Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs is the One-Pot Meal You’ve Waited Your Whole Life For.

Not only is it ridiculously good comfort food, but it’s easy to make and kind of fun.

Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs is the One-Pot Meal You’ve Waited Your Whole Life For

Ok. So, you know how you love a thick, rich spaghetti sauce from the Italian restaurant down the street?

But it takes about 8 years to make that yourself and BRUH, I do not have time for that?

Skillet spaghetti and meatballs? Yeah, well, you do have time for this.

Thick sauce, perfect noodles, big ‘ole meatballs and just the right amount of EEEEEVERYTHING.

All in one awesome pan.

Seriously.

I could not believe how well this turned out–like for real, it was better than I imagined and I was a little stunned I pulled off an entire spaghetti and meatball meal in one pot. This one skillet spaghetti and meatballs is going to be your new “go to” recipe for that amazing one pan meal.

I started with the “normal” ingredients I’d use to make my 10-Minute Spaghetti Sauce, plus what I need for making an old fashioned meatball. OF course, You can always make these fabulous Instant Pot Meatballs. Have you checked out my Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe?

I obviously have a love of one pot spaghetti and meatballs. Don’t judge me.

Nothing fancy, but I do tell you this, I am looking forward to growing my own tomatoes this summer and hopefully canning some for making this Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs that much more amazing…

Let’s Put Together My Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs – Get Those Hands Dirty

Now, I would like to note that I used gluten-free breadcrumbs.

Not for any reason other than that’s what I accidentally bought off the shelf.

But I’ve made this before with gluten-packed breadcrumbs and it turns out the same, so whatever. LOL!

ground beef and bread crumb mixture in bowl

I just pile everything for the meatballs in a nice, big bowl for mixing…because it’s about to get messy, y’all.

GAH! The worst part of making meatballs.

You really can’t stir and don’t ever use your mixer…just mix with your hands enough to get everything incorporated.

Over mixing will make the meat tough, so my mother says.

Then it’s time to form all the little meatballs.

You can make them as big or as small as you want, BUT! (big but), you have to remember that the bigger the meatballs, the longer the Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs will have to stay in the oven.

My skillet is a “normal” sized skillet, though I have a much bigger one that I could have used, but, with only one pound of ground beef, there’s lots of room between your meatballs, right?

This space is what inspired me…

So, I took the plunge and went ahead and chopped the onion I intended for my spaghetti sauce.

I like my onions to be chopped pretty small, but still have some shape, so they end up like this.

Always.

For everything I cook. LOL!

Then I just filled all the spaces between meatballs with onion and garlic for this one skillet spaghetti.

You can add a little vegetable oil, if you want, but the meatballs will put off a little oil of their own, so that will help the onions, too.

I just gently sautéed all that together, being very careful not to break up the meatballs, but also turning them so that all sides were seared.

You can see that some of my onion is quite dark–but that’s how I like it in my spaghetti sauce.

If you want less brown on your onions, you can either lower the heat, use some vegetable oil, or remove the skillet from the stove earlier.

This is when I added the other ingredients for the sauce.

Again, I tried to fill the spaces between the meatballs, and when stirring everything together, I was just gentle with the meatballs. It’s a one skillet spaghetti and meatballs, so I didn’t my sauce and meatballs all over place…instead of in the skillet where it belongs.

I’m messy enough in the kitchen, so I don’t need any extra cleaning up to do…and don’t break those meatballs by accident.

So do it gently.

See? Super not hard.

The skillet has plenty of room!

And then it was time for the noodles.

Now, I used regular spaghetti noodles, but I bet this would work with penne or rigitoni…any pasta really.

I made sure that sauce covered all the noodles, even if it meant that a meatball had to be out of the sauce a bit.

Now, you may be thinking “this sauce is too thin!”

But don’t go down that path, my friend–the noodles will actually soak up all that water and MORE, and that’ll be just perfect for my skillet spaghetti.

Time To Take Dinner Out of the Oven

A couple of checks in the oven, adding a little more water and you get this BEAUTIFUL one-pan baked skillet spaghetti and meatballs.

And, see–no sloppy sauce, just thick and covering everything!

Amazing.

At that point, it was just time to eat.

Literally nothing else to do.

Unless, of course, you want to add some parmesan cheese or mozzarella.

But, I was out.

LOL!

Are you in for making your own Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs?

Yay!

Oh, but you’re all out of noodles.

Pooh. Then just enjoy making skillet meatballs. Isn’t it the real reason you would want to make this skillet spaghetti recipe anyways? The meatballs are insane!

Well, that’s ok!

Just pin this Skillet spaghetti recipe to your favorite skillet meals board on Pinterest, so you can find it fast when you get back from the store!

Oh, and be sure to drop a 5-star rating on my skillet spaghetti and meatballs recipe, below, if you loved it as much as I do, to let us know that you want to see more recipes like this one!