Skillet Swedish Meatballs
In this easy recipe for skillet Swedish meatballs, tender meatballs are smothered in a delicious, thick gravy. Serve over rice, noodles or potatoes!
I’ve been making this recipe for over a decade, and it is easily in my family’s top 10 favorite meals ever! It is so incredibly yummy!
Swedish Meatball Variations
There are many variations of Swedish meatball recipes out there on the interwebs. Some use ground pork or ground beef or a combination. Oftentimes, nutmeg or allspice are added while other recipes don’t use those spices at all. And the sauces are as varied as the meatballs! Thin or thick, creamy or dark.
My recipe for Swedish meatballs results in the most flavorful, tender meatballs swimming in a delectable, thick, rich brown gravy. THEY ARE SO GOOD.
The meatball mixture is a simple combination of ingredients:
- ground beef or ground pork (or a combination – even ground turkey works well)
- bread crumbs
- grated onion
- a hint of brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg
- egg
- milk
- salt and pepper
Skillet Cooked Meatballs
The meatballs and sauce are made in one skillet. You can use a 12-inch nonstick or cast iron skillet. But, I find that most often, I make this recipe in my trusty electric skillet {aff. link}.
It is big enough to cook all of the meatballs in a single layer in one batch. 🙌🏼 I literally keep this skillet around almost exclusively for this recipe. (Well, this one and ham fried rice.)
Here’s the process for whipping up these Swedish meatballs:
- Make the meatballs.
- Brown the meatballs in a skillet and remove to a plate.
- Make a simple roux and whisk in broth to make the base of the sauce.
- Add the meatballs back in and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce has thickened.
- Stir in sour cream.
How to Serve Traditional Swedish Meatballs
Traditionally, Swedish meatballs are served with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and often pickled cucumbers, as well.
The jam and cucumbers may sound like an odd combination, but the tangy, fresh flavors of both balance the richness of the meatballs, gravy and potatoes. It’s a winning combination!
However (Swedish meatball purists, look aside)…
I rarely have lingonberry jam and cucumbers hanging around together. So, in our household, we often enjoy this meal in a more simple manner: meatballs, sauce, potatoes, and a simple green veggie.
Applicable Life Lesson: don’t put off making this crazy good meal if a few of the more traditional components aren’t available. It can be enjoyed many different ways!
A Huge Favorite
This skillet Swedish meatballs recipe is one of our go-to Sunday meals when I have a bit more time to cook dinner, and, many of my kids have requested it as their birthday dinner over the years.
That’s high praise considering we take our birthday meal requests very seriously. 😉
This recipe is a definite tried-and-true favorite. We’ve been loving it for over 10 years! And I have no doubt it will be made for generations to come.
Be sure to read through the recipe and comments for additional tips and insights!
A Few Other Rave Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow! These are delicious! So flavorful! My mom is Swedish so I can attest that these pass the test! Adding this to my favorite recipes. Thanks Mel! I feel like every recipe I try from you is a winner! -Tammy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ These are the most requested meal from my kids currently. I sub the sour cream with double cream yoghurt (just because I always have it in the fridge) and it works great. Yummy with spaetzle!!! -Lauren
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have made this recipe many, many times. It is an all-time family favorite. I usually have to double it so that we will have leftovers. -Kelley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you thank you thank you. This was the first win I have had in weeks with my teen son. He loved this dish, well everyone did including me as it was delicious and easy. -Jeri
What to Serve With This
Skillet Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 ½ pounds ground pork, ground beef or ground turkey (see note)
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup milk
- ⅓ cup bread crumbs (see note)
- ¼ cup finely minced or grated onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (see note)
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice (see note)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1-2 tablespoons oil for cooking
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- Chopped fresh parsley or dried parsley
- Cooked egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice, for serving
Instructions
- For the meatballs, in a large bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients except for the oil and mix until evenly combined.
- Scoop the meat mixture into meatballs about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
- Heat the oil in a 12-inch, nonstick skillet or electric skillet over medium heat until hot and rippling.
- Add the meatballs to the pan in a single layer an inch or so apart. You may need to cook in batches, depending on the size of your pan. (*See note for oven-baked method.)
- Brown the meatballs on all sides. They'll finish cooking in a later step. Remove the meatballs to a pan or plate. Repeat with remaining meatballs adding a bit more oil to the skillet, if needed. Remove them from the skillet once browned.
- For the sauce, return the skillet to medium heat and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil. If the skillet was mostly dry before adding the butter and oil, you may want to add another tablespoon or two of either butter or oil so the sauce isn't lumpy. Heat until melted. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes.
- Slowly add the broth, just 1/2 cup at a time, whisking quickly to remove any lumps. Let each addition of broth cook until thick and smooth before adding the next bit. Once you've added about 2 cups, add the remaining broth and whisk until combined.
- Stir in the brown sugar and bring the sauce to a simmer, whisking constantly.
- Add the meatballs back to the skillet and cook 10 to 12 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through, turning them once or twice while cooking.
- Off the heat, stir in the sour cream to the sauce (just whisk it in around the meatballs). To help it blend in easier, you can ladle out a bit of the warm sauce into a bowl and whisk the sour cream in before adding it all back in to the skillet.
- Garnish with fresh or dried parsley and serve over hot, cooked egg noodles, potatoes, or rice.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (inspired by a couple recipes online – Cook’s Illustrated and Damn Delicious – with lots of my own changes both with ingredients and method to simplify the process and also cut down on butter/oil for the sauce.
Recipe originally published April 2015; updated March 2025 with new photos, recipe notes, etc
We love this recipe! We made it for a friend who is gluten free so just in case someone needs help making tbis recipe gluten free here is what we did. For the meatballs we subbed almond flour for the bread crumbs. Then with the sauce instead of starting with a roux we withheld some of the broth and mixed it with cornstarch then heated the rest of the broth then added the cornstarch broth mixture once it was simmering and made it into a gravy and then continued on as normal. Still just as yummy but no pesky gluten for those who struggle with it.
Thanks for the gluten free details, Ashley!
My kids didn’t really like the meatballs. I think they are too used to beef meatballs, or maybe it was the seasoning. I liked the relative simplicity of the recipe.
Awesome recipe. I made the recipe once with ground turkey and this time with meatloaf mix. Both times it turned out wonderful. I tried a traditional recipe before. The addition of the broth really helps.
Thank you thank you thank you. This was the first win I have had in weeks with my teen son. He loved this dish, well everyone did including me as it was delicious and easy. Thank you so much for the recipe and your wonderful site you are so helpful.
So happy to hear that, Jeri!
Can I make these ahead and freeze them?
Yes, the meatballs will freeze great.
With the sauce too?
The sauce might separate a little after thawing, but I think it should all freeze fine.
Hi! Did you have any luck freezing the sauce?
This is delicious and my family loves it. I have yet to make it in 30 minutes though.
Mel, My family went buck wild over this!!! And I have super picky eaters. I have family coming in town in a couple of weeks. I know that meatballs freeze nicely but I’m not sure about the sauce. Do you think it would be possible to make this recipe in advance and freeze it? Thanks!
I’m not sure how the sauce would fare – I think the texture would change (maybe get a little gritty) once frozen and defrosted, but I always think things like this are worth a try at least once.
Did you have any luck freezing the sauce?
The meatballs completely fell apart for me. Any idea what I could have done wrong? I followed the recipe exactly. I’ve never made meatballs out of turkey, so maybe that’s it? Or maybe I used the wrong kind of turkey? I love all of your other recipes!
Hi Nicole – did you use ground turkey that comes in a tube? I’ve found the ground turkey that comes on trays works best – the turkey in the tube-like containers (with soft plastic around it, kind of like packages of sausage) tends to be much more mushy.
I have found that when using ground turkey it works better to leave out the milk, ground turkey is so much wetter than beef it doesn’t need it.
They tend to fall apart for me too. I up the bread crumbs until I get a more dense consistency and it works pretty well. I always make sure to *really* brown the meatballs – they need a harder shell to hold up when you cook them in the broth mixture.
When we lived in Norway, IKEA was like McDonalds for us (quick and cheap, fast food). My boys were delighted when I told them I made IKEA meatballs for dinner and my pickiest eater was contemplating how to take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It was a huge hit, all of my children actually uttered the words “this is so yummy!” at some point in the dinner.
I made these and they were as good as you said. I made them with ground turkey and used half the chicken and half the beef broth.
Just made these for dinner at they were a hit with the whole family! My tummy is so happy right now!
Thank you for this amazing recipe. It sounds delicious and as I am typing I am cooking this meal…it smells AWESOME!! Thanks again and can’t wait to eat it.
I would like to make these for a crowd on Thanksgiving. Could I bake these and if so would I use the drippings from the baking pan!
Sure, you could definitely experiment doing that.
I made these last night! HEAVEN!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe 🙂
I am so excited to try this recipe! I haven’t had Swedish Meatballs in years. Your recipes are pretty much no-fail. I will bake them in the oven without browning them first, though. They always turn out wonderful that way. About 30 min at 350.
We loved this one!
Hello Mel,
I’m a frequent visitor, and first time commenter.
I am super excited about your version of this recipe. I tried both Cook’s illustrated version and Damn Delicious version in last couple months.
I will keep you posted on the result!
Let me know what you think!
I’ve made this recipe for my family several times and we love it. We’re having people over this week and I’d like to double it and make it a little in advance, if possible. What do you think about making it in the late afternoon and then putting the meatballs and sauce in a crock pot for an hour or two? Do you think I should change anything about how I make the recipe if I do that? Thanks for your help. We love your recipes!
As long as your crockpot has a pretty good low setting (meaning it won’t overcook the meatballs and/or curdle the gravy) I think it should work just fine. If it were me, I’d wait to stir in the sour cream until right before serving.
Hi Mel! I made these for the family last night and my 11 year-old daughter couldn’t get enough of them! I did use the turkey-in-a-tube you rightly call gross—it’s what I had—and I ended up adding about another 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs to give them some coherence. Also, next time I’d make the individual meatballs about half the size (I ended up with 16 big ones), I was worried they weren’t cooked through well enough. Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe and it was fantastic—thanks for another family favorite, you are my go-to gal.
Thanks for reporting back, Matt! Glad these were a hit (your comment came on a day when my 11-year old was gagging on the dinner I made so I was especially happy you had a win!). 🙂
These look delicious, I’d love to try it out soon. Do you think that the cream could be replaced by yoghurt? Thankyou so much for all your great recipes!
Usually yogurt subs well for sour cream so it’s worth a try (and I think a few others have done it that way).
I made this tonight with 1 pound ground beef and half a pound ground pork, and veggie stock because I couldn’t decide between chicken and beef stock and figured why not add some vegetables. 🙂
It’s wonderful! The only other change I made was to sprinkle a bit of kosher salt over my already garnished plate. I feel it needed that. I’ll add it to the gravy next time. It was probably the low sodium veggie stock that didn’t give it the salt it needed for that flavor punch though.
Thanks for the great recipe! Seriously, where have these meatballs been all my life?
Do you think I could use oats instead of bread crumbs?
Definitely worth a try – you might want to grind the oats a bit for a finer texture before using or let them soak for a minute to soften up.
Mel – have you tried baking these instead of skillet? With a baby in arms, it’s easier to stick them in the oven they watch them in oil. Thanks for the great recipes and smiles!
I haven’t Brooke but I think it stands a great chance of working – will you brown them first or just pop them in the oven start to finish?
These were so good! The whole family loved them. Everything that I have tried on your website is fantastic! I currently live in New Zealand and it is hard to get foods that we grew up on. This has been such a good site. If I am looking for something specific, I think, “I bet Mel has a recipe!” Thank you!!
Made this tonight and everyone loved it. Thanks!
Swedish meatballs are a favorite at my house, but my usual recipe calls for a mix of ground pork and beef and is a pretty heavy meal. I tried your recipe for tonight’s dinner, and am happy to report it was gobbled down happily by the whole family. I will definitely make them again. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you, Jenny!
I made these this week and I completely forgot the onion! Still turned out pretty great though. Luckily the gravy didn’t allow for the meatballs to dry out due to the lean turkey.
I got 20 meatballs out of mine. Which including my brother only served 3 of us, but he has a love affair with ground turkey. My bother also isn’t a fan of nutmeg so I cut the amount in half. While he could still taste it he said he enjoyed the flavor it gave with the turkey and allspice.
All in all, fantastic recipe and it will go into rotation with the jalapeno cheddar turkey burgers for our turkey meals.
Ooh I love those jalepeno cheddar turkey burgers! Yum!
I made these for my family last night and they were a hit! I had to sub in chopped dehydrated onions for the onion and heavy cream for the sour cream because I avoid going to the store with my boys at all costs LOL. Luckily they turned out just fine with the emergency subs. Thanks for another great recipe to put into the rotation Mel!
I am very excited about trying these meatballs! I have only ever tried the Swedish meatballs from IKEA but have never loved them. Hopefully these will change my mind! Do you think these meatballs can be made in a large electric skillet? If so, what temperature would you recommend cooking them on?
Sure, just try to moderate the temp where they are cooking but not burning. Every electric skillet is different but I think I usually keep mine at around 350 when making recipes like this.
I’m making these right now!! I have never had swedish meatballs before, but I had all the ingredients so thought I’d try it out. I’m a little nervous about meatballs that taste like pumpkin pie…but we’ll see!! Also, my meatballs look like hockey pucks! They didn’t stay round. 🙁
Thanks for the recipe. These turned out really well. I substituted heavy cream for the sour cream and since I didn’t have any lingonberry sauce (I don’t like it anyways) I mixed a lttle bit of butter and brown sugar with canned cranberries and heated it together on the stove. The berry sauce tasted great with the meatballs.
I made these last night for dinner. They were delicious! My entire family enjoyed this meal – even my picky eater. Thanks Mel! Your recipes are terrific.
Swedish meatballs are my favorite, but I’ve never found an at home recipe that was that great… Until now! I was skeptical about the turkey, but holy moly these were amazing! So tender! And the sauce was perfection. My kids gobbled this up which is a rarity around here. This will be a regular for sure. Thank you!
We had this tonight. Another winner!!!
Made these tonight for dinner…. Total hit with all three boys and husband too (this never happens). Thanks for another great recipe!
I made these last night and really loved them. I can’t wait to make again. I have one question – I followed the recipe pretty much exactly (although I didn’t have quite 1 1/2 lb turkey), but my meatballs were a little mushy, and flattened out when I tried rolling them into balls. Is there a trick to making them a little firmer? Thanks!
Hi Amy – it could be the lower amount of meat, but it also might depend on the brand of ground turkey. You might try only adding a tablespoon or so of milk. That should help. Ground turkey is a bit softer than ground beef – you can see from my pictures my meatballs aren’t perfectly round also.
Thanks! That’s a good idea about the milk. Looking forward to trying again.
I have never had Swedish meatballs. They look delicious!
Mel, these look good. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Now, a question: What should I look for when buying ground turkey? I love ground beef and have just shyed away from ground turkey b/c I don’t know what to buy. Thank you for your help.
Hi Ruth – I usually buy the extra lean ground turkey (93/7) and have liked the Jennie-O or Butterball brands. The kind I absolutely stay away from is the stuff packaged in the tubes (like sausage but it’s just plain ground turkey). I almost went vegetarian completely after using that kind a few years back. Super ick. Go for the stuff in the styrofoam trays or plastic, see-through packaging.
Thank you, Mel. This is very helpful.
You should really put this in the recipe notes! I bought the turkey in the tube and it is kindof a disaster so far. Hopefully it will still taste good.
brings back memories – haven’t made them in quite sometime, but will try yours. I used to get requests for mine for every party and I had to make 5 lbs. They were gone in no time.
They look scrumptious. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hey Mel! I need to make this, especially with the ground turkey “encouragement”. I make mine with ground beef and they are just too heavy. I also appreciate your serving sizes. I have 4 kids, from 7-16 so between the 6 of us we need A LOT of food. Keep it coming. Best wishes with the running. I run 6 miles 3-4 times a week (cross train 2-3), but I’m funny that way. I won’t run more than 6 at a time. Part of it is not having time for more, part of it is I am just comfy running that 6 and being DONE! Hope your training continues to go well!! Your updates are fun!
Six miles 3-4 times a week is a dream still for me, Jolie – that’s awesome! And I totally know what you mean about just.being.done.
I love swedish meatballs! seriously my favorite, can’t wait to try these!
These look so fantastic! I’ve never made Swedish meatballs, but I’ve been wanting to try them. Thanks for this awesome recipe!
I love Swedish Meatballs I will be making this, but how many meatballs did the recipe make? So I have some idea. Sometimes a recipe says it serves 6 and really only serves 3 when my husbands involved. Thank you!
It really depends on what size you make the meatballs; it might be better to go off the total amount of meat (1 1/2 pounds for this recipe). For us, I made somewhere around 16-18 smallish meatballs.
I love Swedish Meatballs but I cheat and buy the frozen ones from IKEA. It is just one of those easy meals and the ingredients are not bad.
I’m sure I will try your recipe some day but I may wait a while ( certainly until after kidding season) since it will probably be better and then I won’t want to buy the easy frozen ones anymore.
I have never had these before. The mixture just seems so strange. But if you say it’s good than I believe you. After all, I would never have tried curry if it wasn’t for you; Now it’s our favorite. On the menu it goes. I can try your fresh egg noodles too. Yay!!!
Would love to try this soon! Can I sub plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream? Thanks!
I haven’t tried that, Sheree – but usually that substitution works pretty well.
Another great recipe! I haven’t thought of Swedish meatballs in forever, and now I’ll be making them soon. Thanks!
They turned out gorgeous Mel! I haven’t had swedish meatballs in so long. These definitely need to go on the menu!
Once again, starting my day with laughter after reading Mels/’ post. “. . . .being bowled over by a meatball that tastes like pumpkin pie.” is exactly why I have never liked Swedish meatballs. You are such a good friend — giving laughter, creativity, encouragement, great ideas, and deliciousness into lives of people you will probably never, ever meet. Looking at your almost 89,000 likes on Facebook speaks of your widespread influence. Your blog “commenters” often speak of supper table talk centered around “Mel”. Thanks to you I am going to re-think Swedish meatballs and introduce into our menu rotation. You rock, Mel!
You are always too nice to me, thanks, Sheila! 🙂