Korean Meatballs and Noodles Recipe (2024)

I baked the meatballs in a 12 inch cast iron skillet, which made the pan sauce a breeze. Also used half ground beef and half ground pork, and a Braeburn apple. Recipes doubles well.

I didn't think the assertiveness and sweetness of the gochujang would complement udon or pasta so I stuck with serving the meatballs in the traditional manner with regular kalbi or bulgogi with short grain rice, kimchi and lettuce. It was fantastic. Next time I will consider adding cilantro to the meatball mixture.

As a Korean American, I love to increase the flavor, so I increased to a teaspoon of grated ginger, a teaspoon of black pepper and upped the garlic to six cloves. Tastes great. Definitely recommend greasing the foil to prevent burns. Also, to get the pan juices, drain them about halfway in (you'll be cooking them in the sauce pan so no need to worry about bacteria) before the juices evaporate and start burning. I also did half gochujang and half ketchup for my kids and it was just right.

Meatballs delicious despite the fact that the pan juices burned off in the oven so could not add anything to the sauce. Woudld recommend greasing the pan slightly to avoid burning buttom of meatballs.

The meatballs would be very delicious on bahn mi bread with a gochujang mayonnaise.

By gochujang do you mean 2 tbsp of the hot red paste? Or do you mean 2 tbsp of the paste mixed with sugar and vinegar?

I usually add one tablespoon each of doenjang (or miso), soy sauce, sake and mirin to the sauce, as well as about one teaspoon of honey. Makes the sauce much more complex and tasty, especially the doenjang.

The meatballs were wonderful! We are big Korean food fans, and the whole family like this. I didn't do too well with the gochujang and pasta. I used sweet potato noodles from the Korean store, which were excellent, but I the gochujang I used was too spicy hot. It was still good, but.... Next time I will serve it with romaine leaves, gochujang, kimchi, and rice.

The meatballs themselves were good and a snap to make. I baked them in cast iron so that I could just make the sauce in the same pan. Even so, the pasta ended up kind of dry and didn't really integrate much with the meatballs. I think next time I'll just serve them with rice or wrapped in lettuce.

Really, really good. You do need to use the higher-fat ground beef, or the recipe comes out a little tame.

Proposed sauce is not nearly enough

Used fine ground kasha, lamb, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup instead of breadcrumbs, beef, rice wine vinegar and honey. An extra egg would have been helpful. Added 1 tsp gochujang to the meat mix, pressed the mixture into a greased 8" square pan and baked it like a loaf. Excellent.

Wow this was terrible. I cooked it with ground chicken and ground pork. Yuck. Meatballs need to be seared. Too much juice. Bland tasteless, will never make again.

Instead of the homemade marinade I used jarred version of kalbi marinade. It made the recipe much quicker and easier for a weeknight. I didn’t use any foil so I was able to deglaze my roasting pan over a burner without dirtying another pan.

I only had Italian breadcrumbs so I made this like a quick and dirty Bolognese and it was excellent

Made as described. Used a small stay with STEEL. roasting pan to make sure the juices were retained, no foil needed. Loved the heat, sweet and deep flavor!

Loved the flavours of this, esp the sweetness of the honey/pear and tang of other spices. For a lighter dish I served on bed of salad greens

This was so good! It really hits the spot of spicy, salty, and sweet.

I made this last night and just ate the leftovers for lunch. Thank you Lee and Kitchen Gadget Girl for the great tips. This is a fantastic recipe and really hit the spot.

I used Impossible ground beef, it worked but I would leave out the pear because it made the "meat" watery and I couldn't taste it. Still baked nicely but no juices to contribute to the sauce.

Used Mike’s Hot Honey in the meatballs. 10/10 would recommend if you have some on hand

Very tasty. The honey, ginger and pear give the meat a distinctive flavor. I don’t like baking meatballs. Dries them out. So I sautéed in a little olive oil. They’re not going to hold their shape, if that matters to you. Used whole wheat vermicelli since I didn’t have udon. Double the sauce.

Didn't have fruit so I grated in a small zucchini, and I was little short on the honey (1 tbsp). Based on comments, I wasn't expecting lot pan drippings, so I used more spicy ketchup and onions to bulk out the sauce, which was just enough to dress the meatballs. I loved this recipe. 5 stars!

My kid doesn’t like baked meatballs so I sautéed the meat and combined the rest of the liquid and added after cooking meat, onions, garlic, and ginger. So made a meat sauce. Delicious.

heaping 1/4c apple butter, 2T scallion and harrisa, 1T gochugaru and ginger and garlic and soya and hoysin and sesame oil and mirin and rice vinegar

This was simultaneously too spicy, too bitter, and too bland. It was also way too fussy for what it was. We used pre-ground beef (90/10), so maybe that was the issue, but we had basically no pan drippings.

Completely botched this. I used a peach because I couldn’t find any pears at the grocery store otherwise stuck to the recipe. My meatballs fell apart, I very CLEARLY don’t know how to make udon noodles - but man. Delicious! It may have been a mess but it was a tasty mess.