Korean Sweet and Savory Meatballs

Made with beef, vegetables, breadcrumbs, and brown sugar and soy sauce glaze, these Korean-inspired meatballs run the gamut of flavors. They are simultaneously sweet, salty, and savory, with just subtle notes of spice from the ginger and scallions (but not too spicy for my one-year-old). Such a combination of flavors makes this dish versatile; you could just as easily serve it as an appetizer at a party, bring it to a potluck, or have it for dinner with rice and veggies.

The meatballs derive much of their Korean identity from the ginger, scallions, onion, and garlic, so I strongly recommend you make them from scratch following the recipe. That said, if you need to use frozen meatballs in a pinch, the brown sugar/soy sauce glaze is very easy to make, and it will add an Asian-inspired sweetness to nearly any meatballs. Top it with chopped scallions and toasted sesame seeds for a more compelling presentation!

Meatball Ingredients

1.5 lbs Ground beef
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 Egg
1 Small yellow onion
3 cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp Ginger, grated
1 Scallion
1 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tspPepper

Glaze Ingredients

3/4 cup Dark brown sugar
1/3 cup Soy sauce
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp Ginger powder
2 tbsp Corn starch

Toppings (optional)

1/4 cup Chopped scallion
1 tbsp Toasted sesame seeds

Before making the meatballs themselves, we need to prepare the vegetable ingredients. Grate the ginger, mince the garlic, and finely chop the onion and scallion. A quick, easy shortcut you can take here is to purée the above ingredients in a food processor or a blender.

In a big bowl, add ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, soy sauce, and the vegetable ingredients we just prepared. Add salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients. Form the mixture into one-and-a-half-inch balls and place the balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper will make cleanup a breeze! I used 1.5 lb of ground beef, and it yielded 36 meatballs.

Put the meatballs in a 400° F preheated oven and cook for 25–28 minutes. Baking them in an oven is so much easier than cooking on the stove. Instead of standing over the stove, flipping the meatballs, you can just walk away until the timer goes off. But, don’t walk away just yet! We first need to make the sweet and savory glaze.

To make the glaze, add dark brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger powder, garlic powder, and corn starch in a sauce pan. Cook on medium-low heat while constantly stirring. As the brown sugar melts into the soy sauce, it will become a beautifully dark, sweet glaze. The corn starch will help thicken it. It only takes about 5 minutes to make this glaze. Once it starts to bubble, remove from heat.

Once the meatballs are finished in the oven, put them in a big bowl. Pour the sweet and savory glaze into the bowl and gently toss to coat them in the glaze.

You can sprinkle the meatballs with extra chopped scallion and toasted sesame seeds before serving. These sweet and savory meatballs are sure to be a hit!

If you’d like to get the latest recipe updates, follow me on Instagram!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote