Slow Cooker Cocktail Meatballs

Reasons to Love This Recipe

Can it be easier to make? Whisk together the sauce ingredients in your crock pot, then stir in the meatballs and set it to cook.

It's a slow cooker recipe that doesn't take all day. These sweet and spicy cocktail meatballs will be bubbly hot in an hour or two.

It's a perfect party appetizer as it can stay warm in the slow cooker for several hours to be hot and ready to eat at any time.

Recipe Ingredients

Labeled cocktail meatball ingredients in separate containers.

Frozen meatballs: Be sure to use fully-cooked frozen meatballs (I think most of the bagged store-bought ones are). I recommend the "homestyle" flavor over Italian as it works better with the sauce. A 32-ounce package is great with this quantity of sauce, but a little smaller or larger also works.

Ketchup: This acts as the base of our semi-homemade BBQ sauce.

Fruit preserves: These are a fun way to switch up the flavor and they add a wonderful flavor to BBQ sauces, like in these grilled blackberry chicken wings. We *LOVE* seedless raspberry preserves here, but blackberry, apricot, and yes, grape jelly, are all fine.

Mustard: Either dry mustard or prepared Dijon mustard work.

Worcestershire sauce: This bumps up the "meaty" flavor of these cocktail meatballs.

Apple cider vinegar: This brings a controlled tang.

Hot sauce: Use as much (or as little) as you like of your preferred hot sauce. Two teaspoons adds a very mild zip - increase accordingly!

Step-by-Step Instructions

Add all of the ingredients (except for the meatballs) to the insert of your crock pot, then whisk to combine them well.

Sauce ingredients added to the slow cooker (left) and whisked together (right).

Add the thawed meatballs and give them a big stir to coat evenly.

Thawed meatballs added to the slow cooker (left) and stirred with the sauce (right).

Place the lid on and cook on low heat for 1.5-2 hours, or until the center of the meatballs register 165°F. Stir everything up and switch the temperature to warm for serving, or transfer to a bowl.

Sauce-coated meatballs in a slow cooker with a wooden spoon.

Recipe Tips

The easiest way to thaw fully-cooked frozen meatballs is to thaw them in the refrigerator overnight. For a quick thaw, transfer meatballs to a microwave-safe dish or bowl and microwave in spurts on very low power, about 20% or so, until thawed. Stir the meatballs around the bowl after each spurt so that they thaw evenly.

This recipe provides a generous amount of sauce for 32 ounces of meatballs. If using a smaller package of meatballs, you may wish to decrease the quantity of sauce.

This recipe is pictured in a 4.5-quart slow cooker and just about fills it half-way. I would not use a much larger crock pot here without doubling the quantities as too much empty space in it as it can lead to overcooking.

A bowl of cocktail meatballs with toothpicks in them.

Recipe FAQs

What kind of frozen meatballs should I use?

Of the fully-cooked frozen meatball varieties, I recommend a homestyle flavor as it's neutral. I would not use Italian flavored meatballs as they wouldn't mesh well with the flavoring of the sauce. Beef or a blend of beef/chicken/pork meatballs all work, as do vegetarian meat-less balls.

Can I add the meatballs frozen?

While this is a common method in some recipes, I thaw the frozen meatballs before cooking, as the USDA recommends thawing all frozen meat before slow cooking. Even though these meatballs are fully-cooked in the first place and don't take all day to cook, I prefer to be safe and thaw them. This also helps them heat evenly.

What are some variations I can make?

Switching up the flavor of fruit preserves is an easy way to make a new spin on these cocktail meatballs. Just be sure they're seedless. Raspberry preserves are my favorite to use here for their flavor, but blackberry preserves provide a more neutral flavor. Other options are strawberry or apricot preserves, or grape jelly.