If you ever wanted to make your own homemade meatballs, this sweet Polynesian meatball recipe is a great beginner recipe. Often, I will use premade meatballs. This homemade meatball recipe is so easy to make. The sauce and meatballs cook together in the oven. The hardest part is simply rolling them.
You can make this recipe as an entree or as an appetizer. We like to serve them with quinoa or cauliflower rice as a main dish, or put toothpicks in them for a crowd-pleasing appetizer.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make sweet Polynesian meatballs, you need the following ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Minced onion
- Minced garlic
- Crushed red pepper
- Bread crumbs
- Milk
- Beaten eggs
- Dried parsley
- Salt
- Pepper
- Grape jelly
- Chili sauce
- Cooked rice
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Our Sweet Polynesian Meatballs
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Add olive oil to large saute pan then add the onions and bring to a medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Then add the garlic and the crushed red pepper and saute for another 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine beef, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Add in cooled onions.
- Mix well and form into golf-ball sized meatballs.
- Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and place the meatballs in rows.
- In a small saucepan, combine the grape jelly and chili sauce over medium heat for 5-6 minutes, or until it starts to bubble. Pour sauce over meatballs and bake for 1 hour.
- Serve over cooked rice.
Serving Suggestions
In an effort to keep things on the lower carb side, you can serve these delicious and super saucy meatballs recipe with cauliflower rice. Honestly, it is so good and you don’t even feel like you’re eating healthy, so give the cauliflower rice a try if you haven’t yet. The Minimalist Baker gives you a great recipe to make your own homemade cauliflower rice! If not, the frozen box from the store works just as great, too.
Enjoy More Delicious Hot Appetizers
Whether meatballs, chicken wings, nachos, or quesadillas, there’s nothing to start out a party better than an appetizer. Browse our comprehensive list of hot appetizer recipes.
- Honey Sriracha Ground Turkey Meatballs
- Instant Pot Hawaiian Meatballs
- Instant Pot Italian Meatballs
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Hawaiian Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Swedish Meatballs
- Sweet and Sour Meatballs
- Sweet and Tangy Meatballs
Sweet Polynesian Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion , minced
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- pinch crushed red pepper
- 1½ pounds ground beef
- ⅔ cup bread crumbs
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- pinch crushed red pepper
- ½ cup grape jelly
- 12 ounces chili sauce, 1 bottle
- 3 cups cooked rice
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Add olive oil to large saute pan then add the onions and bring to a medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Then add the garlic and the crushed red pepper and saute for another 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine beef, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Add in cooled onions.
- Mix well and form into golf-ball sized meatballs.
- Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and place the meatballs in rows.
- In a small saucepan, combine the grape jelly and chili sauce over medium heat for 5-6 minutes, or until it starts to bubble. Pour sauce over meatballs and bake for 1 hour.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I bought everything to make this tomorrow and I’m really excited! One question I have is by “chili sauce” do you mean sweet chili sauce? I didn’t know where to look to find it and that’s the only thing that seems right.
Also, I’m going to put the meatballs on cauliflower rice 🙂
Chili sauce is down the ketchup and sauce aisle at the grocery store. We have used Heinz Chili sauce as well as store brands and they all work well.
I seriously just mixed up the sauce with grape jelly and the sweet chili sauce but haven’t poured it on the meatballs!!! Yikes. Okay, going to get chili sauce now and then I’ll report how they turn out 🙂 Thanks!
I made this last night and it is so delicious! It will feed my family of 3 (my husband, 18 month old, and me) for 3 whole meals. I steamed a side of broccoli and made cauliflower rice to put the meatballs on and it was so yummy. The only thing I may change for next time is making even more sauce to put over the meatballs, but it is also great as is. Thanks!
Hi Heather! So glad to hear that they turned out. You sound like us, we like extra sauce on our recipes. You could easily double the sauce for these meatballs. Have a great week!!
I am wanting to make these as an appetizer. Can you put them in a crock pot to keep warm until party time without drying them out?
They should be fine in the slow cooker to stay warm. Hopefully you have a warm setting that is a lower temp than the low setting. Be sure your saucy liquid is in there with the meatballs.
I just made these..and I used the wrong chili sauce(I used the really spicy kind with chili flakes!) so I just threw some spaghetti sauce in with it instead. I just wanted to add that you can cook these in an instant pot for 5 minutes (saute meatballs first)! They came out perfect! Cant wait to try the correct recipe!