These flavorful baked venison meatballs are so tender they will practically melt in your mouth. Make a batch to use in pasta sauce, meatball subs, or serve them as appetizers.

Making deliciously tender meatballs with ground deer meat will soon be one of your favorite venison recipes. These tender meatballs are rich and flavorful, and perfect to use in a variety of meals. If your venison has a gamey taste to it, this recipe is a great way to make any wild game meat more flavorful.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Ground Venison - Other wild game meat, or ground beef and ground pork can be substituted. If you are grinding your own venison at home, adding 20% pork fat or beef suet would be ideal for making juicy venison meatballs, and venison burgers too. If blending ground venison with other meat, I recommend a 50/50 ratio for this meatball recipe.

Note: Leaner ground venison is great for tacos or venison chili, however, if it is too lean it will make a dry meatball. In this case, I would recommend using half lean venison and half ground pork shoulder.

• White bread - 1 cup of breadcrumbs can be substituted instead.
• Milk - Beef broth or beef stock can be substituted.
• Large Eggs
• Yellow Onion
• Parmesan cheese
• Fresh Parsley 
• Tomato Paste
• Garlic - ½ teaspoon of garlic powder can be substituted.
• Worcestershire sauce
• Kosher salt - Table salt is great as well.
• Fresh ground black pepper
• Smoked paprika - Regular paprika or sweet paprika can be substituted.
• Dried sage - Italian seasoning can be substituted.

How to make them

Making this great ground venison meatballs recipe is easy! First, crumble the ground meat into a large mixing bowl then add all of the remaining meatball ingredients. Then combine the meat mixture together thoroughly.

Now you are ready to form your meatballs. I typically make my venison meatballs two tablespoons in size, or about the size of a golf ball. Using a cookie scoop for consistent sizing works well. Roll the meatball mixture together between your hands to form perfect round balls.

Tip: Get your hands wet to prevent the meat from sticking to your skin when you form meatballs.

Check out my tutorial on how to make great meatballs for a more in-depth discussion.

Place your raw meatballs on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and bake them in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Tip: If you plan to serve your homemade meatballs in pasta sauce or tomato sauce, you can broil them for 5-10 minutes and then let them fully cook in the simmering sauce rather than baking them.

Tip: For the best texture and browning you can bake them for 5 minutes less, then brown meatballs under the broiler or sear them in a large frying pan over medium heat with olive oil. This will help develop a delicious golden brown crust on the meatballs.

How to serve them

These venison meatballs are great all-purpose meatballs that can be used in a variety of applications. I like using them to make easy meatball subs, however, they would also be great to use as cocktail meatballs in a garlic butter, or your favorite sauce.

Otherwise, simply serve them over egg noodles, or adding them to your favorite spaghetti recipe is a tried and true favorite as well. If you plan to serve these at a party they can be made in advance and kept warm in your slow cooker.

Storing & Reheating Leftovers

Leftover venison meatballs should be stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week. Meatballs can be easily reheated in the microwave, or gently heat them in a skillet over medium-low heat. If you need to reheat a big batch, cover them in aluminum foil and place them in a 350-degree oven until warmed through.

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Don't forget to check out the rest of my mouthwatering venison recipes too!

This recipe was originally published here on November 12, 2018.