Spicy Red Devil Cocktail Meatballs | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Red Devil cocktail meatballs. That's right. They say the devil's in the details, which is why I've eliminated most of the details here to make these less devilish to do and even more devilishly delicious to eat. And whether you're doing a football tailgate or a Halloween party, these will be absolutely perfect. And to get started, we will add some ground beef and some ground pork to a mixing bowl. And while you can use one or the other, I think a combo works best. And since we are using two different kind of meats, what I like to do is take a fork and blend these two meats together before we add the rest of the ingredients just to hopefully avoid overmixing later. And once our two meats have become one, we will toss in the rest of the ingredients, which will include one large egg, a small but important splash of milk, and then we'll also need some salt, of course, as well as some freshly ground black pepper, followed by some garlic powder, as well as some onion powder. And then, obviously, if the recipe has the word devil in the name, we're going to have to also add a little bit of cayenne. And that's it. We'll finish up with our breadrumbs. And then we'll take our fork again and we will mix and stir this until everything's evenly combined. And while it does take a little bit longer, I really like using a fork for this, but if you want, you can use a big spoon or a spatula or even your hand. I mean, you are after all the Lucifer of which tool you'd prefer. But I really do think the fork is the best choice or even a small pitchfork if you have it. And then once that's mixed, what we'll do is pat it down and cover it in plastic. And if possible, pop it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill before we shape it. Right, this step is optional, but cold meat is always easier to work with than warm meat. Right, ask anybody that makes meatballs in hell. But whether you chill your meat or not, what we'll do is start scooping portions onto a lightly greased foil line baking sheet. And as usual, I'm going to wet my fingers so the meat doesn't stick as I work with it. And you can just scoop out portions with a tablespoon, but I really love using these little sorbet scoopers since it's easier to get the exact same amount in each portion. But no matter what you use, we'll portion that onto our pan. And if you're making them the same size I am, you're going to get about 30 to 32, which is roughly eight portions of three meatballs each. And then what we'll do once that's been accomplished is wet our hands and we'll go ahead and roll these into balls. if that is you want balls. Or if you're feeling lazy or you're pressed for time, you can brown and sauces as is and they'll still look fine and taste the same. But I do think they look nicer if you roll them. So hopefully you spend a couple extra minutes and do just that. Oh, and do not forget to wet your hands first. Since if you only learn one thing on this channel, it should be that damp hands make smooth balls. And once those smooth balls have been formed and equally spaced, they are ready to transfer into the center of a nice hot 475 degree oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the bottoms are sizzling and they browned up nicely. And they hopefully look like this. And by the way, you can do this step ahead of time like I did here and actually make the meatballs the day before and then just heat them up in the sauce when you're ready to serve. And for the sauce, we'll need some Korean chili paste, which goes by the name Gou Jang, or as a food Wisher would pronounce it, Goch Chef John. And then to that, we will add some seasoned rice vinegar, as well as a little touch of soy sauce. I'm also going to do a nice squeeze of Sriracha since my Korean chili paste wasn't that spicy, and I do want this to have a kick. And then to balance out all that salty sweet tanginess, we'll pour in some maple syrup, which I much prefer over honey in this, which most people use for chili glazes. And that's it. We'll finish up with a small splash of water, at which point we can head to the stove where we will bring this up to a simmer on mediumigh heat. And once it starts to bubble, we'll give it a stir. And we'll reduce our heat to medium. And we'll let this cook for about a minute or two or until it thickens up slightly. And like all sauces and glazes, you're going to have to decide how thick this gets. All right, I do want mine relatively thick, but I want to retain a little bit of the sauciness. And once we're eventually happy with how that looks, we will transfer our meatballs in. And we will stir those until they're evenly coated. And then the only things that have to happen before we can serve this is that our meatballs get heated through as well as our sauce continues to reduce down a little bit to whatever we would consider the perfect glaze. Oh, and if that happens before your meatballs are heated through, just simply add a splash of water so your pan doesn't dry out. And on the other hand, if your meatballs are hot and your glaze is a little too thin, just turn up the heat and reduce it a little faster. And once we do decide these are ready to serve, I like to give the pan the old shakea shaker just to kind of settle and even out the balls, at which point we could serve these just like this. But I'm actually going to take a wet paper towel and just clean up the sides of the pan a little bit. All right, if you don't mind washing one extra thing, you could just transfer these into a clean serving pan or dish, but a quick wipe works for me. And that's it. these array to serve up next to some toothpicks, which I've placed in a holder made out of actual human bone. Or at least that's what the guy selling the Shrunken Heads told me. And then for a little bit of a garnish, I'm going to sprinkle these with both white and black sesame seeds. Since if the red meatballs represent the fires of hell, then the light sesame seeds will be the sparks and the black sesame seeds will be the ash. And that's it. What we're calling Red Devil cocktail meatballs are ready to enjoy. So, let me grab a toothpick and impale one of these so I can enjoy the official taste. And that, my friends, ticks every box on the cocktail meatball checklist. Right. The meatballs themselves are very savory, which is really what you need if something's going to be enveloped in this sticky, sweet, tangy, spicy sauce. And I don't think I've ever had something made with Korean chili paste that I didn't absolutely love. And this was no exception. And while the flavor profile is obviously a little bit different from your classic grape jelly chili sauce version, this is going to tickle you in all the same places. And like I said in the intro, whether you make this for a football tailgate party or a Halloween themed party or a Halloween themed football tailgate party, these very, very easy to make cocktail meatballs really would be a hell of a good choice. Which is why I really do hope you give these a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And is always in joy.