I’m kind of obsessed with meatballs. They’re easy to make, filling, they pack well for lunches, are freezer-friendly, and can be paired with so many different flavors. Plus, I just kind of think meatballs cute (is that weird?). This time I seasoned my meatballs with some garlic and ginger, and drenched them in a homemade teriyaki sauce for these super easy and delish Teriyaki Meatball Bowls. You’re going to love the simplicity of this meal, and those juicy little pork and ginger meatballs!
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Can I substitute the Pork?
I used ground pork for this recipe because it’s inexpensive and always juicy, but you could certainly use ground turkey or chicken instead. The bulk of the flavor comes in the potent teriyaki glaze that coats the meatballs, so any milder ground meat works great. Ground beef can be used, but I find the flavors work a little better with mild white meat.
How long do the Teriyaki Meatball Bowls last?
You can store these meatball bowls in the refrigerator for about 4 days. To reheat, simply microwave for about 2 minutes, or until heated through.
Can the Meatball Bowls be Frozen?
Most of the components of these bowls are freezer friendly—the meatballs, rice, and broccoli. The teriyaki sauce, however, is not. Sauces thickened with cornstarch don’t tend to hold up to freezing and thawing. So you have a few options here. You can freeze the cooked or uncooked meatballs to quickly reheat or cook on busy nights, and then make the rest of the dish fresh, or freeze the meatball bowls whole but without the teriyaki sauce. You can then make the teriyaki sauce fresh and drizzle over top after reheating the bowls.
Other Ways to Serve Teriyaki Meatball Bowls
If you love pineapple with your teriyaki, simply stir a can of drained pineapple tidbits into the sauce, or use thawed frozen pineapple tidbits. These teriyaki meatballs also make a great appetizer! Just drench them in the sauce and serve with toothpicks.
You can find these rectangular Pyrex meal prep containers in my Amazon Shop.
Teriyaki Meatball Bowls
Servings 4Ingredients
PORK AND GINGER MEATBALLS
- 1 lb. ground pork ($3.49)
- 1 large egg ($0.23)
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs ($0.13)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp soy sauce ($0.02)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.2)
TERIYAKI SAUCE
- 1/2 cup soy sauce ($0.48)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar ($0.18)
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.20)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 cup water ($0.00)
- 2 Tbsp corn starch ($0.06)
FOR SERVING
- 1 cup jasmine rice ($0.66)
- 2 cups water ($0.00)
- 2 green onions ($0.08)
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds ($0.08)
- 1 lb. frozen broccoli florets ($2.59)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Begin with the meatball mixture. Add the ground pork, egg, breadcrumbs, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sliced green onions to a bowl. Use your hands to mix the ingredients until evenly combined.
- Divide and shape the meatball mixture into 16 ping pong sized balls. Place the shaped meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Baked the meatballs for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and have reached an internal temperature of at least 160ºF.
- While the meatballs are cooking, begin the rice. Add the jasmine rice and water to a sauce pot. Place a lid on top and turn the heat onto high. Bring the pot up to a full boil, then turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer, undisturbed for 15 minutes. After simmering for 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it sit, with the lid still in place, for an additional 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
- While the rice and meatballs are cooking, prepare the teriyaki sauce. Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, grated ginger, water, and cornstarch in a medium sauce pot. Stir to dissolve the cornstarch. Place the pot over medium heat. Stir and cook the sauce until it begins to simmer, at which point the sauce will thicken and turn from opaque to a shiny sauce. Remove the sauce from the heat.
- Finally, if serving the meatball bowls immediately, cook the frozen broccoli florets according to the package instructions. If you're packing the bowls as meal prep, the broccoli florets can be added in their frozen state.
- Once the meatballs have finished baking, add them to the sauce pot with the teriyaki sauce and stir to coat.
- To build the bowls, divide the cooked rice and broccoli florets between four bowls or containers. Add four meatballs to each bowl, then drizzle the extra sauce overtop. Finish the bowls by adding sliced green onion and sesame seeds to each bowl.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Enamelware Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
- Pyrex Glass Meal Prep
- Garlic Press
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Teriyaki Meatball Bowls – Step By Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Combine 1 lb. ground pork, 1 large egg, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 2 sliced green onions, and 1/2 tsp soy sauce in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix the ingredients until they are evenly combined.
Divide and shape the meatball mixture into 16 ping pong sized balls, and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the meatballs for about 20 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and the internal temperature has reached 160ºF.
Once the meatballs are in the oven, begin the rice. Add 1 cup jasmine rice and 2 cups water to a sauce pot. Place a lid on top and put the pot over high heat. Bring the pot up to a full boil, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer with the lid in place for 15 minutes. After simmering for 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it sit undisturbed for 5 more minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork before serving.
Once the meatballs and rice have started, it’s time to make the quick teriyaki sauce. In a medium sauce pot, combine 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, about 2 tsp grated ginger, 1 cup water, and 2 Tbsp cornstarch. Stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.
Place the sauce pot over medium heat and cook the sauce, stirring often, until it comes up to a simmer. When it reaches a simmer the sauce will thicken into a shiny glaze. Remove the sauce from the heat.
If you’re going to be serving the teriyaki meatball bowls right away, heat 1 pound of frozen broccoli florets according to the package directions (or just heat in the microwave). If you’re going to be packing these bowls up for meal prep, the broccoli florets can go into the containers frozen.
By this time the meatballs should be finished baking. Transfer them to the pot with the teriyaki sauce and stir to coat.
To build your bowls, divide the cooked rice and broccoli florets between four bowls. Add four meatballs to each bowl and drizzle the extra sauce over top. Finish the bowls by topping with more sliced green onion and some sesame seeds.
As with any meal prep, if you’re packing these up for later, make sure to get them into the refrigerator right away so they can cool down as quickly as possible to maintain quality and avoid food safety issues.
WOW, these were good! I added a small bag of frozen broccoli and there was plenty of sauce to go around. Mine were done 10 minutes ahead of time as well. I tested them with an instant read thermometer to make sure they were ok. I may try them at 350 next time. Love the sauce–I will definitely make it my go to teriyaki sauce.
Very good meatball and sauce. However I cook them at 350 not 400. 400 left a cripsy/burnt skin on the meatballs and dried them out. At 350 they are golden brown with no burnt skin.
Great and simple recipe but 35 minute for the tablespoon size meatballs was too long and must of them were very dry.
Still used the sauce and the rice which was delicious.
Just mare this tonight…
Usés panko
I made more sauce with chicken stock…
I made one error with the meatball, half a cup of soya instead or half teaspoon, it si very very salty, but still teste no so bad!
I’m keeping the recipe!
I made this recipe tonight and just wanted to tell you how wonderful my husband and I thought it was! I kept saying, “I can’t believe I made this!” I have never had much success with Asian style dishes but this was spot on. Thank you again. Oh, and it’s our three year wedding anniversary and this was a wonderful dinner to celebrate it!
Just tried these tonight and they will be going in the rotation of a number of your recipes. So simple and yet so good. Used ground chicken and made large meatballs, only cooked for 30 minutes. Had run out of fresh ginger so had to use ground but it was still very yummy. Looking forward to the leftovers for work dinners!
My poor chicken meatballs were pretty dry, but wow, the flavor is totally there. I’ll have to play around with baking time and temperature, but I’m definitely making these again.
I can’t wait to eat leftovers–soaking in the sauce overnight will be delicious.
Hi! I hope you see this and can respond; I am a college student and don’t have access to an oven– can the meatballs be cooked stovetop? I assume they can but with some recipes following exactly is important. As long as they are cooked through, it’s all good?
As long as they are cooked through, yes, it’s fine. I think the only trouble you may run into is that they might fall apart a bit if stirred around in a skillet, but you might be able to do it. :)
I’ve made this a few times and LOVE it… but tonight I need to double the recipe. I though I should just check first to make sure there is nothing (especially in the sauce ingredients) that I shouldn’t actually be doubling… I know sometimes you don’t have to actually double certain ingredients. For instance, using four inches of ginger in the meatballs and four in the sauce sounds quite high! Thanks for your input. :)
If I were to double this recipe I probably would simply double everything, but if you’re a little concerned about so much ginger, you can always hold back a little. I think it will still turn out great! :)
“Aliquot”? Do you mean “allocate”?
Nope, I mean aliquot. I work in a lab, so this is an every day term that we use and it found its way into my daily non-lab vocab. :P
This is in my Top 5. Everyone in the family devours this meal. I have doubled it and frozen it. Then I make fresh rice and have an instant meal. They all love the sauce. I have added a fresh pineapple to the rice bowl with success too!
Did you freeze them in the sauce? Or keep sauce separate?
Did you ever trytrytry to freeze? I was wondering the same so you freeze the meatballs and he sauce or just the sauce?
I froze the rice, meatballs, and sauce all together. I just prepared the dishes as if I was going to eat them, but put them in the freezer instead. It worked well.
One of my favorites. I checked my meatballs at least 5 minutes before the time in the recipe, and they were already done. So I agree with the others that the cook time is a little too long. Glaze was delicious. My husband and I don’t care for fresh ginger, so I left that out. I think I will try ground ginger next time.
How to avoid dry meatballs? They were golden brown on the outside, but very dry on the inside.
When I first read this I thought the temperature and cooking time were too high. When I make meatballs (different recipe but same idea) I bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Of course, this cooking time will vary based on the size of the meatball.
My meatballs turned out very dry on the inside and the teriyaki glaze was a bit too sweet and way darker than yours ?
You may need to shorten the cooking time a bit if the meatballs came out a little dry. Cooking time will vary slightly with the size of the meatball, percent fat in the ground meat, and your individual oven.
Love this recipe. Made some substitutions, simply because I didn’t have all of these ingredients on hand. Used 1/2 tsp ground ginger instead of fresh in the meatballs & about 3/4 tsp in the glaze. It was still yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe!