Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

Keto Recipes > Keto Dinner Recipes

I had a craving for some meatballs and hadn’t made any since the Bacon and Cheddar BBQ meatballs, so I decided to put together some new recipes to help all of you with some new ideas in the kitchen!

I made a trio of meatballs that turned out absolutely superb. These Italian Sausage, Ground Beef, and Pepperjack Cheese meatballs. Chorizo, Ground Beef, and Cheddar meatballs. Bacon, Ground Beef, and Mozzarella meatballs. The three together were fantastic, had a very appealing presentation, and were extremely filling.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

You only need 2-4 meatballs to serve as a meal, especially with the sauce and a side of vegetables. Keep in mind that they’re quite large compared to the other types. They’re relatively easy to make, and they taste phenomenal. If you’re ever in a bind for a meal that needs to feed a lot of people, this can be a go-to. It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes for the total time, start to finish, most of that being the actual cooking time.

If you want these to be even better, you can make a homemade sauce for each. Tomato sauce, pesto sauce, and Alfredo sauce. They’re pretty simple to make, and you can make them while the meatballs are cooking. I got lazy and only made the Alfredo sauce myself – but if you have a lot of guests over and want to serve something homemade and elegant, I say you should go the whole nine yards!

Yields 11 large meatballs.

The Preparation

  • 1 ½ pounds ground beef
  • 1 ½ links hot Italian sausages
  • 1 cup alfredo sauce
  • 1/3 cup crushed pork rinds
  • 5 slices pepper jack cheese
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

The Execution

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.

2. Add your pork rinds (about 1/3 of a bag) to the food processor.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

3. Pulse the pork rinds until they are crushed completely. We will be using these to bind the meatballs together.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

4. Break apart your Italian sausage, making sure every piece is small. Sausage normally has some fat connecting together inside, so you want to tear through that so the mixture will be even.

5. Place your Italian sausage in a large mixing bowl.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

6. Add your ground beef to the mixture. Don’t touch it just yet.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

7. Add your crushed pork rinds on top of the ground beef.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

8. If you’re using cheese slices then tear each one into quarters. For each of those quarters, quarter them again like below. If you’re using a wedge of cheese, cut 3/4 inch cubes out of it to use in the middle of each meatball.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

9. Measure out your oregano, Italian seasoning, salt and eggs. Add them to the ground beef mixture – this is where the fun begins.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

10. Mix everything together well using your hands. This is going to get messy, but it’s fine.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

11. Grab about 2/3 the meat you want per meatball and form a semi circle with it. Place your cheese stack in the middle.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

12. Add the rest of your meat to the top and form into a ball, making sure all of it is sealed off.

13. Place your meatballs into a baking tray. Some grease and cheese will seep out of the meatballs so spread them apart a little bit, as you don’t want them to get stuck together.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

14. Cook them in the oven for 45-50 minutes. It may need longer if you made larger meatballs.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

15. Let them cool for 5 minutes or so, and remove them from the grease filled tray.

16. Serve with Alfredo sauce on each!

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

For each meatball, it comes out to: 367.91 Calories, 32.23g Fats, 1.05g Carbs, and 16.92g Protein.

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs Calories Fats(g) Carbs(g) Fiber(g) Net Carbs(g) Protein(g)
1 ½ pounds ground beef 2251 203.4 0 0 0 97.29
1 ½ links (169.5 g) hot Italian sausages 586 53.1 1.1 0 1.1 24.15
1 cup alfredo sauce 440 40 8 0 8 8
1/3 cup crushed pork rinds 95 5.93 0 0 0 9.49
5 slices pepper jack cheese 522 42.39 0.95 0 0.95 34.27
2 large eggs 143 9.51 0.72 0 0.72 12.56
1 teaspoon oregano 5 0.08 1.24 0.8 0.44 0.16
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 5 0.08 1.24 0.8 0.44 0.16
Totals 4047 354.49 13.25 1.6 11.65 186.08
Per Serving(/11) 367.91 32.23 1.2 0.15 1.05 16.92
Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

Italian Sausage & Pepperjack Meatballs

For each meatball, it comes out to: 367.91 Calories, 32.23g Fats, 1.05g Carbs, and 16.92g Protein.
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 ½ pounds ground beef
  • 1 ½ links hot Italian sausages
  • 1 cup alfredo sauce
  • cup crushed pork rinds
  • 5 slices pepper jack cheese
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Break up sausage into small pieces so that it will mix well with the ground beef.
  • Add your ground beef, ground pork rinds, spices, and eggs to the sausage.
  • Mix everything together well until you can form meatballs.
  • Grab 2/3 the amount of meat you want for each meatball and form it into a semi circle.
  • Put your pepperjack in the middle and top it with some the rest of the ground beef to seal it up.
  • Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes depending on their size. The smaller they are, the less time they need to cook.
  • Spoon alfredo sauce over the meatballs and serve.