Sweet and Sour Meatballs Recipe

Sweet and sour meatballs! These are NOT your typical, overly sweet meatballs (no grape jelly!). Our fresh twist on the sweet sour combo has juicy, tender chicken meatballs swimming in a perfectly balanced, mouth-wateringly good sweet and sour sauce made with a can of coconut milk, lime, ginger, and brown sugar.

I honestly can’t get enough of these Asian-inspired meatballs with that amazing coconut sweet and sour sauce, which gets simmered down until it’s thick and shiny, coating the meatballs so well. They’re so good you’ll have a hard time not stealing them out of the pan, but if you can resist, these are especially good served over rice (I love this coconut rice) and topped with plenty of that incredible sauce.

You’ll use full-fat coconut milk and skim a bit of the thick coconut cream at the top of the can to add to the meatball mix itself. This is our secret for making the meatballs incredibly juicy and soft inside. The rest of the can turns into our creamy sauce, which simmers with a bit of broth, the brown sugar, and lime to get that perfect sweet and sour flavor profile.

Key Ingredients

• Ground Chicken: Look for ground chicken with some fat (92/8 or close to it is perfect). Skip the leaner options. It’ll just give you tough, dry meatballs. I use the same trick for my classic meatballs, too! Ground pork or turkey are also excellent.
• Coconut Milk: You’ll want full-fat coconut milk for this recipe. When you’re at the store, give the can a flip and listen. You shouldn’t hear much sloshing liquid; that means you’ve got a good amount of thick coconut cream inside, which is precisely what we want! Once you get it home, don’t shake it. We need that separation of cream and milk. We’ll “steal” 2 tablespoons of that thick cream for the meatball mixture, and the rest of the can will make our sweet and sour sauce.
• Ginger, Garlic, and Lemongrass Paste: These are our aromatics (I love the combination). Fresh lemongrass can be a bit fussy to prep, so I usually go for the lemongrass paste in a tube (it’s also fantastic for our red curry paste). If you can’t find the paste, don’t worry, I’ve included instructions on how to prepare fresh lemongrass in the tips section below the recipe.
• Green Onion, Basil, Mint: We’ll add these fresh herbs to both the meatballs and the sauce at the end. It makes this dish taste super vibrant and fresh. I love Thai basil for this, but any variety will do!
• Brown Sugar: This is what brings the “sweet” to our sweet and sour sauce and balances the sour. Brown sugar works so nicely with the aromatics and fish sauce. If you prefer, coconut sugar would be a great substitute here, too.
• Lime and Rice Vinegar: These are the “sour” elements of our sauce! Use unsweetened rice wine vinegar and fresh lime (you’ll use both the zest and the juice for maximum sourness).
• Chinese 5 Spice: We add just a tiny bit (1/4 teaspoon) to the meatball mixture. I love it, but if you don’t want to buy a whole new spice jar for just a quarter teaspoon, you can use an equal amount of Garam Masala. Or, try ground allspice, but reduce it to 1/8 teaspoon instead.
• Fish Sauce: Oh, how I love fish sauce! As you might’ve seen in our Vietnamese Pho, sesame ginger shrimp marinade, or Thai chicken salad recipes, it adds an incredible salty, umami, and slightly funky flavor that nothing else can replicate. I always have Red Boat and Three Crabs in my pantry (both are excellent choices for this dish).
• Chicken Broth: Grab your favorite store-bought or homemade chicken broth. Vegetable broth works perfectly fine here, too. We only need a small amount to blend with the coconut milk and create our sauce.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Our Coconut Sweet and Sour Meatballs

The secret to these meatballs starts with a can of full-fat coconut milk that hasn’t been shaken. We’ll scoop a couple of tablespoons of that thick coconut cream right from the top of the can and add it to our meatball mixture. The rest of the coconut milk will then form the base of our incredible sweet and sour sauce.

I like to form the meatballs and then pop them in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes. This little trick helps them firm up, so they stay beautifully round when you cook them.

After browning your meatballs, you’ll build the sweet and sour sauce right in the same pan. Then, simmer the meatballs in the sauce until they’re cooked through.

At this point, the sauce will be a bit thin. So, we’ll remove the meatballs and let the sauce continue to simmer and reduce down into a thicker, shinier consistency (usually takes about 10 minutes).

Finish it off with a final squeeze of lime, then serve your sweet and sour meatballs with plenty of that incredible flavor-packed sauce spooned over the top.