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
Servings: 8 - 12 people
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.