Smoked Meatballs 3 Ways

I made these last Sunday, meatballs 3 ways. I wanted to do some turkey, ground chuck & sausage mix and some sausage poppers. The turkey was for my veggie d-i-l. She will eat poultry but very seldom red meat. The seasoning for all I found a recipe by fellow pellethead, looked like what I would choose.

I formed sausage, for the poppers, into small patties, then inserted a slice of jalapeno and a ½ inch square of my smoked sharp cheddar, folded the meat around and rolled in my hand to seal. I then rolled them in some Panko bread crumbs. I made up all the meatballs ahead & in the fridge until time to smoke.

I wanted to sauce some with sweet BBQ sauce & Russian dressing mix, 3 to 1 ratio. An idea I got from fellow pellethead & friend who runs my favorite carry out, Beer & Wine Depot.

For my sides I had some Stouffers frozen Mac & cheese and slaw. The slaw was a recipe from fellow pellethead BMerril. I also had some bread. I made the slaw at noon so it had time to meld. I love that slaw; everyone else thought it was too sweet. To be fair Billy Merril is from Eastern N.C. and his slaw would be served on some Eastern N.C. pulled pork sandwiches. The sweet slaw would compliment the vinegary sauced pulled pork. Next time I will tame down the sugar if it’s for a side dish.

I am still using BBQ Select’s 100% hickory pellets. I put the meatballs in at 4:30 for ½ hour on smoke mode, 175 deg. I then went to 225 deg. and another hour. After ½ hour at 225 deg. I added some of the sauce to some meatballs and went to 250 deg. for the last ½ hour. They were all above 150 deg. IT. Total cook time 1 ½ hours.

I had my Mac & cheese nuked and the bread sticks ready when I pulled the meatballs at 6:00. All tasted good & the hit was the sausage poppers, even my d-i-l ate one & liked it.
The sauced ones were good too.

Meatballs ready for the smoker



BMerrils slaw



The sauce



Meatballs are done



My Plate