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.
Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatballs
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
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.
I love meatballs and these with the cranberry glaze look absolutely delicious!!
I just LOVE cranberry; I am going to have to try these!
Meatballs! Who doesn't love them and loving the use of cranberries.
Love the glaze on this!! Will have to try these, what a great "picky" appetizer for any party!
These meatballs look great! I love saucy meatballs.
Wow these are some seriously yummy meatballs. One of my fave things to eat. Just something so comforting about meatballs.
We used to mix Diana sauce with cranberry sauce at christmas, I know this has gotta be good!
What would a party be without meatballs? I'd love to have these anytime.
I have never met a meatball I didn't like and these look fabulous!!!
Ohhhh yum!!!
Oh yes, meatballs are the perfect party food. I love your version 🙂 ~ Bea @ galactosemia in pdx
These sound incredible, yum!!!! I may have to make these with Turkey Meatballs 🙂
Turkey meatballs are a great idea! I don't know why we don't think about using ground turkey more often. Thanks!
Meatballs are such a perfect party food...I think the cranberry glaze sounds delish!
I would be first in line for these meatballs! See you st the party!
Whats a football party without meatballs?! lol I love the cranberry glaze, such a great idea. Thanks for sharing!