September 13, 2021

Easy Crockpot Meatballs

Whether you (and your family) are heading back to school, back to the office, or continuing on the work-from-home life, these Easy Crockpot Meatballs are a great addition to your meal rotation. They’re super easy to throw together and let cook for a few hours. They’ll be ready just in time for dinner after work, school, or after-school activities.

These Easy Crockpot Meatballs are one of my favorite weeknight meals.

My mom has been making meatballs like these for years. They’re easy to toss in the crockpot and let ’em go throughout the day, until you’re ready to eat. Needless to say, I made them a lot in college and grad school! These meatballs are warm, hearty, flavorful, and filling, especially when the weather starts to cool down. Plus, any recipe with fewer than five ingredients is a winner in my book.

This recipe could not be any easier. It’s simply a bag of frozen meatballs and a three-ingredient sauce. Those three ingredients are:

Chili sauce
Grape jelly
Dry onion soup mix

The sauce combo may sound surprising and strange at first, but trust me, it’s super tasty. I’d compare it to a “sweet and sour” kind of flavor, with a little more tang. Even though it has chili sauce in it, it’s not really spicy, so it’s still a great meal for kids. You can certainly add some extra spice if you’d like—maybe a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce, or some cayenne pepper.

If grape jelly isn’t your thing, you can also make the sauce with cranberry jelly or orange marmalade. Cranberry is my second choice, but grape jelly is just easy to find everywhere, any time of year. I make the sauce with equal parts jelly and chili sauce, but you can adjust the amounts based on your taste preferences (sweeter or more spicy).

Meatballs are one of probably three items I buy frozen. I don’t really like making meatballs from scratch, for some reason, so I keep a bag or two of frozen meatballs on hand for recipes like this, or quick additions to pasta. For this recipe, I usually choose turkey meatballs, but any kind works. Beef is always a good option. I’ve never made this with homemade meatballs, only frozen, so I’m not sure how those would work. Maybe one day I’ll suck it up and make homemade meatballs again!

Literally the Easiest Crockpot Meatballs You’ll Ever Make

This recipe is probably the easiest one on my entire website (at least for food). All you do is:

Add the frozen meatballs to your crockpot.
Mix up the sauce and pour it over the meatballs.
Cook it all together!

See what I mean? Super easy! Even if you’re not super confident in your cooking skills, you can make these meatballs. Promise.

These meatballs are delicious on their own, but you can serve them with just about any side dish. Roasted veggies are great companions, especially broccoli, zucchini, or Brussels sprouts, or even a good salad. Grains like rice or quinoa are a nice choice. You could even serve the meatballs on top of egg noodles or another sturdy pasta, like rotini or farfalle. I’ve even made myself a meatball sandwich with these piled into a hoagie roll. So really, your options are endless! Just depends on what kind of mood you’re in.

This recipe makes enough servings to last at least two days, depending on how big your family is. For me and my fiancé, this makes enough for leftovers for four or five days. The meatballs hold up really well in the refrigerator, and reheat nicely in the microwave.

I hope you’ll give these Easy Crockpot Meatballs a try this fall! It’s a delicious, filling meal for little effort, that will make even the pickiest eater happy. If you enjoy this recipe, you might also like:

Thanks so much for reading and sharing, y’all! If you want to see more, follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for more recipes, tips, and tricks. If you try one of my recipes, tag me @hellokaterobertson – I’d love to see it and hear about it!