These are some of the best meatballs I’ve ever had, keto or not. They’re juicy, and they’re full of cheese and bacon. What’s not to like here?
You really have a choice of where to go with this recipe. You don’t have to use the BBQ sauce, but it pairs up extremely well with this recipe. You can add salsa and go for a Southwestern vibe, or add some homemade alfredo sauce and go for a very rich dish.
I like my BBQ sauce to be spicy and tangy, so if you like more of a subtle BBQ sauce you will have to tweak it some.
Yields 20 meatballs, can serve 4-5 people.
The Preparation
- 3/4 cup pork rinds
- 24 ounces ground beef (93/7)
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 4 ounces bacon
The Execution
1. Grab your pork rinds. Mine are BBQ flavor which works perfectly for this recipe.
2. Put the pork rinds into a ziploc bag and crush them until they are relatively fine. I don’t mind leaving a few bigger pieces in there for texture. You can also use a food processor as shown.
3. In a mixing bowl, put your ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder.
4. Add your pork rind crumbs.
5. Mix together well.
6. Make a small hole in the meat and add your cheese.
7. Mix these all together well.
8. Cut your 4 slices of bacon into thin strips. Easiest way is to use a pair of scissors. If you plan to use a knife, put your bacon in the freezer for 20 minutes previously to cutting it.
9. Add your bacon to a hot pan and let it fry up.
10. Keep cooking your bacon until it reaches a crisp point.
11. Remove your bacon and place on a paper towel to dry and crisp up. Keep the pan with the bacon fat in it – we will be using it to cook the meatballs!
12. Once your bacon has cooled off a bit, add it to the meat mixture and mix well.
13. I used my eye to measure the meatballs, but usually you will get 20-25 meat balls of a decent size. Roll them out and keep them to the side of your stove.
14. Once all the meatballs are rolled out, add about half to the pan to start cooking. I don’t like cooking them all at once because they don’t turn out as well.
15. Let them brown on one side and then flip them over.
16. Allow them to keep cooking, turning them on their other sides as needed.
17. Remove them from the pan when they are rare (still semi-raw in the middle).
18. Cook the rest of your meatballs. Once they are to a rare state, add all the meatballs to the pan.
19. Turn down the heat to low, and cover the pan with a lid. Let these cook until they are to desired wellness. I usually let them cook while I am making the BBQ sauce. By the time I’m done, they’re also done.
20. Remove the meatballs from the pan and let them rest for about 5 minutes.
21. Serve them out, usually 4-5 meatballs per person.
22. Apply low-carb BBQ sauce on the top. This is to preference!
I know these have a lot of protein in them compared to fats, so if you need to up the fat content you have a few choices. You can use ground chuck (80/20 lean/fat), you can add oil to the sauce, or you can just enjoy this deliciousness and then have a fat bomb for dessert 🙂
This makes a total of 4 servings of Cheddar and Bacon BBQ Meatballs. Each serving comes out to be 538 calories, 35.8g fats, 1.7g net carbs, and 49g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 3/4 cup pork rinds | 137 | 8.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 24 ounce ground beef (93/7) | 1034 | 47.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 141.9 |
| 1 large egg | 79 | 5.2 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| 3/4 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3/4 teaspoon black pepper | 4 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
| 3/4 teaspoon cumin | 6 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder | 8 | 0 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 0.4 |
| 3/4 cup cheddar cheese | 371 | 30.6 | 2.8 | 0 | 2.8 | 21 |
| 4 ounce bacon | 604 | 52.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 |
| Totals | 2243 | 145.4 | 6.7 | 0.8 | 5.9 | 213.9 |
| Per Serving (/4) | 561 | 36.3 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 53.5 |
Cheddar and Bacon BBQ Meatballs
Ingredients
Cheddar and Bacon Meatballs:
- ¾ cup pork rinds
- 24 ounce ground beef (93/7)
- 1 large egg
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon cumin
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 4 ounce bacon
Instructions
- Grab your pork rinds. Mine are BBQ flavor which works perfectly for this recipe.
- Put the pork rinds into a Ziploc bag and crush them until they are relatively fine. I don’t mind leaving a few bigger pieces in there for texture. You can also use a food processor, as shown.
- In a mixing bowl, put your ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder.
- Add your pork rind crumbs. Mix together well.
- Make a small hole in the meat and add your cheese.
- Mix these all together well.
- Cut your bacon into thin strips. Easiest way is to use a pair of scissors. If you plan to use a knife, put your bacon in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to cutting it.
- Add your bacon to a hot pan and let it fry up.
- Keep cooking your bacon until it reaches a crisp point.
- Remove your bacon and place on a paper towel to dry and crisp up. Keep the pan with the bacon fat in it – we will be using it to cook the meatballs!
- Once your bacon has cooled off a bit, add it to the meat mixture and mix well. Roll out into meatballs and reserve beside your stove.
- Once all the meatballs are rolled out, add enough to a hot pan to cook without crowding each other. I don’t like cooking them all at once because they don’t turn out as well.
- Let them brown on one side and then flip them over.
- Allow them to keep cooking, turning them on their other sides as needed. Remove them from the pan when they are rare (still semi-raw in the middle).
- Cook the remaining meatballs. Once they are at a rare state, add all the meatballs to the pan.
- Turn down the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Let these cook until they are to desired wellness. I usually let them cook while I am making the BBQ sauce. By the time I’m done, they’re also done.
- Remove the meatballs from the pan and let them rest for about 5 minutes.
- Serve them out, usually 4-5 meatballs per person.
- Apply your low-carb BBQ sauce on the top. This is to preference!
Craig,
just finished making these for dinner tonight. First, umm…stress a non-stick pan. lol due to the fist batch sticking to my pan I had to come up with a different way to cook. I don’t have a large enough non-stick pan to cook these babies in and frankly, I wasn’t going to stand in front of the stove all morning long. I needed to make something quick so I could get to sleep. (work night shits). anyway, the next best thing was baking them in the oven. I placed all the balls in a large rectangular pan, sprayed lightly with oil and baked at 350 f for thirty minutes. and, viala! presto! done to perfection! so, I had to try these little suckers paired with your bbg sauce. and your right, surprise, bbg meatballs galore! honestly, they almost tasted like a bacon cheeseburgers.. umph, imagine that…
Marsha,
Oops, sorry about that! I kind of assume everyone uses nonstick pans nowadays 😛 Yeah, the meatballs in the pan are a bit labour intensive to be honest. I was babysitting them to make sure they weren’t overcooking. Glad you found a better solution to cooking them in bulk!
Also happy to hear you enjoyed them, they’re absolutely awesome – one of my go-to’s when it comes to meatballs.
Thanks for the baking instructions! Definitely less labor-intensive 🙂 I’m giving these a try today!
No problem Tara, all of the recipes have the step by step instructions in them 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Do you brown them still before baking?
Christian,
With these specific ones, I didn’t bake them at all – I made them in the pan from beginning to end. You can read the step by step instructions for a more clear picture if you’d like 🙂
omg, just made these, they are crrrazy delicious. I am eating and drooling and writing. Thank you! Mouth explosion!
Haha glad to hear you like ’em Halli! Make sure you don’t get any drool on your keyboard 😛
Hey what is the nutritional for these meatballs without the BBQ sauce.
Caity, you can just deduct the nutritional information from the chart that’s provided at the end of each recipe.
Great flavor and nice to have in the fridge for a “quick hit” as you can pop them in the microwave quickly and easily. I use them for work snacks.