Look at these guys. These Hearty BBQ Pork Balls almost make me tear up just reminiscing about making them, let alone eating them. I have posted a few recipes for meatballs on this blog, two of which are based on recipes from a book called The Meatball Shop Cookbook, which is a compilation of recipes from the guys who own The Meatball Shop in Manhattan, assuredly a destination on my next trip to NYC. So these BBQ Pork Balls are based on their recipe too.
Moreover, these aren’t classic Italian meatballs; they’re pork balls, perfect if you want BBQ and don’t have the time or the resources to spark it up in the back (the BBQ, that is).
I served these on sandwich rolls with a liberal amount of BBQ sauce and homemade KFC coleslaw. Nothing more needs to be said.
Hearty BBQ Pork Balls Recipe
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion - diced
1 pound ground pork (minced pork)
½ cup BBQ sauce (barbecue sauce)
1 medium egg
½ cup breadcrumbs
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Get an 8×8 or similar size baking dish and coat its bottom with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in your skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook them until they are soft and browned, often stirring, for about 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool (hot onions would make scrambled eggs when you add them to the mixture, so that’s why you chill them, kid).
- When the onions are cooled, put them in a mixing bowl with the pork, BBQ sauce, eggs, bread crumbs, and salt. Mix all together using your hands until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Have a cup of water next to you as you roll out the meatballs. A key to making good meatballs is keeping your hands moist as you roll them. It makes the balls smooth, and it’s easier to make sure there are no cracks in them.
- Roll the mixture into cueball-size meatballs and make sure the meat is packed firmly. Place the balls in rows and columns in the oiled baking dish. The meatballs should be touching one another.
- Bake these guys for 20 minutes or until cooked through. The meat thermometer should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit when poked into the centre of a meatball. Remove pork balls from the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes before you dig in.
- Serve them with more BBQ sauce.
