Sticky gochujang glazed meatballs with cucumber salad

plus a no-roll skillet version for even faster dinners

At Scratch Made, one of the biggest challenges we run into when developing new menu items is scale—how to take a dish that’s delicious, recognizable (we find this sells the best), and make it work when we need to produce it in serious volume.

That’s how this dish came to be. Dumplings kept coming up in menu meetings as something we’d love to serve, but the logistics of individually filling and folding hundreds of them just aren’t in the cards. There’s not a clear workaround. So, instead we started thinking about other ways to incorporate those flavors into a dish without being so literal about the delivery.

Specifically we were thinking of mandu, Korean dumplings, which can vary but are typically filled with ground pork, ginger, garlic, scallions, vegetables like carrot or zucchini, and cut up japchae (sweet potato noodles). We started to think about making the mandu filling and translating that into a meatball dish rather than making dumplings. By taking those same ingredients and flavors and transforming them into meatballs, we’ve simplified the prep while keeping all the elements that make dumplings delish.

That’s where these gochujang meatballs come in. They hit the same salty-sweet-spicy notes as dumplings, but in a way that makes sense for a busy kitchen—or a weeknight dinner at home. And for those truly pressed for time, I’ve also included an even easier skillet version that skips the meatball rolling entirely. Both versions are packed with flavor, play well with rice or lettuce wraps, and come with a crunchy little cucumber salad that makes for the perfect weeknight meal.

Tools you’ll need:

I’m a big believer that, in the kitchen, you don’t need a lot of tools, but you do need the right tools. Often times, cooking like a chef is more a matter of having the right tool for the job, than actual technique. These are the tools that helped me bring this dish together:

12” frying pan

Mixing bowls (I love this set)

This specific zester - I hate finely chopping garlic and often opt to zest it instead

Tried and true rice cooker

Good cutting board

Food thermometer - Takes the guesswork out of it

Sticky gochujang glazed meatballs with cucumber salad

Ingredients

For the Meatballs:

1 lb ground pork or chicken

2 Tbsp (~1 knob) fresh ginger, grated

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or microplaned