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!
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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.
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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.
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Nutrition
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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.
This recipe was delicious and approved by both kids!! (8 and 4 yrs old). I doubled the recipe so I have left over sauce.
What should I do with the leftover sauce?
Wahoo! You can refrigerate it or freeze it if you’d like.
I made it tonight. I had all of the ingredients except green onions. Picked some up when I went grocery shopping earlier today. I used ground turkey and it turned out amazing.
That’s great Ericka!
I made this for dinner tonight and it awesome!! My picky 4 year old said it was really good and my 8 month old ate it too. This recipe will definitely be made again and again!
Now that’s a HUGE WIN! Happy to hear it Erin!
This recipe is excellent. We used deer burger and deer sausage for the meatballs and it worked perfectly.
Awesome Lauren! We cook a lot with venison as well. I’ve had great luck swapping it with Beth’s recipes!
I didn’t clear the cache, I viewed a cached version of the webpage before the updated version was edited in. The pdf of the old version still doesn’t download for me, it says it’s missing or invalid when I try to open the pdf.
I’m sorry! Shoot me an email at support@budgetbytes.com if you’d like me to get you a pdf.
The PDF for the old version pops up an error when trying to download. This recipe has been in regular freezer meal rotation for years now but I never copied down the recipe, so now seemed like a good time to do so since the old version is harder to get to now. In the meantime I was able to get the old recipe by viewing a cached version of this page.
(Also, thank you for giving the ginger in tsp in the new recipe, since thickness of root varies. Pretty sure I’ve been getting more than 1tsp of ginger out of my 1in root pieces but now I know!)
Oh no! Sorry for the troubles Lilian. But happy to hear you were able to get it to work after a cache clearing. Let me know if I can help!
This is one of my favourite Budget Bytes recipes. I have successfully frozen the meatballs + sauce, rice, & peas to have quick lunches in the freezer for busy weeks.
Great to know Deb!
These meatballs look so good! Definitely adding to the menu plan for next week!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Can’t wait to hear what you think!
I love this recipe! I meal-prepped this for my lunches. I made brown jasmine rice, some roasted broccoli, grape tomatoes, and an Asian slaw made from red cabbage, shredded carrot, and ginger carrot dressing, .
Definitely looking forward to lunch this week!
Loved this! I wasn’t able to get ground pork but I thought it was tasty with ground beef. Meat ball flavor seemed a little on the low side, but I think I know how to fix that (either fresh seasonings instead of the powdered stuff or doubling the amount).
LoVeD the glaze! It was delicious! I’ll be using that for future meals
Could these be made & frozen raw or cooked as a freezer meal? Has anyone tried it?
Meatballs usually freeze really good, although I haven’t tried these yet. Cornstarch thickened sauces usually don’t freeze well, though, so you may not want to freeze the finished product.
On 3/5/18 you responded that you froze it all together. 😁 I only looked back to make sure because I’ve made these as freezer meals (on your recommendation) for my husband to use while I’m away for grandma duties.
Honestly, I dont know if I’ve personally ever reheated the bowl from frozen so I’ll try to pay attention to how the sauce reheats and post my findings. I will watch to see if anyone else has the experience before I do. I hope I didnt just leave a half dozen gloppy teriyaki meals in the freezer. LoL 😉 He wouldn’t complain if they were. 💗
I scour the internet for recipes to freeze. I find it challenging to find healthy, non dairy options.
LOL! I guess I just didn’t remember! It’s been YEARS since I made this one. Haha! I’m glad you found the answer! :)
Just pre-made these meatballs for two meals this week (Teriyaki Meatballs and Banh Mi Bowls). Overall, the meatballs are good, the Asian flavor came out on the mild side for me. Also, not quite salty enough. I use low sodium soy sauce, so that may be why. Next time I will probably double the soy sauce. I am looking forward to eating them with teriyaki sauce, and in the banh mi bowls! I actually live in Vietnam, so I was happy to find a fun twist on a local staple.
How do you think this would work using premade meatballs from the grocery frozen section? It would save so much time for me
I think that could work in a pinch, just keep in mind that the meatballs at the store probably have Italian seasonings in them, instead of Asian inspired flavors, like the ginger and soy sauce, so that might be a little strange. If you can find some that are fairly plain, that would work best.
This recipe has now become a regular recipe for us. We use low sodium soy sauce so it isn’t too salty. My husband LOVES these meatballs. I’ll have to check out your other recipes.
Besides using ground turkey and using too much cornstarch so it was more of a goo than a gravy.. LOL.. I followed this recipe to a T and it was fantastic! Even used the extra teriyaki sauce on my veggies. Soooo Good!! Thank you!
I liked the meatballs in this one, and thought the recipe was pretty easy to make, but the sauce was sooooo salty! I expected some saltiness from the soy, but it completely overwhelmed the rest of the dish. If I were to make this again, I would probably at least halve the soy. This recipe also makes quite a few dishes, (baking sheet, pot for sauce, pot for rice, bowl for mixing meatballs, etc), which doesn’t work in its favor. My husband really liked it – served with steamed baby bok choy on the side – but it’s not a keeper for me. Fortunately, I have quite a few of your other delicious recipes in regular rotation to choose from. :)