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.
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.
I made this last night on the stove top because it was so hot and the oven would have made life for the cook (me!) miserable. Instead of broccoli, I sliced up a few carrots, part of an onion, and a few frozen particle bags of veggies I had in the freezer. The pork meatballs were so tender and made enough for my husband to eat this weekend while I’m out of town. Thank you for the great recipe! I’ll be making this again soon.
Would I ruin the sauce if I didn’t use cornstarch? It’s the only thing I’m missing!
It just won’t get as thick, but it’ll still be delicious.
I would say the sauce was too salty so I’d recommend using a low-salt soy sauce and I think it’ll be fine. And I’m not a low-salt kinda gal, either.
Also, I didn’t notice the older version of the teriyaki sauce which may be the way to go. I think the addition of the sesame oil and the rice vinegar will add more balance.
I love Budget Bytes!!
Everyone loved this recipe! Super delicious!
I decided to use a plum sauce instead of teriyaki an it still is amazing.
I made these using ground chicken instead of pork. It was fantastic. The flavor profile was on point.
Honestly I could find no reason not to rate this recipe with 5 stars. Simple to make, inexpensive and delicious! Devoured quickly and everyone loved them! Even my Dad with cancer are everything on his plate, extremely rare. Love! ♥️
This tasted great and was easy to pull together, but I can’t understand how the nutrition was calculated. I know some things vary but no matter how I try to calculate it, it’s always at least 200cal lower than what I’m coming up with. I’m wondering if maybe the ingredients “for serving” (broccoli and rice) weren’t included? Just a heads up for anyone else who may be counting calories, it might be worth double checking this one.
The nutrition data provided is calculated using all ingredients listed on the recipe card, including any ingredient listed as optional. Keep in mind that recipes that involve marinades, breading, salad dressings, oil for frying, or salt for cooking pasta and potatoes may be skewed because some of these ingredients will be discarded and not included in the final edible portion.
Hmmm, then the calorie count listed seems too low by about 200kcal. I’m not an expert by any means, but almost everything I used had labels to scan (for nutritional info) so there wasn’t much room for error, and I checked the pork using the same website listed in the nutrition disclaimer.
Another great recipe. I did use a bag of meatballs I had in my freezer. I hadn’t seen anyone else mention that shortcut but it worked out very well. Now I will look for another recipe from this site.
This recipe has become part of our dinner rotation. It’s so delicious exactly as written! My kids like it too.
This recipe is easy! If I can do it anyone can. I didn’t have hosin sauce so I used bbq sauce in place. I totally forgot to add the water to the sauce. It is still very tasty . Thank you.
Made this last night since I’ve been craving Asian-style food (all the Chinese restaurants are closed!) and it was delicious! I can’t believe how simple the sauce was! I thought maybe I messed it up because it took forever to thicken, but thicken it did! I only went off-recipe twice – I omitted the ginger entirely because I don’t like the taste, and I found the sauce needed just a bit more sugar and I threw in a couple teaspoons of white sugar.
Oh yes, I also used Italian bread crumbs since it was all I had, but since the sauce has a rather potent flavor, I didn’t notice any flavor from the bread crumbs coming through.
Aside from these small changes, this was a lovely meal! I used ground chicken for the meatballs and paired mine with roasted vegetables that I had on hand (sweet potatoes and zucchini). I would definitely like to make this again!
OMG. This recipe is so good and easy to make. Tons of flavor! I used brown rice instead and the teriyaki sauce recipe is better than anything in the store! Definitely going to be a keeper!
I love the old version of the recipe, but was not able to get the PDF version to open. (It comes back with an error that there’s no root source.) Unlike another user, I do not have the old version stored in my cache, so I’m unable to access it. :(
I second this–the older version PDF says there is an error. I was able to access it using the wayback machine, but it would be great to have that updated–we LOVE the sauce! Thank you!
Hey Brooke! Can you email me as well so I can look into this further?
This was so good! I made the broccoli for my husband and son, but I had some kale to use up so I made your séame kale to go in my bowl and it really worked well with this recipe. I was so glad to have leftovers for lunch! Will definitely be making this again.
Hey Caitlin! Shoot me an email at support at budgetbytes.com and I’ll see what I can do for you.
very delicious and easy recipe, cooked the meatballs in an air fryer (400 degrees for 5 minutes) so made it quick from start to finish
Made this tonight, it was so delicious! The sauce came together quickly once I got it heated through. All I had were Italian breadcrumbs and they surprisingly didn’t change the taste. I can’t wait to have this for lunch tomorrow!
Love it when you use what you have on hand! Glad to hear it tasted great too.
I made this with my kids tonight because getting them involved cuts down on skepticism of new recipes lol. We all loved it! We made 1.5 times (so 6 servings) and it came out great. We didn’t change anything. This will be a regular for us now.