Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce

A family recipe (from my mother-in-law) for a unique twist on traditional meatballs. These are baked in a wonderful tomato-based sweet and sour sauce, which is delicious over rice! I doubled the original sauce recipe. We love extra sauce, and this recipe will make a lot.

• Preparation Time: 15 mins
• Cooking Time: 1 hr 5 mins
• Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins
• Calories: 597 Calories

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup milk
• ⅔ cup white sugar
• 2 cups water
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 ½ cups bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 ½ pounds ground beef
• 2 cups ketchup
• ⅔ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Step 2

Mix the ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs, onion, milk, salt, and black pepper together in a large mixing bowl until evenly combined. Form the mixture into 12 large meatballs. Arrange the meatballs into a 9x13-inch baking dish.

Step 3

Stir the ketchup, tomato sauce, water, brown sugar, white sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, and chili powder together in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until well combined and hot, about 5 minutes. Pour the tomato sauce mixture over the meatballs in the baking dish. Turn the meatballs to coat in the sauce.

Step 4

Bake in the preheated oven until the meatballs are cooked through and no longer pink in the center, 60 to 90 minutes.