Refrigerated dough stuffed with frozen meatballs, pizza sauce, and cheese, baked until warm and gooey to create whimsical shaped savory cupcakes.

March 22, 2023 By Lilly

A fun and easy family dinner idea! Kids love these mini meatball cupcakes.

Meatball cupcakes are a creative and delicious muffin tin recipe, perfect for a quick family dinner or filling snack. This recipe is especially popular with kids, who are sure to love the whimsical cupcake shape and savory flavor.

With just a few simple ingredients, including frozen meatballs, Pillsbury dough, pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese, these mini meatball cupcakes can be whipped up in no time! They are a great option for a family-friendly meal that is both fun and easy to make on busy school nights.

Ingredients

24 frozen meatballs (small 1oz size)
1 Pillbury Crescent dough sheet (8oz tube)
1 cup pizza sauce
1+ cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Step 1 Cook the meatballs according to the package instructions, only cut the cook time in half since they will be cooking again once they are stuffed into the Pillsbury crust.

Step 2 Open the tube of crescent dough and form the shape of South Dakota. Just kidding, but seriously, your dough will most likely not come out into a perfect rectangle shape. That’s ok! Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 24 equalish pieces. I made a few extras there on the bottom and then added them to the smaller pieces.

Step 3 Grease a 24-count mini muffin tin with cooking spray and place your cut dough squares into each cup.

Step 4 Use a small spoon to evenly distribute about a teaspoon of pizza sauce onto the dough.

Step 5 Place the partially cooked meatballs on top of the sauce and push them down so that the sauce kind of spreads and wraps around them.

Step 6 Top with another teaspoon of pizza sauce. There are no exact measurements here, but you don’t want them to become too soggy or too dry.

Step 7 Evenly top each sauce covered meatball with shredded mozzarella cheese. You could also add a little parmesan if you’d like!

Step 8 Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-14 minutes or until the dough is thoroughly cooked. BTW, most frozen meatballs require the same temperature, so you’ll already have your oven preheated.

These bite-size meatball subs are super yummy and fun to eat!

We’ve made this unique recipe several times for dinner, but these savory little cupcakes are also the perfect finger food for snacking. Try serving them for a sleepover or family gathering. I promise you won’t get any complaints.

Helpful Tips

I used the Kirkland Signature Costco brand of Italian beef frozen meatballs for this recipe. They are definitely on the small side, about 1 ounce in size.
If you can’t find the Pillsbury crescent dough sheet at the grocery store, you could also use refrigerated pizza dough or crescent rolls. The crescent rolls usually come in a sheet anyway, you just may need to press the seams together before cutting.
We love Rao’s pizza sauce, but it’s expensive! Any kind of pizza sauce or even marinara works well for this recipe.
For extra flavor, feel free to season with Italian seasoning or garlic powder before adding the cheese.
Grated or shredded parmesan cheese couldn’t hurt either. Add it along with the mozzarella if you’d like.
If you end up with any leftovers, try reheating them in the air fryer. Yummy! Don’t have an air fryer? No worries, the microwave is always handy.

Mini Meatball Cupcakes

A fun and easy family dinner idea made with just a few ingredients! Kids especially love the whimsical cupcake shape and savory flavor. This is such a creative and delicious muffin tin recipe, perfect for a quick family meal or filling snack.

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: easy dinner, few ingredients, fun snacks, mini muffin tin, quick meal

Servings: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

24 small frozen meatballs (1oz size)
1 (8oz) tube Pillsbury crescent dough sheet
1 cup pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Cook the meatballs according to the package instructions, only cut the cook time in half since they will be cooking again once they are stuffed into the Pillsbury crust.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (this happens to be the same temperature that my Costco brand meatballs were cooking at).
While the meatballs are cooking, open the tube of sheet dough and place it onto a large cutting board. Use a pizza cutter to cut it into 24 equal squares.
Grease a 24-count mini muffin tin with cooking spray and place your cut dough squares into each cup.
Use a small spoon to evenly distribute about a teaspoon of pizza sauce onto the bottom of the dough.
Place your cooked meatballs on top of the sauce and push them down so that the sauce kind of spreads and wraps around them.
Top with approximately one more teaspoon of pizza sauce.
Evenly top each sauce-covered meatball with shredded mozzarella cheese. You could also add a little parmesan if you’d like!
Bake for 10-14 minutes or until the dough is thoroughly cooked.
Allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. We usually dip them in the remaining pizza sauce we have left in the jar because we like things extra saucy.

Recipe Notes

I used the Kirkland Signature Costco brand of Italian beef meatballs for this recipe.
If you can't find the Pillsbury crescent dough sheet at the grocery store, you could also use refrigerated pizza dough or crescent rolls.
We love Rao's pizza sauce, but it's expensive! Any kind of pizza sauce or even marinara works well for this recipe.
For extra flavor, feel free to season with Italian seasoning or garlic powder before adding the cheese.
If you end up with any leftovers, try reheating them in the air fryer. Yummy!