Looking for a killer app? My Bacon Wrapped Meatballs are one of my family's favorites! I add real New England maple syrup to the meatballs to give them a sweet-spicy flavor.
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When you set a plateful of bacon-wrapped anything, it's sure to catch the eye of everyone in your house or at the party. That's one reason why sweet and spicy Bacon Wrapped Meatballs are one of my favorite recipes to make whenever there's a get-together—holidays, game days, potluck dinner, you name it!
These little bacon-wrapped apps are so popular that we've even enjoyed them as a savory breakfast treat!
The homemade meatballs have a combination of two ground meats and sweet-spicy coating of brown sugar and maple syrup. They also have a spicy cayenne pepper kick. Serve a platter of toothpick-skewered, balcony, party meatballs with cold beer or other cold drinks.
In a nutshell... 🐿️
- What this is: Savory chicken and pork meatballs wrapped in smoky bacon, with a sweet-spicy glaze.
- You'll love this part: The meatballs are straight-forward to make, and they're always the most popular appetizer on the table.
- How it's made: Blend the ground meats and aromatics. Roll the meatballs, wrap them in bacon, roll in spices and syrup, then bake.
Jump to:
Why you'll love Bacon Wrapped Meatballs
Bacon Wrapped Meatballs with brown sugar are homemade. That means you get to control exactly what goes into them, a huge advantage over frozen, store-bought meatballs. The meat mixture is a savory blend of ground chicken and pork with spices and diced onion.
With a brown sugar and cayenne coating on the outside and a drizzle of sweet New England maple syrup, the meatballs bake up quickly in the oven. Hot, delicious, with a crispy wrapping of bacon and sweet-spicy caramelized sugar—YUM.
This is an amazing cocktail meatball recipe to serve at a Super Bowl party, as a holiday appetizer, or as a fun weekend comfort food snack.
New England maple syrup and bacon make these meatballs delicious!
Make your sweet-savory bacon wrapped meatballs recipe with pure maple syrup; get some from your local sugarhouse or order maple syrup from New England sugarhouses! The flavor and quality of real maple syrup makes these meatballs especially delicious, so skip the fake stuff, please.
Some of my favorite Vermont sugarhouses are Runamok, Morse Farm, Woods Vermont Syrup, and Sugarhill Sugar Works. If you don't live in Vermont, support a sugar house near you—look up your state on MapleSyrupFarms.org to find one.
I also like to find bacon from local producers; when products like these are made in small batches by companies who value quality ingredients, they make every recipe ten times more tasty.
As for bacon, I love the smoky flavor of Vermont's Dakin Farm bacon and New Hampshire's North Country Smokehouse.
Snacks!
Cheese Spread with Bacon and Pesto
This is a six-ingredient cheese spread that's so delicious with crackers! With bacon, pesto, and Parmesan.
🔪 How to make Bacon Wrapped Meatballs
Ingredients:
- Ground chicken and pork: The combination of these two ground meats gives you flavorful meatballs that are less greasy than beef meatballs.
- Onion: Not only does diced onion give the meatballs lots of flavor, onions also help keep the meatballs moist.
- Parsley: A little chopped parsley brings fresh, herby flavor to the meatballs.
- Parmesan cheese: Another savory ingredient to balance out the sweetness of the maple and sugar. Use freshly grated Parmesan for the best flavor.
- Bacon: Use a good quality bacon without too much fat, for meatballs that look appetizing and have a really good, smoky flavor.
- Brown sugar: The bacon and meatballs are rolled in brown sugar to create a caramelized coating once baked.
- Maple syrup: It's drizzled onto the meatballs for a little extra sweetness and flavor. I prefer Grade A Dark or Very Dark maple syrup, as it's the intense variety. And of course, use a local, pure maple syrup!
- Spices: Cayenne pepper gives the meatballs and bacon recipe a good hit of heat; black pepper and salt round out the meatball mixture.
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Make the meatball mixture
Mix together the ground meats, parsley, onion, and spices.
Make the meatballs
Use a cookie scoop or your hands to shape the mixture into balls.
Wrap them in bacon
Wrap each meatball in a short piece of bacon, and skewer them with toothpicks. Wrap the meatballs and chill them for 1 hour.
Coat the meatballs
Coat the meatballs wrapped in bacon in a small bowl of brown sugar blended with cayenne pepper, along with a drizzle of Vermont maple syrup, and put them on a baking sheet. Add a touch of maple syrup to each meatball.
Bake 'em
Place the bacon wrapped meatballs in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until they're cooked through and the bacon is crisp. Serve them while they're hot!
What goes with Bacon Wrapped Meatballs?
If you're making Bacon Wrapped Meatballs as an appetizer or game day snack, set them out with other crowd-pleasing tidbits like homemade corn salsa with chips, beer cheese dip, spicy Chex mix, and pulled pork sliders. Wash them down with cold sodas and beer.
I also like to make Bacon Wrapped Meatballs as a casual dinner; to round out the meal, serve them with a pull-apart cheesy garlic bread, bowls of creamy potato soup, cooked rice, fluffy mashed potatoes, or French fries.
Another savory app!
Pigs in a Blanket Crescent Roll Bites
Cooked sausages and crescent roll dough make this snack so easy to prepare.
Bacon Wrapped Meatballs FAQs
For tender meatballs, be careful not to over-handle the meat mixture as this could create a tough texture. Combine the other ingredients together and then gently fold them into the ground meat.
Also, when making meatballs with leaner meats like chicken or pork, it's a good idea to include diced onion. The onions help keep the meatballs juicy as they bake through.
The meat mixture should have a combination of wet ingredients (like milk or oil) and dry ingredients (like breadcrumbs). It's important to follow your recipe closely for the right ratios, so your meatballs will be balanced. Too much of either wet or dry ingredients will result in meatballs that fall apart or that bake up too dry.
Shape the meatballs firmly so that they hold together on the baking sheet. If the meat mixture is warming up and difficult to handle, pop it in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to chill.
No, the meatballs should be wrapped with strips of bacon right from the package. Cooked strips are more brittle and would fall apart when trying to fold them around the meatballs. The uncooked strips will cook through right alongside the meatballs in the oven, and in the process, the meatballs will soak up the smoky, salty flavor.
These chicken and pork meatballs wrapped in bacon cook through in about 30 minutes in a 375°F oven.
The easiest and fastest way to tell if the meatballs are done is to cut one in half and check. The meat should have no pink remaining. You can also check the temperature with a digital thermometer—the meatball centers should read 165°F.
When you shape the meatballs, it helps to use a spring-loaded scoop to make them all the same size. That way you know that they'll cook through at the same rate.
Tips:
- Soak the toothpicks in water for an hour before skewering the meatballs. This will keep the toothpicks from burning in the oven.
- Ground turkey can be used in place of ground chicken, if you'd like.
- Keep the bacon very cold until you're ready to wrap the meatballs. This will make it easier to separate and maneuver the strips.
- The meatballs are spicy—to bring the heat down use less cayenne pepper in the sugar mixture.
The recipe for Bacon Wrapped Meatballs is below. Here are a few other tasty party apps you'll want to make, too!
💬 Did you make and devour this recipe? Leave a comment below.
📖 Recipe
Bacon Wrapped Meatballs
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Equipment
- 35 toothpicks, soaked in water for at least 1 hour
Ingredients
For the meat mixture:
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 pound ground pork
- ½ cup diced onion
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
To coat the meatballs:
- 1 pound smoked bacon strips
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ cup Vermont maple syrup
Instructions
Shape the meatballs:
- Set a wire rack into a baking sheet and cover the rack with foil. Poke holes through the foil in several places.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together by hand the 1 pound ground chicken, 1 pound ground pork, ½ cup diced onion, ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Mix just until ingredients are evenly combined.
- Use a cookie scoop or your hands to roll the meat mixture into 1½-inch balls.
Wrap the meatballs:
- Cut the 1 pound smoked bacon strips into thirds.
- Wrap a section of bacon around each meatball and skewer it in place with a soaked toothpick. Place it on the foil-covered rack.
- Repeat with the remaining bacon pieces and meatballs.
- Cover the meatballs loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Coat the meatballs:
- Preheat oven to 375° F. When the oven is hot, take the meatballs from the fridge.
- In a shallow dish mix together the ¾ cup packed light brown sugar and the ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper.
- Roll each bacon-wrapped meatball in the brown sugar mixture, pressing the sugar to the surface to thoroughly coat each one. Place the coated meatballs back onto the foil-covered rack.
- Sprinkle leftover cayenne sugar over the tops of the meatballs. Drizzle ¼ cup Vermont maple syrup over the tops of the meatballs, about ½ teaspoon on each one.
Bake:
- Bake the meatballs for about 30 minutes, until they're cooked through to an internal temperature of 160° F.
- Use tongs to place the meatballs on a serving platter, and serve them while they're hot.
- Makes about 35 bacon-wrapped meatballs.
Notes
Nutrition
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