Caribou Meatballs

This recipe was a happy accident. It’s an “oh shit” recipe because “Oh, shit! I forgot to pick up eggs for my caribou meatloaf! What can I make instead?!”

So I’m going through a list of ingredients… ok, I decide on meatballs. Now should I make a sort of Swedish meatball / caribou stroganoff since I have mushrooms and sour cream? No, I really want to get rid of these extra rolls. So I decide on a marinara sauce and doing meatball sliders.

Them I’m like well crap… a lot of meatball recipes use eggs as a binder but I’ve made them before without eggs. So I throw in some bacon plus the bacon fat because yum, bacon {and since caribou is rather lean it could use some fat}… add some cheese… and voila! Caribou meatball sliders!

For my homemade marinara sauce I keep it real simple: 28oz tomato sauce and herbs (2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 2 tsp basil, salt and pepper). Boom. Done.

And I actually ended up serving them open face style and liked them better that way.

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground caribou
• 4 strips bacon
• 1/4 large onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• Dried parsley

Directions:

Cook bacon over medium high heat. Remove from pan and let cool. Sauté onions in rendered bacon fat, add some oil if needed. Chop bacon into fine dice.

Combine all ingredients. Form into balls roughly 1-2 inches in diameter.

Place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-25 minutes or until done through – depending how big you make the meatballs.

Simmer in marinara sauce for a few minutes then serve on toasted buns with provolone cheese. (Sneak them under the broiler for a few minutes to help melt the cheese!)

Enjoy 😀