These slow cooker meatballs feature a tasty homemade barbecue sauce. The meatballs are shaped and baked and then combined in the crock pot with the barbecue sauce ingredients. If you’re short on time, you could use good quality frozen meatballs in the recipe. It’s an excellent appetizer for any occasion, or make a meal with the meatballs and hot cooked rice or potatoes.
These are great little appetizers that are easy to fix and cook. Use your favorite bottled barbecue sauce or homemade BBQ sauce recipe if you’re short on time. This included barbecue sauce, which is sweet, but feel free to cut back on the sugar or use a sugar substitute to taste.
Slow Cooker Barbecue Meatballs
These slow cooked meatballs feature a tangy homemade barbecue sauce. The homemade meatballs are baked, but frozen meatballs can be substituted.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
- Yield: 48 meatballs 1x
- Category: Appetizers, Meatballs
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 4 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs (plain)
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Homemade Barbecue Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil (jelly roll pans or shallow roasting pans).
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, 1/4 cup ketchup, breadcrumbs, egg, minced onion, garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. Mix lightly but thoroughly and then shape into 1-inch meatballs.
- Arrange the meatballs in the prepared pans. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, or until they are nicely browned.
- Transfer the meatballs to slow cooker.
- Mix remaining 1 cup ketchup, brown sugar, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, liquid smoke, and crushed pepper in a medium bowl. Pour the sauce mixture over the meatballs.
- Cover and cook on LOW 3 to 4 hours.
- Serve with small plates and cocktail picks or toothpicks.
- Makes about 48 1-inch meatballs.