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Honey Sriracha Slow Cooker Meatballs
I was looking for a meatball recipe recently and found a good one on Bee Maid Honey’s website. It uses ground turkey and results in a moist and flavourful meatball. I am a sriracha fan, but if you are not, the heat can be easily adjusted by the amount of sriracha you use in the yummy sauce.
Meatball ingredients:
2 lbs ground turkey
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup panko crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
6 tsp. olive oil, divided
Honey Sriracha sauce ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 Tbsp. Bee Maid Honey
3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
2 tsp. Sriracha sauce
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sesame oil
¼ cup cold water
3 tsp. corn starch
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
To Make Meatballs:
In a large bowl, add the ground turkey, green onions, garlic, panko crumbs, eggs, salt and pepper. Mix just until combined. Do not overmix or meatballs will be tough. Roll turkey mixture into ping pong size balls.
In a non-stick pan, add 2 tsp olive oil on medium heat. Place 1/3 of the meatballs in the pan spaced out so that they have space to brown. If the meatballs are too close together, they will steam and it will be difficult to get them nicely brown. Cook for about three minutes, rolling balls around occasionally until all sides are nicely browned. Remove from heat and place in a medium bowl or directly in the slow cooker. It is not necessary for the meatballs to be fully cooked. They will finish cooking in the slow cooker.
TIP: Meatballs can be made in advance and stored inside the fridge in an airtight container until the next day, or frozen for up to one month.
To Make Honey Sriracha Sauce:
In a medium bowl, add garlic, Bee Maid Honey, hoisin, sriracha sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix well to combine. In a separate small cup, mix cold water and cornstarch to create a slur. This will work to thicken up the sauce. Add the cornstarch mixture to the Bee Maid Honey sriracha sauce and mix well. Add or reduce the sriracha amount depending on how spicy you like it. A little sriracha goes a long way!
Add both the meatballs and the Bee Maid Honey sriracha sauce to the slow cooker. Stir to coat every meatball with sauce. Turn slow cooker to high and cook covered for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the internal temperature of the meatballs is 165F. During the last half hour of cooking open the lid of the slow cooker slightly by turning the lid a little off to the side or lifting the lid up a bit with a wooded spoon. This will let some of the steam out and allow the sauce to thicken in its final stages. Stir the meatballs to coat evenly with the sauce, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately over rice or noodles.
TIP: If cooking meatballs from a frozen, set the slow cooker on high and cook for 3 to 4 hours.
For more delicious recipes from Bee Maid, check out their website at BeeMaid.com. Bee Maid Honey represent more than 300 Western Canadian Beekeepers who take care of the honeybees and harvest their pure delicious honey.
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