Trader Joe’s Party Size Mini Meatballs Review

Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs

When you hear the word party, we have a feeling the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t meatballs. But that didn’t stop Trader Joe’s from whipping up a rebellious little batch of meatballs that are designed for party animals — or for anyone who gets talked into hosting a party. So today we’re checking out the Trader Joe’s Party Size Mini Meatballs.

We do enjoy a good batch of turkey meatballs, but that’s not what these are. No, these are blend of beef and pork, so they’re a more traditional take on the meatball than our beloved turkey gobblers.

According to the package, you can cook these in the microwave, on the stovetop, or on a baking sheet in the oven. Since there are so many meatballs in a pack (the bag says to expect about 42; ours had ), we decided that we wanted to try at least two different methods.

Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs

First, we tried these in the microwave. From frozen, this takes about four minutes, and you’ll cut that considerably if you let these thaw first. Cooking them this way does lead to some very moist meatballs. As you can see if you look closely at the picture above, these end up producing a bit of liquid as they cook. Still, we wouldn’t call them soggy — they remain pleasantly dry on the outside, which makes them satisfying to bite into.

Next, we tried the oven. This is the method that will take the longest, as it requires a good 30-35 minutes of cook time. Now, don’t think the oven will prevent the moisture that we talked about earlier; when these were done cooking, our pan had a thin coating of meatball juice in the bottom.

Still, the oven leaves these just a little bit drier than the microwave does, though we’re not sure all the extra time is worth it. We think the oven method makes slightly better meatballs for dipping, since the extra dryness is great for soaking up sauces, while the microwave is the preferred cooking method if you’re going to enjoy these bad boys completely sauce-less.

Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs

As we mentioned earlier in the review, these contain beef and pork. They have a little bit of a meatloafy flavor, though with a subtle sweetness that comes from the pork side of the equation.

You can just eat these plain if you’d like, but they’re definitely better if you doctor them up a bit. Thankfully, there’s a whole world of possibility for these little meatballs. Trader Joe’s has several recipes that use these as a base, including the Good as Gold Mini Meatballs, the Mini Masala Meatballs, and the FauxRanch Onion Burger Sliders. We didn’t get quite that fancy; we just dipped ours in barbeque sauce, which is a great dipping sauce for these tiny little meatballs.

According to the bag, you should treat six meatballs as a serving. While that’s no meal or anything, these are designed for snacking or for being served as a side dish to a greater meal, so we think that’s probably appropriate, even though these are pretty small. If you stick with the recommended six, you’ll end up consuming about 210 calories (130 from fat) and 440 mg of sodium.

The Trader Joe’s Party Size Mini Meatballs are great for snacking, and they’re even better as the base for a creative meatball concoction. Anyone who brings these to a party will definitely become quite popular among the snackers in the crowd.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these Trader Joe’s meatballs, check out our package scans below.

Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs
Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs
Trader Joe's Party Size Mini Meatballs
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