Taylor is a huge fan of meatball sub sandwiches so I decided to experiment and smoke meatballs and make her a Smoked Meatball Sub Sandwich at home. The smoked meatballs turned out incredible and tasted smoky, meaty, moist, and were the perfect protein to add on sub sandwiches.
I smoked the meatballs in my Weber Searwood at 275 degrees. However, if you don’t have a smoker, you can just bake the meatballs in the oven or toaster oven at 325 degrees until the internal temperature of the meatball reaches 150 degrees.
No Limit Tip: I didn’t add extra salt to the meatball mixture because there’s a good amount of salt in the Italian sausage and parmesan cheese. As always, please salt to taste!
Ingredients:
2 pounds Smoked Italian Meatballs
4 6-inch French rolls
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Marinara Sauce
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Meatball Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound hot Italian Sausage
¾ cup panade (½ cup milk, 2 slices bread)
½ cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt, to taste
Marinara Sauce Ingredients:
36 ounces Rao’s Marinara Sauce
½ onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, pepper, and sugar, to taste
Steps:
Make Marinara Sauce – In a cast iron skillet, cook finely diced onions in olive oil for five minutes over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook for a minute. Add sauce, season to taste with salt, pepper, and sugar and set aside.
Make Meatballs – In a large bowl, add all the meatball ingredients and mix well. Salt to taste. Form 1.5 ounce meatballs.
Smoke Meatballs – Setup the grill/smoker to 275 degrees. Smoke the meatballs and marinara sauce at 275 degrees for a half hour or until the meatballs reach 155 degrees. Add the meatballs to the marinara sauce, mix it up and finish smoking uncovered for another 15 minutes.
Make Meatball Sub Sandwich – Add a thin layer of marinara sauce on toasted French bread, add the meatballs, sprinkle on parmesan cheese, add more marinara sauce on top of the meatballs, and top the meatballs with with melted mozzarella cheese and bread.
Tips:
- There’s a good amount of salt content in Parmesan Cheese and Italian Sausage, so salt to taste when making the meatballs.
- If you don’t have a smoker, you can just bake the meatballs in the oven or toaster oven at 325 degrees until the internal temperature of the meatball reaches 150 degrees.
- To make the panade, Add crumbled sandwich bread and milk to a medium bowl, letting the bread soak for 10 minutes before mashing it into a paste. The panade helps make tender meatballs.
- If you’re not a fan of sub sandwiches, you can also top the meatballs and marinara sauce over a bed of pasta noodles.
No Limit Cooking 
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