Bacon Cheeseburger Meatballs. Enough Said.

This week’s low-carb meatball recipe is inspired by, you guessed it, the bacon cheeseburger! Now you might be thinking, why would I make a bacon cheeseburger meatball, when I could just make a bacon cheeseburger? That is an excellent question!

I don’t really have a great answer, other than that meatballs are more playful, and psychologically I feel better about eating a meatball without a bun than a patty. Somehow the patty is a constant reminder of what I’m missing—does that make sense?

If not, feel free to make it burger style, and have it your way! (See what I did there?) Allllll-righty then….

Now, let’s talk about the bacon. I know you won’t mind. Because it’s bacon. This here meatball recipe has bacon oozing out of its pores. (If a meatball had pores anyway, which is kind of gross when you think about it…. Er, let’s just forget that whole pore thing m’kay?)

Seriously though, if I’d had the room, I would have titled this the TRIPLE bacon cheeseburger meatball. This is no boring hunk of ground beef with a sad piece of bacon perched precariously on top of it like some distant Uncle’s desperate comb-over that you’re getting here. This meatball is bacon-tastic!

First, there is raw chopped bacon in the mix, which melts bacon fat through the entire meatball from the inside out.  Second, the meatball itself is cooked in bacon fat. Finally, it’s lovingly adorned with even more bacon, just before serving. A veritable trifecta of bacon. A triple threat, even… What I’m trying to say is—it’s bacony people, very, very… bacony.

Now you could just slop some sugar free ketchup on there and it would be fine. Ok, no, it’s not really fine with me. This sauce has four easy ingredients in it. You stir them together and you’re done. No excuses, just make it, OK???? This is my low carb version of the Golden Arches’ “special sauce,” which definitely pushes these meatballs over the edge flavor-wise.

To go along with the typical bacon cheeseburger theme, I served these meatballs on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce.  The sauce made an excellent dressing, making it a salad of sorts.

It should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), that you can customize these in a ton of different ways, according to your burger preference. Love red onions? Throw ‘em on. Pickles? Mushrooms? Tomato? Go nuts! You can also use pretty much any cheese with these. I used sharp cheddar, and it tasted amazing.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatball Recipe (Low Carb and Gluten Free)

Yield: 12 meatballs (4 servings)

Serving Size: 3 meatballs

A low-carb and gluten-free meatball recipe inspired by the bacon cheeseburger.

Ingredients

For the Meatballs:

1 lb ground beef (I like 80/20 for these)

1 egg

1/4 cup almond flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup chopped raw bacon (from the fatty ends)

bacon fat to cook the meatballs in

For the Sauce:

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp sugar free (or low sugar) ketchup

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp dill pickle juice (or dill pickle relish if you prefer chunks)

To Serve:

3 oz cheddar (or other) cheese

4 cups iceberg lettuce, shredded

3 slices of bacon, cooked and broken into 12 pieces

Instructions

Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Form into 12 meatballs. Fry in a non-stick pan in the reserved bacon fat (or use the oil of your choice) for about 4 minutes for the first side. Turn them over and top each with a slice of cheese. Cook for another 4 minutes, or until done to your liking. Remove from the heat, and top each meatball with a piece of bacon.

For the Sauce:

Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth.

To Serve:

Place 1 cup of shredded iceburg lettuce on a plate. Top with 3 meatballs and drizzle with about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sauce.

Approximate nutrition information per serving:

1 meatball: 160 calories, 11g fat, .25g net carbs, 14g protein
3 meatballs w/sauce & lettuce: 591 calories, 45g fat, 1.5g net carbs, 42g protein