Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatballs

A sweet and tangy homemade cranberry sauce with a bit of a kick makes the perfect glaze for these Venison Meatballs. (You can use it with regular meatballs too!)

What's your favorite party food?

We've been prepping this week to have people over for a game day party. Even though the Packers didn't make it to the Big Game, there's still an excuse to party!

We LOVE meatballs as a party food.  Put out some toothpicks, turn on the crock pot to keep them warm, and people can snack all afternoon long.

Our Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatball Recipe

These Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatballs have a deep sweetness from brown sugar, the bright and slightly tart flavor of juicy cranberries, and just a hint of a kick from some cayenne pepper.

You could easily use frozen meatballs with this sauce recipe (just skip straight to the instructions for making the sauce).  And, you could just as easily swap out some ground beef in the meatball recipe.

However, we decided to make our meatballs out of the last of some ground venison we had in the freezer.

Making meatballs from scratch isn't difficult (think meatloaf or burgers, but mini).  And, it allows you to do fun things like add nutmeg and a bit of black pepper, making these meatballs the perfect complement to the cranberry glaze.

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Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatballs

A sweet and tangy homemade cranberry sauce with a bit of a kick makes the perfect glaze for these Venison Meatballs. (You can use it with regular meatballs too!)

Yield: 24 (1 inch) meatballs

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8 - 12 people

Author: Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere

Ingredients

For The Meatballs (Yield: 24 – 1” meatballs)

• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• ½ onion, minced
• ½ lb ground venison (or beef, 85% lean)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ c breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoon milk
• 1 egg

For The Cranberry Sauce

• 1 c water
• ½ c white sugar
• ½ c brown sugar
• 8 oz cranberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ⅛ teaspoon cloves

Instructions

For The Meatballs

• Heat butter in a medium, non-stick frying pan. Add onions and saute until golden. Remove from heat.
• Mix onions with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to thoroughly incorporate, but do not over mix.
• Return the non-stick frying pan to medium heat.
• Shape 1 tablespoon of meat mixture in a ball, roughly 1” in diameter. As meatballs are shaped, add to hot pan. Heat meatballs until the entire outside is seared. Set aside. (If you were eating the meatballs straight from here, you would want to cook them 7-10 min until firm, but since we will be cooking them in the sauce, we just need to lock in the juices and set the shape.)
• Continue until all meat mixture has been used.

For The Cranberry Sauce

• In a medium saucepan, bring water and sugars to a boil, stirring often. Simmer 5 minutes.
• Add cranberries and cinnamon stick. Simmer 5-7 minutes, until the cranberry skins pop.
• Add mustard, salt, cayenne, and cloves. Mix well.

Putting It All Together

• Add meatballs to sauce and simmer 5-10 minutes, until glaze thickens and meatballs are warmed through.

Notes

This dish can be made ahead and reheated or kept warm for the party in a crock pot on low.

Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere

Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/