One of my family’s favorite meals is Spicy Venison Meatballs with our homemade Spicy Venison Meatball Sauce or as my son’s call this recipe–“deer balls.” Yeah, we are a weird bunch.
Ingredients
- Meatball Ingredients:
- 1 lbs of ground deer burger
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp. ketchup
- 2/3 cup of dry instant oatmeal
- 1/4 tsp. of black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. of garlic powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. of soy sauce
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
- If you don't want to use onions, you can use 1/2 tsp. of onion powder or omit it altogether.
- Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 14 oz can of jellied cranberry sauce
- 12 oz. of chili sauce
- 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar
Instructions
- Let's make the sauce first. Put all ingredients in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Heat slowly and simmer for one minute.
- Now let's make the meatballs. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and take a tablespoon full of the mixture and roll it into a ball and place it in a baking dish. I like to put my balls in a 9" x 13" casserole dish.
- Continue making meatballs until the bowl is empty. If you get to the bottom of the bowl and there’s not enough mixture to make the same size balls as you already have, it’s okay to make a little ball but try to make your balls as close to the same size as possible so they will all get done at the same time.
- Pour meatball sauce over the meatballs. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until done.
Please keep in mind, the bigger the balls, the longer you will need to keep them in the oven, so if your balls are big it’s going to take longer than 30 minutes 😉
This is great with fried taters (potatoes), corn on the cob, and big ol cat-head biscuits. These meatballs are also great to make for party appetizers. Just make them small since they are appetizers and not the main course.
Please take a look at our Spicy Venison Meatballs slideshow…
The good, the bad and the delicious…
- Spicy Venison Meatballs are low in saturated fat, high in manganese, and very high in vitamin C.
- They are also very high in sodium and sugar.
The nutrition facts below include the Spicy Venison Meatballs and the Spicy Venison Meatball Sauce.
Spicy Venison Meatballs Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Grade: B-
| Yields: 16 Meatballs | Serving Size: 4 Meatballs |
| Calories 287 | |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 3.5g | 5% |
| Saturated Fat 0.6g | 3% |
| Trans Fat 0.0g | |
| Cholesterol 41mg | 14% |
| Sodium 2504mg | 104% |
| Total Carbohydrates 28.2g | 9% |
| Dietary Fiber 5.5g | 22% |
| Sugars 12.3 | |
| Protein 29.0g | |
| Vitamin A 8% | |
| Vitamin C 157% | |
| Calcium 4% | |
| Iron 10% |
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
To make this recipe more diet-friendly…
- Omit half of the soy sauce and half of the chili sauce, which will drop the sodium level by 1180mg, which is 49% DV instead of 104%.
- OR you could replace all of the chili sauce with plain tomato sauce, and completely omit the soy sauce, which would drop the sodium to 446mg and 19% DV.
- Take note, this will change the intended flavor.
- These two changes would raise the Nutrition Grade to A-
Spicy Venison Meatballs hold up well if frozen as well. So if you have any leftovers, who am I kidding–you are NOT going to have leftovers, but if for some odd reason you do, pop them in the freezer for a quick meal later. Just be sure to use a FoodSaver or a good quality brand of freezer bags so they don’t become freezer burned. Enjoy!
Yum 🙂 I can’t wait to try these. Is this sauce good with chicken too? I’d like to try it, but I am out of deer meat.
Yes, but keep in mind that it’s sort of sweet. We grilled chicken thighs with it and everyone loved it. Good luck and come back to let us know if you like it.
Looks yummy 😀 thanks for the recipe
Thank you and you are very welcome. I hope you’ll try it.
These are excellent, however, misleading by calling them spicy, but I have made them twice in 1 week as they were good. I think I’ll spice them up a bit on the third round!
I’m glad you like them! Something I have found out is that people all over the world have different opinions of what is spicy and what isn’t. I would love for you to come back and let us know what changes you made to the 3rd round so everyone else can enjoy your spicier recipe as well.