Easy 25 Minute Teriyaki Venison Meatballs
These Teriyaki Venison Meatballs are sweet, sticky and incredibly easy to make! A perfect, busy weeknight meal using that ground meat in your freezer.
If you hunt like we do, there’s a good chance your freezer is FULL of ground meat. I know we all love burgers and tacos but it is nice to switch it up too! That is why I am starting this series of “Quick and Easy Ground Meat Recipes”.
Using ground meat in recipes is such a foolproof way to have delicious meat every time. There is no special cooking equipment or set temperature required when cooking it. The options are truly endless when it comes to using your ground venison or any other wild game meat.
Starting this series off with these simple yet flavor packed Teriyaki Venison Meatballs. They are as easy as making your meat mixture, baking it in the oven and then bathing those meatballs in a dreamy teriyaki sauce. There is really no way to hate on these tasty bites of Venison!
Tips for grinding your own meat
- If you are butchering your own wild game, make sure to remove as much of the sinew as possible before chucking the meat in your grind pile. While grinding it can be a bit more forgiving, it will still yield a much more tender and delicious bite if you have as little sinew as possible left on your meat.
- Start the grind process with slightly frozen meat. We cube our meat for the grind pile, then will freeze it about halfway before using it. You want the meat as cold as possible when working with it or it will gum up and gets extremely sticky.
- Add anywhere from 10-20% fat to your grind. I know that many people will get their wild game ground just as it is without adding any fat, but if you plan to make some delicious meals with it, I highly recommend adding a bit of fat. Wild game is extremely lean so adding in just a bit of fat will help with flavor and keeping that ground meat nice and tender. Our favorite, is adding pork shoulder when grinding. This gives us some of the fat we want without making it too greasy.
Teriyaki Venison Meatball Ingredients
Ground Venison– As with all of my Venison recipes you can use almost any big wild game meat you have in your freezer or even beef if you are not a hunter.
Egg– This acts as a binger to help keep those meatballs together while adding a big more fat.
Onion– I kept the sauce nice and simple, so I added a bit of chopped onion to the meat for extra flavor. Red onion or white onion will work.
Garlic– As I always say, fresh is best when it comes to garlic!
Soy sauce– If you are gluten free, be sure to use Tamari/Gluten free soy sauce.
Brown Sugar– This brings the sweetness that is essential to teriyaki sauce.
Sesame Oil– There is just a dash of this in the sauce for a hint of sesame flavor.
Ginger– This recipe uses fresh ginger. A little pro tip is to peel ginger when you buy it and then store it in the freeze. This makes it easy to grate it right into your recipes.
Chili Flakes– This is optional but I add just a pinch for a bit of heat.
Cornstarch– Cornstarch is added to help thicken the sauce.
Steps for making Teriyaki Venison Meatballs
1.Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. To a large owl add the ground meat, egg, onion, 2 cloves minced garlic and 1/2 tbsp soy sauce. Gently mix with a spoon until just combined.
3. Spoon the meat mixture into 1.5-2 inch sized meatballs and place on the baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for about 10 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165F.
4. While the meatballs are cooking, add all of the sauce ingredients excluding the cornstarch to a small pot. Cook over medium low heat for 3-4 minutes.
5. Next, add the cornstarch and 3 tbsp of water to a measuring cup. Whisk until smooth.
6. Pour the cornstarch mixture into the saucepot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the meatballs are done cooking.
7. Remove the meatballs from the oven and gently place in a large bowl. Pour the teriyaki sauce over the meatballs and gently toss them so they are coated in the sauce. Serve over a bed of rice and top with sesame seeds and fresh green onion. Enjoy!
Pin this and follow us for more Quick and Easy Ground Meat recipes to make with all of your wild game! Leave a comment below if you try this one 🙂
Tender Venison meatballs with a sweet and sticky homemade teriyaki sauce. * If you like extra saucy meatballs, you can keep the meat mixture the same and double the sauce recipe. 
25 Minute Teriyaki Venison Meatballs
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
