★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
These grape jelly and chili sauce glazed meatballs are the easiest appetizer recipe. Ever! Yet so tasty. They have that sweet spicy combo going on that's hard to pass up.
Made in the crockpot with just 3 ingredients — frozen meatballs, grape jelly and chili sauce. Just toss everything in your slow cooker, heat, and serve with toothpicks or a slotted spoon.
A quick and easy appetizer for holiday parties or football Sunday game days.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
A two-ingredient sauce makes these meatballs sing!
You only need to add two ingredients to your meatballs to create a sweet and spicy sauce for your meatballs.
Start with:
- Frozen cooked meatballs. You can use beef, turkey, pork or chicken. I prefer Sam's Choice angus beef meatballs. They have a nice "meaty" flavor and not too much filler. Of course, you can also make you own meatballs. Get my meatball recipe here.
- Grape jelly. 1 whole jar! You'll want concord grape jelly. You can opt for sugar free or regular. I like to use Welch's grape jelly because they grow their grapes here in NW Pennsylvania where I live!
- Chili sauce. Again, the whole bottle! This spicy condiment add a subtle heat. If these are too spicy for you, you can replace the chili sauce with ketchup or barbecue sauce instead.
Optional: Add yellow mustard to taste if you'd like. Just a tablespoon or two goes a long way.
★ How to Make these Grape Jelly Meatballs★
You literally just put everything into your crockpot and heat! You can quickly heat on high or slowly heat on low depending on how much time you have.
Remember, the meatballs are already cooked so you just want to heat them, not overcook them. Once the meatballs are heated all the way through to the center, then you can turn your crockpot down to keep warm until you're ready to serve them.
★ FAQs & Tips ★
Make the meatballs vegetarian!
I made these glazed meatballs recently for a party and they were so easy and very yummy. I made a smaller batch with meatless "meatballs" for my vegetarian friends. Both versions were popular. Even some of the meat-eaters tried and liked the vegetarian batch.
So, yes, this easy meatball appetizer recipe can be made vegetarian with plant-based "meatballs"!
Need a crockpot?
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This easy, 3-ingredient recipe for crockpot grape jelly meatballs was featured on South your Mouth!
Crockpot Grape Jelly and Chili Sauce Glazed Meatballs
Ingredients
- 18 oz concord grape jelly
- 12 oz chili sauce
- 3 lbs frozen meatballs*
Instructions
- Add grape jelly, chili sauce and frozen meatballs to your crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Serve directly from your crockpot, set to warm. Offer toothpicks, a slotted spoon or tongs for serving.
Can I double sauce and freeze half?
If you'd like extra sauce, yes you can double it. Yes, these meatballs are freezer friendly.
I have a question: What if I have raw meatballs. How long would I put it in the crock pot for? The meatballs are also not frozen either.
Hi Leticia, it really depends on the size of the meatballs, what time of meat and what temperature you are cooking. So, I'd guess around 1.5-2 hours on high using a crockpot, or 4 hours on low. That's my guess. You'll want to check the temperature of the inside of your meatballs to be sure. They are fully cooked when they are 165˚F inside. Hope this helps! If you need a meat thermometer, you can get them on Amazon. Here's a link to meat thermometers.