Refrigerated dough stuffed with frozen meatballs, pizza sauce, and cheese, baked until warm and gooey to create whimsical shaped savory cupcakes.
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
![Cooked frozen meatballs for making mini meatball sub cupcakes!](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cooked-frozen-meatballs.jpg)
![Cutting up a Pillsbury crescent dough sheet for making muffin tin mini meatball cupcakes.](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/pillbury-dough-mini-meatball-muffins.jpg)
![Fun and easy muffin pan recipes for dinner! These mini meatball sub cupcakes are super yummy and kid friendly. Perfect for busy school night meals!](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/muffin-tin-dinner-recipes-meatball-cupcakes.jpg)
![If you need a few family friendly dinner ideas, you've got to try these mini meatball cupcakes! A super savory and delicious meal for a family with picky eaters.](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/meatball-cupcakes-fun-dinner-recipes-for-kids.jpg)
![Are you looking for fun dinner ideas at home? Look no further than these meatball cupcakes! They are made with just 4 cheap ingredients, and are super quick and easy to make in a mini muffin tin.](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fun-muffin-tin-dinner-ideas-meatball-cupcakes.jpg)
![Mini Muffin Tin Meatball Cupcakes | An easy and super fun dinner idea for a family with kids!](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/meatball-cupcakes-dinner.jpg)
![Cheesy Meatball Cupcakes made in a mini muffin pan!](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fun-and-easy-dinner-idea-made-with-frozen-meatballs.jpg)
![Yummy dinner idea for a family with kids! These mini meatball cupcakes are fun to make in a mini muffin tin with just a few budget friendly ingredients: Pillsbury dough, frozen meatballs, cheese, and pizza sauce! They make for a wonderful quick meal as well as a filling snack for afters school. Great for sleepovers!](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/the-best-meatball-cupcakes-recipe.jpg)
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
Equipment
- 1 mini muffin tin
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° F (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.
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!
![](https://www.thelazydish.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Instagram.jpg)
If you like this recipe, check out this list of 20 Cheap & Easy Family Dinner Ideas! 🙂