sides and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Repeat with the remaining meatballs. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
Start Making Cream Sauce: Add the butter to the skillet and once melted, whisk in the flour. Stir to combine and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 minute until no lumps remain and flour just begins to brown.
Complete Cream Sauce: Slowly whisk in the beef broth and then the heavy cream. Whisk in the soy sauce and mustard; bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and let the sauce thicken, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Continue Cooking Meatballs: Add the meatballs back to the skillet and simmer for another 3 minutes to finish cooking and warm through.
Serve and Enjoy: Serve your meatballs and cream sauce over mashed potatoes with a sprinkle of parsley.
Tips for Perfect Swedish Meatballs
- Refrigerate Meatballs Before Cooking: If you have time, throw your meatballs in the fridge for 30 minutes before you fry them. This will keep them from falling apart or flattening while they cook.
- Don’t Make Meatballs Too Large: If you make your meatballs thicker than 1 1/2 inches, it will be difficult to cook them evenly.
- Avoid Crowding the Pan: It’s a good idea to separate your meatballs into batches. They won’t cook right if you stuff them all into your skillet at once.
- Turn Meatballs as They Cook: In order to get your meatballs nice and brown all around, make sure you turn them constantly as you fry them.
Serving Suggestions
You don’t have to serve your meatballs over mashed potatoes if you don’t want to. There are so many amazing ways to serve them – they even taste great by themselves! Here are some more ideas for what to make them with:
- Mashed Potatoes: I can’t help it, I think of Swedish meatballs and I immediately crave mashed potatoes with them! My Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes go perfectly with these meatballs and help to soak up that rich creamy gravy. Or, to save some carbs, try my favorite Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes.
- Vegetables: Meat and veggies will never get old. Serve your meatballs with some green beans or my easy Air Fryer Asparagus for a healthy, well-balanced meal.
- On a Platter: If you’re making these meatballs as an appetizer, drizzle them with your cream sauce and place a toothpick into each one. They’ll be just like meatball cake pops!
- Salad: A fresh and light side salad, like my Greek Salad with homemade Greek Salad Dressing would be great along side these meatballs.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. If you want your meatballs to last longer, keep them in the freezer and they’ll stay good for up to 3 months! Just remember to thaw them out in the fridge before reheating them.
To reheat your meatballs, simply cook them in the oven at 350°F until they’re heated all the way through.
Looking For More Easy Dinner Recipes?
- Easy Beef Stroganoff Recipe
- Homemade Chicken and Dumplings
- Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
- Homemade Hamburger Helper
- Air Fryer Salmon
Easy Swedish Meatballs with Creamy Sauce
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon allspice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, for frying pan
For the Cream Sauce
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups beef broth
- ¾ cup heavy cream, or sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, or low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For Serving
- sprinkle of finely chopped fresh parsley
- garlic mashed potatoes
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef and pork. Mix in all the other meatball ingredients by hand (except the olive oil) until well combined.
- Using a cookie scoop or your hands, shape the mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place on a clean platter, cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, if possible – this helps them retain their round shape when cooking.
- In a large non-stick skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Working in two batches to avoid overcrowding, add the meatballs and cook, turning continuously until browned on all sides and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Repeat with the remaining meatballs. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
- Add the butter to the skillet and once melted, whisk in the flour; stir to combine and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 minute until no lumps remain and flour just begins to brown.
- Slowly whisk in the beef broth and then the heavy cream. Whisk in the soy sauce and mustard; bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and let the sauce thicken, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the meatballs back to the skillet and simmer for another 3 minutes to finish cooking and warm through.
- Serve over mashed potatoes with a sprinkle of parsley.
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The 5 star rating is for the cream sauce. I used frozen meatballs that I already had in my freezer & made mashed potatoes with yellow potatoes & a ricer. But, what a fabulous dinner!!! thanks to the cream sauce.
The cream sauce was so easy to make & tastes exactly like IKEA. Well, maybe even better than IKEA!
Thank you so much for the recipe
The best Swedish meatballs I have ever made! Delicious!
So glad you enjoyed them Tina!
Can you use all ground pork for this recipe? Thank you.
Sure! :-)
I am looking forward to trying these..my question..can you bake the meatballs instead of frying them? If so, at what temperature and how long?
Yes you can, the sauce just won’t be as flavorful since it won’t be cooked in the same pan as the meatballs.
To bake meatballs, I do 400°F for about 15-20 minutes!
I baked mine for 4 minutes on 350. Came out perfectly.
That should’ve read 40 minutes on 359!