These hearty, delicious smoked meatball subs are a crowd-pleaser! These sandwiches are perfect for a quick, flavor-packed meal. The smokey meatballs perfectly match the tangy marinara sauce and gooey melted cheese. These customizable sandwiches make them a great dinner option for the whole family. So fire up your smoker and get ready to make some fantastic subs!

These smoked meatballs subs are delicious, smoke-kissed, and ready to eat in 40 minutes. If you’re lucky, you might have leftovers! Please note that we designed this recipe using a pellet grill, but any grill or smoker will do the job.

Ingredients for Smoked Meatball Subs:

Ground beef: use 80/20 for this recipe
Sweet Italian sausage: sub with spicy Italian
Bacon
Bread crumbs: unseasoned or plain
Eggs: you’ll need 2 large eggs for this recipe.
Italian seasoning: easily found in most grocery stores
Worcestershire sauce
Granulated garlic: or garlic powder if preferred
Red pepper flakes: purely optional
Salt
Sub sandwich rolls: 4-6, 6-inch sandwich rolls
Marinara: You’ll need a 23-ounce jar for this recipe.
Mozzarella slices

How to Make Smoked Meatball Subs:

Gently combine ground beef and sweet Italian sausage with the remaining ingredients. Do not over-mix to avoid tough, dry meatballs.
Form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and place them into a large parchment-lined aluminum tray or baking sheet. Do not overcrowd them; they need room to cook evenly!
Set your pellet cooker to 225 degrees F, or follow the cooking temperature recommendations for your smoker. See the section below for more details.
Place the pan with meatballs onto the grill grate, close the lid, and let them smoke for 15 minutes.
Remove the pan, turn up the heat to about 375 degrees F. Once to temp, place the tray with meatballs back on the grill, close the lid, and let the meatballs come up to temp. They are done once they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Using your stovetop, heat the marinara in a large, medium-sized pot.
Once cooked, remove the tray from the grill, and set it on a heat-resistant surface. Carefully remove the meatballs, and place them into the marinara. Let the sauce bubble for a minute, ensuring the meatballs are well coated.
Assembling smoked meatball subs: I recommend toasting the bread with some butter. Add 3-4 meatballs per sandwich and a little extra sauce with 1-2 cheese slices. You can also serve these smoked meatballs over pasta.

Grill set up:

As mentioned above, this smoked meatball subs recipe was created using a pellet grill. We started the smoke-cooking process at 225 degrees; after 15 minutes, we increased the heat to 375 degrees F. to finish cooking the meatballs.
If using a charcoal unit, like a kamado cooker or kettle, prepare a two-zone cooking area. Use your charcoal chimney to light the charcoal. Then bank all of your hot coals on one side of your grill. This will function as your direct or hot cooking area, while the side without the coals will be your cooler or indirect cooking space. Cook the meatballs over indirect heat for 15-20 minutes, then transfer over to the direct side until they have cooked through (165 degrees F).
Wood Recommendation: Alder, oak, maple, or cherry.

Tips: Smoked Meatball Subs

Gently combine the meatball ingredients. Do not over-mix to avoid tough, dry meatballs.
Don’t crowd the meatballs in the smoker. Give them room to cook evenly.
Let these smoked meatballs heat in the marinara for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and serve your sandwiches. If preparing this dish ahead of time, place the marinara with meatballs into a slow cooker and set to warm.
Use one large or two smaller disposable aluminum pans for this recipe.

Smoked Meatball Subs

These smoked meatballs are perfectly delicious and ready to eat in a little over 30 minutes. If you're lucky, you might have leftovers too! This recipe was designed with the pellet cooker in mind, but really, any outdoor cooking unit will do. Serves 4-6 people.

Photo by: ezumeimages/Depositphotos

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: American BBQ, American Food

Keyword: meatball sandwich, meatball subs, meatballs on smoker, pellet cooker meatballs, pellet cooker recipes, smoked meatballs

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 35

Servings: servings

Calories: 787kcal

Author: Sabrina Baksh

Ingredients

Sandwich fixings:
4-6 sub sandwich rolls 6 inch
1 jar marinara or more if you like it saucy
8-12 mozzarella or provolone slices
For Meatballs:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3 strips bacon finely chopped
2/3 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes adjust to your liking

Instructions

Gently combine ground beef and sweet Italian sausage with the remaining ingredients. Do not over mix to avoid tough, dry meatballs.
Form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and place into a large parchment-lined aluminum tray or baking sheet. Do not overcrowd them; they need room to cook evenly!
Set your pellet cooker to 225 degrees F., or follow the cooking temperature recommendations for your particular smoker.
Place the pan with meatballs onto the grill grate, close the lid and let them smoke for a good 15 minutes.
Remove pan, turn up the heat to about 375 degrees F. Once to temp, place the tray with meatballs back on the grill, close the lid and let the meatballs come up to temp. They are done once they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Using your stovetop, heat the marinara in a large, medium-sized pot.
Once cooked, remove the tray from the grill, and set it onto a heat-resistant surface. Carefully remove the meatballs, place them into the marinara. Let the sauce bubble a bit and make sure the meatballs are well coated.
Assembling sandwiches: I recommend toasting the bread with a bit of butter. Add about 3-4 meatballs per sandwich and a little extra sauce with 1-2 slices of cheese. You can also serve these smoked meatballs over pasta.