What’s the one treat my kids bug me constantly to make for them, you ask? What’s that? You’d didn’t ask? Well, that doesn’t matter, I’m going to tell you anyway. MOINK BALLS! Yes, MOINK balls. They’re like meat balls, only you make them with a mixture of ground beef and pork sausage.
My kids can’t get enough of these tasty little things, and they’re really not hard to make. I tend to grill them when I make them, but you can absolutely put them in the oven on a baking sheet.
All you really do is make a savory meat and sausage meat ball, wrap it in bacon and cook it until the bacon is crisp. Drizzle a little of your favorite BBQ sauce on them just before you take them off the grill or out of the oven, and watch them disappear. It’s like magic, if magic consisted of three young boys inhaling a pound of grilled meat.
Let’s get started, the printable recipe is at the end.
The Ingredients
The Process
Now, to start off, I use a pound of ground beef (the leaner the better), two italian sausages (casings removed), two eggs, a splash or two of worcestershire sauce, some minced onions and some bread crumbs. That silver bag you see in the front is my very own blend of BBQ seasoning. Mine is a chipotle cinnamon flavor. Feel free to use your favorite here.
Mix all this stuff together, except for the bacon. It helps when you have an 8 year old nearby who wants to get his hands gooey.
Now what you do is roll them into balls, and wrap with a third of a slice of bacon. You can make them larger to where you need a half slice, but that’s just being greedy in my opinion. We soak toothpicks in water for about 20 minutes, and use those to hold the bacon in place while grilling the moinks, so that everything stays together. As a bonus, you get a little handle to pick them up with when it’s time to eat.
The Grilling
See that? Right into the grill, away from the heat source. You want these to slowly cook through. It’s called indirect cooking. If you’ve ever made the mistake of trying to grill bacon directly over the heat source, you’ll understand that bacon is basically a pork form of jet fuel.
Now, you’ll see my bacon wrapped chicken on the grill too, but try to ignore that for now. These moink balls are ready for a slathering of BBQ sauce. After about 10 minutes, I remove them from the grill and stand back because the kids are ready to tear into them.
Sweet, smoky, pork-y goodness!
The Recipe – Printable
- 1 Pound Lean Ground Beef
- 2 – 3 Links Italian Sausage (you can use breakfast sausage too)
- 2 Eggs
- Breadcrumbs (add enough to help the mixture stick together)
- Minced Onions – you can use fresh onions too, just add enough to suit your tastes
- 2 – 3 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
- Your Favorite BBQ Seasoning (to taste)
- Remove the sausage from it’s casings, if necessary. Place sausage, ground beef, worcestertshire sauce, breadcrumbs, eggs and seasoning into a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Roll into balls, roughly the size of a golf ball, and wrap with a third of a slice of bacon. Use a toothpick to hold it together.
- On a pre-heated grill or oven (300 degrees) place the moink balls away from the heat source, close the lid and monitor. In roughly an hour your moinks should be done. When the bacon is crispy, it’s time to slather on your favorite BBQ sauce.
- After applying your sauce, leave the moink balls on the grill for another 10 minutes to “set” the sauce. Remove from the grill and enjoy!
