Air Fryer Swedish Meatballs with Gravy
Buy our air fryer e-cookbooks today We made a batch of these air fryer swedish meatballs and ate them so quick. Then we made another batch to test them again and had to give them to a neighbor. If not, we would have eaten a double batch! These homemade air fried swedish meatballs with a creamy gravy sauce are so delicious. You won’t want to buy any frozen Ikea swedish meatballs again.
Air Fryer Swedish Meatballs Recipe
Everyone always goes for the default technique of cooking meatballs on the skillet or in the oven. But we wanted to try an air fried swedish meatball version and it turned out fantastic! The meatballs were tender and the unique allspice and nutmeg flavors came through perfectly. We figured these would turn out great because we have a big list of air fryer meatball recipes. You should check them out.
Are these like Ikea Swedish Meatballs?
Kinda, but better. We like customizing the flavors of the meatball meat mixture so we think our recipe is much more flavorful. Plus, our gravy is flavorful because we added some extra spices to amp up the flavor. These are not by any means a recipe for Ikea frozen swedish meatballs. We think it’s way better because it’s homemade and fresh! To learn more, you should check out this interesting article about the history of swedish meatballs.
Swedish Meatball Stove-Top Creamy Gravy
The delicious gravy can’t really be made in the air fryer, so we have it made on the stove top. It’s the best way to cook a big batch of delicious gravy for everyone to enjoy. It only takes a few minutes, but it’s worth the 10 minutes to make homemade gravy for air fried swedish meatballs.
Types of ground meat for air fried swedish meatballs
We have a combination ground beef and ground pork for the meatballs. Folks will use whatever favorite ground meat their preference is. So you can use all ground beef or any combination that you want. Ground beef, pork, chicken, turkey are all good options.
And if you want a plant based or vegan swedish meatballs, use beyond meat or impossible meat. There’s lots of vegan meat alternatives out there. And for a vegan gravy, use vegan butter and oat milk, vegetable or mushroom broth, almond milk or soy milk instead of heavy cream. Make sure your Worcestershire sauce is vegan as well, or use soy sauce.
Video: Swedish Meatballs with Gravy
Tips for Air Frying Swedish Meatballs
- Don’t pack the meatballs too tight or else they can be less tender. We pack and form the meatballs just enough to hold shape.
- Make sure to finely chop the onions so that the meatballs can hold their shape more. The smaller, the better.
- For the gravy, you can make it ahead of time to save prep time. Get the food faster on the table. And make sure to season the gravy enough. For the flavors of gravy to come through, it needs a good amount of seasoning or to your personal taste.
- All air fryer swedish meatballs recipe details are in the recipe box below with tons of great photos to help you make the dish.
Air Fryer Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 pound (454 g) ground beef
- 1/2 pound (227 g) ground pork
- 1/2 small white or yellow onion , finely diced
- 1/4 cup (27 g) breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) black pepper
- 1 egg
- Oil spray , for coating the meatballs
For the Gravy
- 4 Tablespoons (60 ml) butter
- 4 Tablespoons (60 ml) flour
- 2 cups (480 ml) beef broth (or chicken broth)
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Dijon mustard
- salt , to taste
- black pepper , to taste
- Optional chopped parsley , for garnish
Equipment
- Oil Sprayer optional
- Small Cookie Scoop optional
Instructions
- Combine all the meatball ingredients in a bowl (beef, pork, onion, breadcrumbs, garlic powder, salt, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, and egg) and mix well.
- Lightly oil your hands to help keep the meat from sticking to your hands as you form the meatballs. Roll into 1 1/2-inch sized meatballs (a small cookie scoop works great for quickly forming even sized meatballs).
- Preheat air fryer at 380°F/193°C for about 5 minutes.
- Lightly spray the basket/tray of the air fryer with oil. Add the meatballs into a single even layer (cook in batches if needed).
- Spray the meatballs with oil to lightly coat.
- Air Fry at 380°F/193°C for 8 minutes, then turn the meatballs. Spray meatballs with additional oil if they look dry.
- Continue to Air Fry at 380°F/193°C, for another 2-4 minutes or until cooked through or to your liking.
- Make the Gravy (while the meatballs air fry): Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth.
- Whisk in the broth, cream, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 3-5 minutes or until thickened.
- Serve the meatballs with the gravy. Garnish with optional chopped parsley. Serve with lingonberry jam if you have some.
If your air fryer is preheated or if you are cooking multiple batches, you may need to reduce timing by a few minutes (unless preheating is called for in the recipe).
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
What to Serve with Swedish Meatballs?
There’s so many great ways to serve these scrumptious and tender air fried swedish meatballs.
- The classic is to serve with lingonberry jam. The sweet and tart go perfect with the the savory meatballs. Just like cranberry sauce or relish at Thanksgiving!
- On egg noodles or pasta. The yummy sauce is perfect over cooked hot pasta. Add a few meatballs in there and it’s an amazing dinner for the whole family.
- Rice, quinoa or couscous are great comfort foods to serve the gravy and meatballs on.
- Make a swedish meatball sandwich! Wow, this is good on soft rolls when you douse all that gravy on top.
- Mashed potatoes are another wonderful base for the swedish meatballs and gravy. This has to be one of our favorite ways of serving the meatballs.
- Or just serve them in the gravy with toothpicks as an appetizer!
Can you freeze leftovers?
Yes you can, but will you have any leftover? These are so delicious, it’s hard to believe that you would need to freeze any leftovers. But if you did, just store them in airtight containers. You want to make sure to save the gravy with the meatballs, so using containers is best. That way when they thaw, you can just heat the microwave safe containers in the microwave for a few minutes.
Best Air Fryer Meatballs Recipes
Check out all our amazing meatballs recipes. We just love air frying meatballs because it’s so easy and quick to make a fresh, homemade batch.
- air fryer chicken meatballs with bbq sauce
- how to re-heat frozen meatballs in the air fryer
- 15 minute homemade air fryer meatballs (ground beef)
- Instant pot or pressure cooker meatballs
- air fried salisbury steak meatballs
1 Comment on “Air Fryer Swedish Meatballs with Gravy”
Whoa! These were amazing and my kids devoured them. Served with gravy on top of macaroni noodles and it was a hit. It’s less messy and just better to cook them in the air fryer.Â