French Onion Meatballs For The Weekend!
Here’s how we’re going to handle the weekend: by making french onion meatballs immediately!
Hi. It’s me again. Back with another french onion recipe.
I KNOW.
I’m sorry? I realize I’ve tried to french onion the entire world this this year but I just can’t help it. I mean, this HAS to be the last recipe, right? There can be no more french onion-ing of any things in this house.
Unless… never mind.
Just this year alone I’ve done french onion sweet potatoes and french onion lasagna roll ups and french onion soup. But I also have a french onion grilled cheese and french onion dip and french onion deviled eggs!
I think I have a french onion problem. But it’s a good problem to have?
P.S. you can find me making these on instagram today!
So, as usual, anything french onion-ish is going to take a little bit of time because you have to caramelize those onions! It’s the key to all the flavor. Once that part is done though, these aren’t too difficult to make.
And bonus, you can make the onions ahead of time. Heck, you can make the meatballs ahead of time!
Also! You can use ground turkey or chicken for this recipe. You could even use ground beef, but I find that turkey or chicken makes the meatballs taste best – they really allow the flavor to shine.
After you decide on that, we deal with all the other additions. Basically whatever goes in that soup is going into our meatballs!
Gruyere! Parmesan! Thyme! Breadcrumbs!
Delicious things like that and of course, the onions too.
Enter all the exclamation points.
It is nearly impossible to not eat these all out of the pan. You brown the meatballs, then throw a little stock into the pan and bake with some cheese. These practically melt in your mouth. They are divine.
Now what to serve these with!
Um, can we still be friends once I tell you that I placed mine on top of a piece of toasted sourdough? It was basically the best decision in quarantine (aside from this banana cake) and I essentially made a meatball MELT. Love it.
Another option is to serve these just like this, out of the skillet, with some roasted vegetables or your favorite side. They are SO good on their own. They have enough flavor and they are juicy enough too!
Of course, you could throw them in with some pasta too, whether you do buttered noodles or marinara or whatever! Because the meatballs are so ridiculously flavorful, they don’t need much! They can carry an entire meal, trust me.
HELLO.
Okay so now that I’ve convinced you to stand over the stove and caramelize onions AGAIN, dinner should be great this weekend! xo
French Onion Meatballs
French Onion Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
- 1 pound lean ground turkey or chicken, I like 94%
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup finely grated gruyere cheese, plus extra for topping
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
- 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, for browning the meatballs
- 1 ½ cups chicken or beef stock
- 1 teaspoon flour
Instructions
- Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Stir in the onions with a big pinch of salt. .Cook, stirring often, until the onions caramelize, about 30 to 40 minutes. Once the onions are golden and caramelly, transfer them to a plate. (Note: if you’re really in a rush, you can add 1 teaspoon of sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc to speed along the caramelization process. Be sure to stir often and check on the progress!)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take half of the cooled caramelized onions and chop them up a bit - just so they easily mix into the meatballs.
- In a bowl, stir together the turkey, garlic, ½ cup gruyere, all the parmesan, the breadcrumbs, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Add in the chopped caramelized onions. Mix until the meatballs are just combined - do not over mix!
- Use your hands to form the mixture into 1-inch meatballs. It helps if you wet your hands with water before rolling. It’s okay if the meatballs are not perfect rounds!
- Heat the same skillet over medium heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Add the meatballs in a single layer and brown them on all sides - let them cook for 1 to 2 minutes, before flipping.
- Once the meatballs are completely browned, fill a shaker cup or water bottle with the stock and flour. Shake it for 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into the skillet with the meatballs. Add in the remaining caramelized onions. Top the meatballs with the remaining gruyere cheese.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked through (you want the internal temp to read 165 degrees F). Serve immediately! I love serving these on sourdough bread, like a meatball melt!
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
This is mind blowing comfort food!
48 Comments on “French Onion Meatballs For The Weekend!”
It’s our 21st wedding anniversary today!
Luckily my husband is at work, so it will give me time to get some dinner together.
This is definitely something he’ll like with some rustic bread and red wine.
Thank you.
P.S. What about a dessert made with caramelized onions?? ha, ha, ha, ha!
I strongly dislike ground turkey. I know you said it’s best for the flavors but is ground beef terrible? Can I make it work?
not at all! you can definitely use beef!
Do you think mozzarella cheese would work in place of gruyere?
Interesting recipe. I’m going to have to master making carmelized onions. But my patience is only 3 minutes long. Any substitution for the other 20 minutes? I almost never read an entire blog and enjoyed yours and the comments. Thank you.
OMG JESSICA! I am so making this tonight! Little note: I usually caramelize a lot more onions – double or triple the amount- in a extra large pan to have full contact with heat, and freeze portions. It’s a great tip. I guess pork could be an option too? They call it “the new white meat” after all. Be safe and carry on as Jamie would say!
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These were so so so so good! I used 85% ground beef and we subbed panko + a TBS of italian seasoning. Everyone inhaled them. Another great recipe! Thanks a bunch!
This was my first time making carmelized onions AND meatballs…in recent memory! LOL They were so good and my husband LOVED them! I also made extra carmelized onions to have on hand so it took me awhile to get the recipe done. LOL I used ground turkey and gluten-free panko crumbs, as well as Mizithra cheese instead of Parmesan. I saw it at the store and was intrigued as it was a combo of goat cheese and sheep’s milk cheese. :)
All in All? I will definitely make this recipe again but I think it will be on a Saturday afternoon instead of 6p on a Sunday evening, like we did yesterday. I also plan on doubling the batch so we can freeze some. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Another hit, Jessica! I made these tonight with some substitutions (Monterey Jack/sharp cheddar, club cracker crumbs, part ground turkey, part ground pork…you know, #quarancooking) but they came out delicious!
This dish is so yummy! Thank you!!
Made this last night – SO GOOD. I used a 1.25 lb package of ground turkey since I didn’t want leftover ground turkey, and used smoked gruyere instead of regular. The meatballs are so tender and juicy, and do not taste at all like such lean ground meat. Fantastic and will absolutely make this again!
I made these Saturday night basically into meatball sandwiches. Sadly it was just for the two of use, but the leftovers have been just as amazing!!! tonight they’re going over spaghetti squash! thank you so much for this recipe. Delicious!!
A+++++++
Absolutely delicious meatballs! These turned out rich and very filling. I will absolutely make these again.
Delicious!! It takes 647 years to caramelize all those onions but so worth it! Thanks!
Could you finish these covered on the stove? I don’t turn my oven on in the summer (thank you, AZ) but I don’t want to wait to make these!
yees absolutely!!
Simply delicious! Will make this again and again! So good!
These were quite good!! The flavor was FANTASTIC! I served over warm egg noodles along with a side of wilted rainbow chard for the perfect coming Fall season meal. These make for a simple weekday Family dinner while still being capable of impressing dinner guests as a meal or decadent app presented on toasted sourdough as shown.
This is amazing! So delicious. Simple, although it does take quite a bit of time. I would add waaaay more onions next time and a little less liquid slurry as it was a bit runny in the end. Will make again for sure!
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Delicious
Making these today with great beef but made them with ground chicken first..these .are. addictive…Nothing better than a house full of caramelized onions on the stove.Putting them into Hawaiian bread dinner rolls for pull apart for movie night tonight:)
I am making these for the second time now. I inspired three of my friends to make them too once they saw my photo on Instagram. Everyone has LOVED them. It makes A LOT of meatballs, and I ate them all in a week 😂😂. Usually I hate leftovers for more than one sitting but I was happy to gobble these up over four meals. It will definitely make it as a regular into my winter rotation of soups and hearty pastas for cold nights.
wow this was a winner!
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Made this for dinner last night and my partner LOVED it. Very very tasty and fairly easy to make (just a bit time consuming). We subbed the gruyere for swiss since it’s what we had on hand but otherwise made as is. So so good, we’ll be making this again no doubt!
Do you think I could use italian style breadcrumbs instead of seasoned? I hate to buy new breadcrumbs because I don’t use them much.
Made these today with ground chicken and regular breadcrumbs that I seasoned with herbs de provence… wow. This was worth the work and I will make those several times a year. My husband and I could have eaten the whole skillet, but I showed restraint! Might be the best chicken meatballs I have ever made or had for that matter.
I really want to make this tonight for dinner! Besides the bread, what other side dishes would recommend I make?
These meatballs were divine. I caramelized the onions yesterday, made the meatballs this morning and completed the recipe in the frying pan. I then transferred everything to a baking dish, cooled, covered and refrigerated. Baked in a convection for 40 minutes. Served over basil rice and served with a salad.
I love lots of flavour and this was scrumptious. Thank you for a great recipe which will be made on a regular rotation.
FULL DISCLOSURE, I used meatballs from a different recipe because I already had some that I’d frozen and needed to use. However, this dish was absolutely delicious and I’m sure would’ve been even more so with the meatballs from this recipe. The gravy and onion combo was so cozy and tasty. I served it with garlic bread, roasted vegetables and a salad — everyone was pleased and full.
Has this been made ahead and frozen and still turned out delicious? What would be the best way to do this- thaw, warm it up and serve or put it in the oven frozen then warm and serve?
These are SO good. Served over rice with crusty bread. Made exactly as the recipe called for, and it was perfect. Will definitely make again!
We had these for dinner tonight…a BIG hit with my husband! I loved them too and there are NO leftovers! Thanks Jessica for another terrific recipe!
Made these tonight. They were DELICIOUS!!
I rate a lot of recipes, and I admit that I won’t even bother if I’m not going to give it 5 stars. Because what if it’s just me? This recipe, I wish I could give more than 5. I used 3 onions because I know how the amount can dwindle when you’re carmelizing. So I also added a tbsp of butter to the oil. The meat mixture? Perfect, you can taste the thyme, I made more of the broth mixture because we had it over fusili pasta. Tasted just like a good onion soup! The best part, we have leftover meatballs to put on some crusty rolls with more cheese tomorrow for lunch. This is a keeper!
I looked at several recipes for “Ground Turkey French Onion Meatballs” some were using frozen meatballs, or were just way too fancy with high priced ingredients so when I saw this recipe I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. I don’t have an oven proof skillet so I baked the meatballs first. And I had to use a tablespoon of flour instead of a teaspoon. To cut time I cut the onions up small and thin before cooking them so i wouldn’t have to afterwards. I served them with whole tiny potatoes red & gold with the sauce on top with parmesan. These meatballs are little bursts of happiness! Truly delicious, thanks for publishing a simple recipe that tastes like it came from a high class restaurant.
I’ve made these meatballs several times now and they are delicious. In fact, as I was eating them tonight I decided they are possibly one of the best tasting things on the planet. Thank you! My 11 month old loves them too!
I have made these little flavor gems several times now and LOVE them. Hubby and I just can’t get enough of them. This time though I used “Campbell’s French onion soup” in place of the beef broth and doubled the sauce. I served them with tri color cheese tortellini (frozen) OH. MY. GOSH. SO good!
Thanks for sharing!
A big hit in my house today! I could hardly wait to get my groceries today so I could try this. They were worth the wait. Definitely will be a frequent meal here. Thanks!
So good! My family loved them and they are picky. They do not like ground turkey but I used it anyway. I didn’t have gruyere and used mozzarella. I can see why gruyere would have been better but mozzarella was still good! I doubled the recipe. The caramelized onions were amazing and it was my first time doing that. I was surprised how easy they were. I saved enough mix to patty up some burgers and threw them in the freezer for another night. Big hit. So full of flavor.
Deeeeelish! Loved this a bunch.
These were delicious! The meatballs were yummy and the braising liquid was so good on its own (I used beef broth), it tasted like French onion soup! We ate it with mashed sweet potatoes. Great dinner, thanks!
I have made this recipe several times. Absolutely perfect! Even my picky husband raves about them.
I do have a problem with the meatballs sticking to the pan and have to scrap them off the bottom in order to turn them. I know it’s not because they aren’t ready because they are always VERY brown on that side. Any suggestions?