Cocktail Meatballs & Sauce

Every Christmas Eve my husband's Aunt Becky makes these scrumptious cocktail meatballs. The sauce is sweet and tangy. I really look forward to them and it's pretty much all I can do to keep myself from pulling up a chair and devouring the entire chafing dish. My seven-year-old could easily eat half the dish with me (if I let her get her little elbow in edgewise). So of course, I asked for the recipe. It's easy because the sauce is made with a base of Heinz chili sauce and cranberry sauce. Of course I had to complicate things by making the chili sauce from scratch because I'm just not busy enough as it is. Now that I think about it, that's 20 extra minutes I could have been sleeping. I really need to reprioritize.

 

COCKTAIL MEATBALLS & SAUCE

Yield: 24 small meatballs

Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Sauce:

12 oz. Heinz chili sauce (or 1 1/2 x copycat recipe - see below)

10 oz. jellied cranberry sauce (or grape jelly)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

a dash of hot sauce or pinch of cayenne (optional)

1.      Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly using your hands. Roll the meatballs to about the size of a golf ball. Can substitute plain (not Italian) frozen cocktail meatballs.

2.      Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium pot. Bring to a simmer; stir until smooth.

3.      Gently drop the meatballs in the sauce. Keep at a low simmer for about 30 minutes (or until the meatballs are cooked/heated through). Or you can simmer in a crockpot on high for 3 hours.

meatballs: adapted from food.com by ~In*Memory*of*Brats~

sauce: adapted from heinzchilisauce.com  

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HEINZ CHILI SAUCE
(COPYCAT RECIPE)

Yield: 1 cup

1 cup tomato puree
1/3 cup agave (or light corn syrup)
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1.      Whisk all the ingredients together in a small saucepan.

2.      Place over medium heat. When mixture begins to bubble reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

3.      Cover and cool.

4.      Refrigerate when cold.

barely adapted from Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes

all the meatball ingredients

Ignore the parmesan cheese, I decided it would be better
without it (so as not to compete with the sauce)

mixed

cocktail size meatballs

all the sauce ingredients

sauce mixed

adding the meatballs

If you prefer, you can cook the meatballs separately and
then add them to the sauce (cook until heated through).

meatballs submerged and cooking in the sauce

mmm...cooked and saucy

cocktail meatballs & sauce

cocktail meatball cross section

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