Asian Pork Meatballs

Pork meatballs are an underrated weeknight dinner in my books. They are savory, delicious, and paired with brothy braised mushrooms and cabbage, it’s a one pot (+ one baking sheet) meal that will definitely be on repeat!

This recipe for asian pork meatballs is inspired by Lions Head meatballs, a traditionally extra large pork and veggie meatball that is fried and braised. Frying a meatball seems a little intense for me on a weeknight, so these meatballs are baked for just 10 minutes, then finished in broth for a similar, decadent feel.

The broth has cabbage, quartered mushrooms, soy sauce, and chicken broth for simple but cozy flavor profile, and it’s perfect over a bowl of rice. If you have vermicelli in your pantry, that would be perfect with this too.

Chef Tips:

On Ingredients

• My favorite type of cabbage to use for this dish is napa cabbage or savoy cabbage. You can also use green cabbage, but the texture will be softer and more prone to becoming mushy (so watch the braising time and keep it to < 10 minutes).
• Add more salt if you are using water instead of broth. I call for 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt for the combination of water and chicken broth, but increase the amount of salt to 1 teaspoon if you are only using water. Highly recommend using broth for some added flavor.
• I’ve made this with ground pork from Whole Foods (in the package 1 lb packs), as well as fresh ground pork from h mart. Both work, but I prefer the h mart ground pork as it’s more freshly ground and
• IF you want to include vermicelli in this dish, I recommend you using mung bean vermicelli over rice vermicelli. Rice vermicelli will break very easily and tend to get lost in lots of small pieces in the broth.

On cooking

• Don’t worry if there’s fat that starts to ooze out of your meatball. It’s normal and is probably because you didn’t mix the meatballs enough. Just avoid adding this back into the pot with the broth / cabbage / mushrooms (even if you do, it’s not a big deal, you might just notice small pieces in the broth).
• Once you’ve roasted the meatballs for 10 minutes, add them to the pot with the broth and cook for another 10 minutes. This should finish the cooking of the meatballs, but you can double check by either breaking into a meatball, or using a meat thermometer and checking for an internal temperature of 150F.

High Level Directions

Prep the vegetables.

Make the meatball mixture and mix for 5 minutes.

Bake the meatballs at 375F for 10 minutes.

As the meatballs bake, saute the mushrooms.

Add in the cabbage, broth, and sauce ingredients. Add the baked meatballs into the broth. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, then serve with grains.

Other easy weeknight dinner recipes:

• Vietnamese Inspired Shaking Beef Bowl
• Bulgogi Beef Rice Bowl
• Easy Mild Mapo Tofu

Asian Pork Meatballs

These asian pork meatballs are braised in a hearty broth with mushrooms and cabbage for a delicious and well balanced dinner.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Meatballs

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/2 bunch green onion thinly sliced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 egg

Sauce

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 pieces scallions thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp sesame oil

Vegetables

• 6 ounces brown button mushrooms
• 1/2 head Napa cabbage or savoy cabbage

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Prep the vegetables and aromatics – thinly slice the scallions, cut the cabbage into 2” pieces, and quarter the mushrooms.
  1/2 bunch green onion, 6 ounces brown button mushrooms, 1/2 head Napa cabbage, 2 pieces scallions
• Make the meatball mixture – add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix in one direction for 5 minutes.
  1 lb ground pork, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs, 1 egg
• Scoop then form the meatballs into 1.5 ounce balls, making about 12 meatballs. Lay this on a parchment or foil lined sheet tray.
• Cook the meatballs for 10 minutes at 375F.
• Heat a pan on medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, then the sliced scallions and quartered mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are golden, about 5 minutes.
  1 tbsp vegetable oil, 6 ounces brown button mushrooms
• Add the cabbage into the pan and give everything a stir. Add the broth, water, salt, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Bring this up to a simmer, then add the meatballs.
  1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 2 cups broth, 1 cup water, 1/2 head Napa cabbage, 1 tbsp sesame oil
• Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
• Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, then serve with grains.

Keyword asian pork meatballs, pork meatballs, pork meatballs recipe

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This recipe is part of our Good on Grains series (15 easy weeknight dinner recipes that are perfect to cozy up with a bowl of rice!)

Check out the other recipes here.