Beef Meatballs in Jalapeño Cheese Sauce

    We were looking for some different ideas for my simple meatball recipes and we have friends that make jalapeño mac and cheese so that was the inspiration for this meatball. I’ve always been a fan of a good ball in a good spicy sauce.

    Beef Meatballs in Jalapeño Cheese Sauce

    Prep Time: 45 minutes
    Cook Time: 22 minutes
    Servings: 21 Meatballs
    My Basic Meatball recipe is great for all types of meatballs in different sauces. This is a great recipe that’s an amazing example of that. When I first started making meatballs I was playing around with a lot of different recipes that included cheese sauces. I think my love for cheese sauces came from when I was a kid, we used to do a lot of cheese fondue when I was growing up. My parents would make it from scratch with really good and pungent swiss cheeses and gruyere. I love a really good nutty cheese and there’s something so fun about making a cheese sauce.
    This particular recipe came about because of a conversation we had out with friends one night. We have a lot of friends that love to cook like I do and this recipe was inspired by their Mac & Cheese they make with jalapeños. It’s a nice and spicy cheese sauce that you can throw some beef meatballs in and make sliders out of or eat as an appetizer.
    Print Recipe

    Ingredients

    Meatballs

    • 1 lb ground beef
    • 1 cup Italian style breadcrumbs
    • 2 eggs
    • salt & pepper to taste

    Jalapeño Cheese Sauce

    • 1 8 oz package shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
    • 3 jalapeño’s diced
    • 1 small onion diced
    • 1/3 cup whisky optional
    • 2 tbs flour
    • 2 tbs butter
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1 tsp paprika
    • 1 tsp yellow mustard
    • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper optional

    Instructions

    For the Meatballs

    • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
    • In a bowl combine ground meat, Italian style breadcrumbs, eggs, and season to taste salt and pepper.
    • Take the meat mixture and flatten it in your hand. Scoop out enough meat from the bowl to form your meatballs – I make mine about one and a half inches in diameter.
    • Place your meatballs on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 22 mins.

    For the Jalapeño Cheese Sauce

    • While your meatballs are cooking you can make your cheese sauce. You can always make this ahead too if you don’t like to multi-task while cooking. In a pan sauté your onions in butter until translucent ~ 10 mins.
    • You can deglaze the pan with the whisky if you’d like – it adds a little flavor. Otherwise, you can add your flour and cook for a couple of minutes.
    • Add the paprika, yellow mustard, cayenne pepper, and jalapeño’s to the pan. Add your milk next and then on a lower heat add in your cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted.
    • Once the meatballs are cooked you can drain the meatballs on paper towels. You can add the meatballs to the cheese sauce or serve them with the cheese sauce on top.
    Bowl of meatball ingredients for basic beef meatballs

    This base meatball recipe is the same recipe I use for my Basic Beef Meatball recipe. This basic beef meatball recipe is a  great base meatball that you can use for so many recipes since it’s a pretty plain and easy meatball to whip together. The nice thing about this being a pretty plain recipe it allows you to use your imagination on what to add to the mixture to spice it up. If you are a big fan of spice you can always add some fresh diced jalapeños to the meat mixture. Or you can jazz this up by adding some of your favorite spices or a pinch of cayenne pepper or some hot sauce for an extra kick of heat.

    This meatball recipe and ingredients show up a lot on this site but I’ve tried other recipes and I think I nailed the meat to breadcrumbs to eggs ratio. I also think I nailed the cook time on my basic meatball recipes. Every time I try one of the recipes that come out of the oven I think they have the right texture for the meatball and they have a great flavor too. I know that I’ve got the ratio’s down for the basic recipe – the nice thing is that if you have that great base you can always add to it and coat it in your favorite sauce.

    Baking sheet with rolled out beef meatballs

    This recipe also works really well if you want to substitute a different meatball base recipe. You can make this same jalapeño cheese sauce and use my Basic Turkey Meatball recipe if you’d like. You may have someone in your household or a guest that you might be serving that might not love ground beef or eat red meat. I know that I have some folks in my life that prefer to eat either ground chicken or ground turkey instead of beef and that’s an easy thing to swap out in this case.

    You can use your favorite shredded cheddar cheese. Some people like to go with mild cheddar and some go after the sharp cheddar. You can also always make this with a white cheddar if you can find that shredded or you would like to shred it yourself. 

    I also make a roux for this cheese sauce recipe. Making roux’s is something that I love to do. I really fell in love with them when making gumbo. I think it’s really fun to see how dark you can get a roux without burning it. It can also really change the flavor of what you’re making depending on how dark you want your roux. The most important thing is to cook the flour enough so it doesn’t taste like raw flour in your sauce. Roux’s are a great way to thicken a sauce.

    Ingredients for the jalapeno cheese sauce including jalapenos diced, shredded cheese, spices, butter, onions, flour and milk.

    I’m a big fan of cheese sauces and I’ve made many over the years. This recipe, as I mentioned above, came from friends of ours that make jalapeño macaroni and cheese. My husband mentioned that to me one day and I was looking for a new meatball recipe to try and here we are!

    I really love making these meatballs for parties. They can sit in a crockpot for a long time and keep their integrity. They are also super great to share because who doesn’t love cheesy meatballs. If you are going to be with friends or family that aren’t too into spicy food you can always omit the jalapeños and just serve these little balls in a nice cheddar cheese sauce. It won’t be as fun and spicy but I think anything is yummy in this cheese sauce.

    Plate of Beef Meatballs in a Jalapeno Cheese sauces with sides

    You can also adjust the size of the meatballs to accommodate what you would like to do with them in this recipe. This particular meatball was one of the ones on my list for a good meatball sub when I was thinking about opening a food truck. Any of my meatballs work well as meatball subs but I really like the ones that I make that get to simmer in a sauce. It helps the overall consistency of the sandwich having a good sauce cover the whole thing. It can get messy but I think it’s worth it. If you do adjust the size just keep in mind you might have to adjust the cook time to accommodate. You can always add some additional time if you end up making the meatballs a little larger or reduce the time if you’re making them a little smaller. You can always check the internal temperature as well. For the beef meatballs, the temp should be about 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

    More Recipes By Category

    Midwestern Meatballs

    We live in the Midwest and there are so many classic recipes that the rest of the country is missing out on. I’m here to help share those recipes in meatball form.

    Classic Meatballs

    I have some classic meatballs that are the foundation of a lot of my meatball recipes. You’ll find some basic meatball recipes and recipes that we are grew up with and love.

    Stuffed Meatballs

    I love stuffing meatballs – and once you start browsing the site you’ll see that I’m pretty creative with what I can come up with to stuff my balls with – and every recipe is delicious.

    Meatball Emergency Round Logo

    Learn more about us!