The Costco Frozen Meatballs are great to keep in your freezer for anytime you need help whipping up a fun and tasty weeknight dinner. The all beef meatballs are fully cooked so all you need to do is warm them up and throw them in your favorite recipe.
These are All Beef Italian Style Meatballs from Kirkland Signature and they are a great value.
My quick review is, “The Kirkland frozen meatballs taste acceptable and are incredibly convenient. We do not love the meatballs but we do keep a bag of them in our freezer for those times that we want a quick meal or an easy way to feed a crowd.”
Cooking Instructions
These meatballs are already fully cooked so all we really need to do is and heat them up! The meatballs come in a resealable bag so don’t feel like you need to cook all six pounds at once!
The packaging provides three ways of heating up the meatballs including:
- Steamer
- Oven
- Microwave
Of course I disregarded all of those instructions and used my Ninja Foodi air fryer 🙂
Steamer Heating Instructions
- Place desired amount of frozen meatballs in a double boiler.
- Steam heat the meatballs until thoroughly warmed.
Oven Heating Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Arrange desired amount of frozen meatballs in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Heat for 20 minutes or until thoroughly warmed.
Microwave Heating Instructions
- Place about 20 frozen meatballs on a microwave safe plate.
- Heat the meatballs for 10 minutes with MEDIUM power.
- Ensure internal temperature reaches 165F.
I have to confess that I have no idea how to set my microwave’s power to Medium.
Air Fryer Heating Instructions
- Place desired amount of frozen meatballs in a single layer on the air fryer tray.
- Heat at 375F for 17 minutes.
- Eat the Meatballs.
There are pros and cons of using the air fryer to heat the meatballs.
On the positive side, the meatballs heat up quickly and get a little crunchy on the outside. I really like the extra texture that the crunch brings to the party.
On the negative side, some grease drips out of the meatballs while they are cooking and I had to apologize to my wife for creating so much smoke in the kitchen!
Taste Test
The meatballs taste okay but not great.
The texture of the meat is spongy and feels like the processed food that it is. There isn’t a large beefy flavor nor is there anything that screams “Italian”.
These taste perfectly acceptable for a quick and easy meal but do not begin to compare to homemade meatballs.
Let’s put this another way and say that your kids will love these bite sized meatballs.
Recipe Ideas
Probably the absolute EASIEST way of heating the meatballs is to put them in a sauce pan or a slow cooker and let them simmer in your sauce of choice.
When I am making pasta I will cover the meatballs with a jar of Rao’s marinara sauce and let it simmer away. By the time the water for the pasta has come to a boil and the pasta has cooked the meatballs are heated through and ready to eat.
Similarly, you can throw these meatballs in a crock pot along with a jar of barbecue sauce. Let things cook on Medium for an hour or so and you will have an easy and delicious platter of bbq meatball appetizers 🙂
My favorite meatball recipe is pretty simple. Heat the meatballs, add to a hot dog bun and top with marinara sauce for an amazing meatball sandwich.
Convenience
Even though these are not the best tasting meatballs in the world they are good enough and come in super handy.
I keep a bag of these meatballs tucked away in my freezer for when I want an easy, no hassle lunch. They also come in handy when my wife and I both think the other one of us was going to go to the store and pick up dinner for tonight.
The meatballs are a no-brainer when we want to put out a game day spread. The six pound package is easy to prep in a standard crock pot and will feed a lot of guests.
It is also nice to have them around when I am trying to come up with something interesting for dinner. It is nice to open up the freezer and say, “Oh yeah, we have those meatballs that we can do something with!”
Nutrition
A single serving of this product contains five meatballs and has the following calories and nutritional information:
- Calories: 230
- Fat: 18g (23% DV)
- Cholesterol: 45mg (15% DV)
- Sodium: 520mg (23% DV)
- Carbohydrates: 5g (2% DV)
- Protein: 12g
The meatballs are high in fat and sodium and, while that isn’t surprising for a processed ball of meat, are not something that I would want to eat everyday.
The calorie count works out to about 50 calories per meatball.
Ingredients
The meatballs contain:
- Ground Beef
- Water
- Breadcrumbs
- Soy Protein
- Dextrose
- Salt
- Mustard
- Spices
- Dehydrated Bell Peppers
- Parmesan Cheese
- Romano Cheese
- Dehydrated Garlic
- Chili Pepper
- Parsley
I am not crazy about the idea of there being so much soy protein in a Beef Meatball but I guess that is one of the ways that Costco is keeping the product affordable.
The meatballs do contain breadcrumbs so they are not gluten free.
Storage
The meatballs must be kept frozen and should not be thawed before cooking.
The bag comes with a resealable bag so you can take out as many meatballs as you want and then toss it back in the freezer.
There is a “Best By” date on the bag that is about a year from your date of purchase. I suspect you will eat your way through all 140 meatballs before the year is up so don’t worry about how long they will keep 🙂
Item Number and Location
The Kirkland Italian Style meatballs are Item Number 88744.
The meatballs are found in the freezer section of the warehouse near the other frozen beef and seafood options.
The meatballs are not seasonal so you should be able to find them all year long. If you can’t find these in your warehouse then they are probably just temporarily out of stock.
Price
I bought the six pound bag of frozen meatballs for $19.99 which works out to a cost of $3.33 per pound or about $0.14 per meatball.
I feel like this is an excellent deal as $3.33 is pretty dang close to the price of uncooked ground beef and Kirkland has gone ahead and seasoned, shaped, cooked and packaged the meatballs for you.
You might be able to find some frozen meatballs cheaper at Walmart but if you do then I strongly suggest that you check the ingredient list to see what sort of stuff they are putting in there 🙂
Other Beefy Options at Costco
If these meatballs don’t seem like what you want for dinner then Costco has some other beefy dinner options for your consideration.
Probably the best option is the prepared Meatloaf and Mashed Potato meal kit Costco has in the deli. The meatloaf comes with a thick, sweet glaze and the Yukon Gold mashed potatoes are creamy and delicious. This is a great “stick to your ribs” meal that is ready in about an hour.
You could also pick up a pack of frozen hamburgers at Costco and throw them on the grill. I would suggest sticking with the Sirloin burgers as they are the best combination of price and nutrition.
Last up is the tray of Kirkland Pot Roast that they keep in the refrigerated coolers by the deli. You can pick up the pot roast, a container of mashed potatoes and a salad and you will have a delicious meal that will be ready in about 15 minutes.
