Beef Meatballs in Jalapeño Cheese Sauce
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.
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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.