Skillet Swedish Meatballs | Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

In this simple recipe for skillet Swedish meatballs, tender meatballs are smothered in a scrumptious, thick gravy. Serve over rice, noodles or potatoes!

I’ve been making this recipe for over a decade, and it’s simply in my household’s prime 10 favourite meals ever! It is so extremely yummy!

Swedish Meatball Variations

There are many variations of Swedish meatball recipes on the market on the interwebs. Some use floor pork or floor beef or a mixture. Oftentimes, nutmeg or allspice are added whereas different recipes don’t use these spices in any respect. And the sauces are as different because the meatballs! Thin or thick, creamy or darkish.

My recipe for Swedish meatballs ends in essentially the most flavorful, tender meatballs swimming in a tasty, thick, wealthy brown gravy. THEY ARE SO GOOD.

The meatball combination is a straightforward mixture of substances:

• floor beef or floor pork (or a mixture – even floor turkey works properly)
• bread crumbs
• grated onion
• a touch of brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg
• egg
• milk
• salt and pepper

Skillet Cooked Meatballs

The meatballs and sauce are made in a single skillet. You can use a 12-inch nonstick or forged iron skillet. But, I discover that the majority typically, I make this recipe in my trusty electric skillet {aff. hyperlink}.

It is sufficiently big to cook dinner all the meatballs in a single layer in a single batch. 🙌🏼 I actually hold this skillet round nearly completely for this recipe. (Well, this one and ham fried rice.)

How to Serve Traditional Swedish Meatballs

Traditionally, Swedish meatballs are served with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and sometimes pickled cucumbers, as properly.

The jam and cucumbers could sound like an odd mixture, however the tangy, recent flavors of each steadiness the richness of the meatballs, gravy and potatoes. It’s a profitable mixture!

However (Swedish meatball purists, look apart)…

I hardly ever have lingonberry jam and cucumbers hanging round collectively. So, in our family, we frequently take pleasure in this meal in a extra easy method: meatballs, sauce, potatoes, and a easy inexperienced veggie.

Applicable Life Lesson: don’t delay making this loopy good meal if a number of of the extra conventional parts aren’t out there. It will be enjoyed many alternative methods!

A Huge Favorite

This skillet Swedish meatballs recipe is considered one of our go-to Sunday meals when I’ve a bit extra time to cook dinner dinner, and, lots of my children have requested it as their birthday dinner over time.

That’s high reward contemplating we take our birthday meal requests very critically. 😉

This recipe is a particular tried-and-true favourite. We’ve been loving it for over 10 years! And I’ve little question will probably be made for generations to return.

Be positive to learn by means of the recipe and feedback for extra tips and insights!

A Few Other Rave Reviews

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow! These are scrumptious! So flavorful! My mother is Swedish so I can attest that these cross the take a look at! Adding this to my favourite recipes. Thanks Mel! I really feel like each recipe I attempt from you is a winner! -Tammy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ These are essentially the most requested meal from my children presently. I sub the bitter cream with double cream yoghurt (simply because I at all times have it within the fridge) and it really works nice. Yummy with spaetzle!!! -Lauren

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’ve made this recipe many, many occasions.  It is an all-time household favourite.  I normally should double it so that we’ll have leftovers.  -Kelley

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you thanks thanks. This was the primary win I’ve had in weeks with my teen son. He cherished this dish, properly everybody did together with me because it was scrumptious and simple. -Jeri

Skillet Swedish Meatballs

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Meatballs:

• 1 ½ kilos floor pork, floor beef or floor turkey (see notice)
• 1 massive egg
• ¼ cup milk
• ⅓ cup bread crumbs (see notice)
• ¼ cup finely minced or grated onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon floor nutmeg (see notice)
• ¼ teaspoon floor allspice (see notice)
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons oil for cooking

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups low-sodium beef broth
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• ½ cup bitter cream
• Chopped recent parsley or dried parsley
• Cooked egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice, for serving

Cook ModePrevent your display from going darkish

• For the meatballs, in a big bowl, mix all of the meatball substances aside from the oil and blend till evenly mixed.

• Scoop the meat combination into meatballs about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

• Heat the oil in a 12-inch, nonstick skillet or electrical skillet over medium warmth till scorching and rippling.

• Add the meatballs to the pan in a single layer an inch or so aside. You could must cook dinner in batches, relying on the scale of your pan. (*See notice for oven-baked technique.)

• Brown the meatballs on all sides. They’ll end cooking in a later step. Remove the meatballs to a pan or plate. Repeat with remaining meatballs including a bit extra oil to the skillet, if wanted. Remove them from the skillet as soon as browned.

• For the sauce, return the skillet to medium warmth and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil. If the skillet was principally dry earlier than including the butter and oil, it’s possible you’ll wish to add one other tablespoon or two of both butter or oil so the sauce is not lumpy. Heat till melted. Add the flour and cook dinner, stirring continuously, for 1-2 minutes.

• Slowly add the broth, simply 1/2 cup at a time, whisking shortly to take away any lumps. Let every addition of broth cook dinner till thick and easy earlier than including the following bit. Once you have added about 2 cups, add the remaining broth and whisk till mixed.

• Stir within the brown sugar and produce the sauce to a simmer, whisking continuously.

• Add the meatballs again to the skillet and cook dinner 10 to 12 minutes till the meatballs are cooked by means of, turning them a couple of times whereas cooking.

• Off the warmth, stir within the bitter cream to the sauce (simply whisk it in across the meatballs). To assist it mix in simpler, you may ladle out a little bit of the nice and cozy sauce right into a bowl and whisk the bitter cream in earlier than including all of it again in to the skillet.

• Garnish with recent or dried parsley and serve over scorching, cooked egg noodles, potatoes, or rice.

Meat: a mixture of floor beef and floor pork is what conventional Swedish meatball recipes typically use; nevertheless, floor turkey works nice for a lighter meatball.
Bread Crumbs: you should utilize any number of bread crumbs right here: panko, storebought, selfmade, and many others.
Nutmeg and Allspice: the nutmeg and allspice add a scrumptious taste to the meatballs; nevertheless, they are often diminished to a pinch of every or omitted fully.
Sauce: if you’d like the sauce barely thicker, enhance the flour by one other tablespoon. 
Oven Method: place the rolled meatballs on a foil-lined greased baking sheet and bake at 400 levels for 10 to fifteen minutes till cooked by means of. While the meatballs cook dinner, make the sauce in a saucepan on the range. Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce instantly out of the oven and serve (or hold heat till serving). 

Author: Mel

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Method: Stovetop

Serving: 1 Serving (about 3 meatballs), Calories: 296kcal, Carbohydrates: 12g, Protein: 31g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 105mg, Sodium: 983mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 3g

Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (impressed by a pair recipes on-line – Cook’s Illustrated and Damn Delicious – with a number of my very own modifications each with substances and technique to simplify the method and in addition minimize down on butter/oil for the sauce.

Recipe initially revealed April 2015; up to date March 2025 with new pictures, recipe notes, and many others