Pair these orange marmalade meatballs with an Ramen Noodle Asian Slaw Salad, Chilled Sesame Noodles with Carrots and a Raspberry Sloe Gin Fizz.
★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
Love Chinese food? Then you'll love these sweet and sour meatballs made with orange marmalade. These meatballs make for an easy appetizer you can slow cook in your crockpot or serve over rice for an easy weeknight dinner.
Made with frozen meatballs or feel free to make your own. Your choice — beef, chicken, turkey or plant-based "meatballs" will work.
Set it and forget it.
Crockpot appetizers are great for when you're short on time but you still want to bring or serve something delicious.
Asian-inspired Flavor
I love these slow cooker meatballs because they're an easy appetizer recipe yet they're not your typical grape jelly and chili sauce meatball recipe, although those are yummy too!
These spicy orange meatballs are yummy and so easy!
This is such a simple appetizer recipe, made using just 5 ingredients. Perfect to take to a pot luck or serve at a party you're hosting.
Turn these saucy meatballs into a full meal.
Serve these orange meatballs over rice, with a side vegetable or salad for an easy dinner! I like to add extra sauce when I serve these as a meal to flavor the rice.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
All you need is FIVE ingredients! The sweet and spicy flavor of these orange marmalade meatballs comes together really easily and transforms plain meatballs into a delicious appetizer or dinner.
- Frozen meatballs. Or you can make your own using my homemade meatball recipe. If making your own meatballs, season them with garlic and ginger instead of Italian seasonings.
- Orange marmalade. You can also use Thai sweet chili sauce.
- Chinese or yellow mustard. Either one works, your choice.
- Sriracha sauce. This adds the spice. You can dial the heat up or down by adjusting the amount you add. You can use garlic chili sauce instead.
- Rice vinegar. This gives you that Asian flavor.
Optional seasoning: Add garlic and ginger powder to taste or paste for an extra layer of Asian flavor! You can stir these into the sauce after warming, before serving.
Soy sauce can also be added to taste for a more salty, less sweet flavor.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
You can use any type of meat you prefer. Use pork meatballs, chicken or beef. Make your own meatballs or buy frozen. Totally up to you! Go light and choose a meatless "meatball" or turkey meatballs.
Avoid Italian seasoned meatballs for recipes that are not Italian.
It depends if the meatballs are precooked or raw. If you're using already cooked frozen meatballs, you only need to "cook" them long enough for them to be thoroughly heated all the way to the center. In this sauce, that takes about an hour on high heat.
However, you can test one by cutting it in half and carefully feeling the center to see if it's hot. If you're making your own meatballs using raw meat, I'd recommend cooking them first in the oven then adding them to your crockpot with the sauce.
★ More Asian Recipes You'll Love ★
Looking for more appetizer ideas?
Browse all my easy appetizer recipes and Pin your favorites so you've got plenty of ideas when your next potluck or holiday party comes up.
This recipe for spicy orange marmalade meatballs was featured on South Your Mouth and Meal Plan Monday!
Crockpot Orange Meatballs
Equipment
- crockpot liners for easy clean up
Ingredients
Meatballs and Sauce
- 24 oz frozen meatballs (chicken, beef, or turkey — your choice)
- 18 oz orange marmalade
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 3 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ⅓ cup Sriracha sauce or use soy sauce
Garnish
- 2 green onions finely chopped
Optional Seasonings
- 1 teaspoon garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon ginger paste
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- Combine meatballs ans sauce ingredients. Add frozen meatballs, orange marmalade, yellow mustard, rice vinegar and Sriracha sauce to your slow cooker.
- Heat. Cook on high for 1 hour or until sauce is bubbling.
- Stir and then set to warm to serve.
- Add optional garlic and ginger before serving, if desired.
Video
Notes
- To speed up the cooking process, you could cook these on the stove in a large pot on high for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a crockpot to keep warm.
- To enjoy as a dinner, double the sauce and serve over white rice.
- Substitute Sriracha sauce with soy sauce in part or in whole for less spicy meatballs.
Michele says
This was amazing! I mixed with instant Jasmine rice and Asian vegetables (steam bag) Thank you so much for posting!!
LeeAnna says
Can you suggest some side to try and make this into more of a meal.
Angela G. says
Sure! I would recommend anything Asian. So white rice and then any stir fry veggies would be great. You can buy a frozen mix or try broccoli, snow peas, peppers, carrots... just pan fry them with a small amount of cooking oil and salt. Thanks for asking!