This easy crockpot BBQ Meatballs recipe could not be more simple with homemade or store-bought meatballs, cooked in a simple BBQ cranberry sauce. They are sweet, tangy, and the ultimate crowd-pleasing appetizer!
Crockpot BBQ Meatballs prepped in 5 minutes.
Crockpot BBQ Meatballs prepped in 5 minutes.Everyone loves an appetizer of warm meatballs and I love a crockpot appetizer I can prep ahead and forget! This has got to be the easiest appetizer out there since you just toss everything in the slow cooker and walk away. You can use frozen store-bought meatballs (I recommend the Costco brand) or make and freeze homemade meatballs. It takes just 5 minutes to throw everything in, then come back when it’s time to enjoy them.
Don’t miss my other appetizer recipes, like Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, Pizza Sliders, Toasted Ravioli, and Air Fryer Chicken Wings! If you’re hosting Game Day, check out the Top 5 Superbowl Foods.
How to make BBQ meatballs:
Make Sauce: Pour frozen meatballs in slow cooker and mix together cranberry sauce, cocktail sauce, brown sugar, water, and bbq sauce.
Cook: Pour sauce over meatballs and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours. Serve and enjoy!
Storing and Reheating Instructions:
Store leftover crockpot bbq meatball leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To Reheat: Add meatballs and sauce to a saucepan and reheat on the stove until warm.
Recipe Variations:
- Stovetop Instructions: Pour bbq meatball sauce ingredients into a saucepan, stirring until smooth. Add the meatballs and toss them in the sauce. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes if the meatballs are thawed, 14-16 minutes for frozen meatballs.
- Meatballs: I recommend pre-cooked frozen meatballs for this recipe. I like to make a big batch of my homemade meatballs and keep in the freezer to make this recipe anytime. If you want to use fresh uncooked meatballs, I recommend using a lean meat or else it will add extra grease to the sauce.
More Recipes with Meatballs:
- Hawaiian Meatballs
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
- Instant Pot Pasta and Meatballs
- One Pan Meatball Casserole
- Meatball Subs
- Swedish Meatballs
- Air Fryer Meatballs
- Meatballs Arrabbiata
- Mediterranean Meatball Bowl
- Green Curry Meatballs
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Recipe
BBQ Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 50-60 frozen meatballs (store bought or homemade)*
- 14 ounce whole cranberry sauce
- 12 ounces cocktail sauce , or homemade
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- green onion , finely chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Spray the bottom of your slow cooker lightly with cooking spray. Add frozen meatballs to the bottom of pot.
- In a large bowl, stir together cranberry sauce, cocktail sauce, brown sugar, water, and barbecue sauce then pour over meatballs.
- Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours or HIGH for 2-3 hours.
- Serve warm garnished with chopped green onions, if desired. You could also serve over rice.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe October 2016. Updated October 2020 and January 2025.
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Hello. When you say frozen meatballs do they need to be pre cooked? Or would raw frozen ones work as well?
They do need to be precooked.
Hi Lauren,
I have a recipe for homemade meatballs for my spaghetti. Would I be able to use those meatballs for this recipe?
Or does it matter? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙂
Absolutely! Are they frozen or fresh? (If you make them fresh you should at least brown them well on all sides before adding to the crock pot) That sounds delicious!
I AM HAVING 18 GUESTS WILL ONE PACKAGE OF MEATBALLS BE ENOUGH
It depends on how many are in the bag—if you’re buying the Costco meatballs, then yes 🙂
This might be a silly question, but what is a can of whole cranberry sauce? I always make my own cranberry sauce homemade…I know in cans you can get with berries or the type that’s more a gelatin. Please advise! Canadian thanksgiving is next weekend and I really want to make these meatballs! Thanks in advance.
You’re on the right track. Grocery stores carry cans of “cranberry sauce” you want the one with whole berries, NOT the gelatin type.
However, if the sauce you make uses whole berries and is a cooked type sauce verses a raw fresh type you could substitue 1-1/2 c. your sauce.
I will try these, but honestly, I cannot believe anyone, let alone a food blogger, would use Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce where the FIRST ingredient on the bottle is HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. SOOO bad for you. There are other BBQ sauces out there that have no HFCS. Like any from Trader Joe’s. I use their Kansas City BBQ sauce. To anyone reading this comment…..READ the ingredient labels.
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for your comment, I just wanted to add my thoughts (and a little research) on the subject. There are a lot of misconceptions and confusion when it comes to sugar. Research has found that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is not metabolically different than regular sugar (namely, sucrose). The biggest problem with HFCS is that is is added to so many of our food products, thereby increasing the amount of added sugar that americans are consuming in their diet. While consuming an excess of HFCS is bad for the body, it is EQUALLY bad to consume excess of any added sugars (including the more than 50 different names for sugar that you will find on a nutritional label). So while I haven’t seen the Trader Joes Kansas City BBQ sauce nutrition label, it more than likely lists sugar or brown sugar, and molasses somewhere on the ingredients. These are very similar to the ingredients in any BBQ sauce (including the homemade BBQ sauce that I list on the recipe) and are just as equally harmful to the body as HFCS. Essentially we should all just limit added sugar (whether that is HFCS, sugar, brown sugar, corn sugar, etc, etc,) that is in our diet. There is a lot of research on the topic but here are a couple of articles I thought were enlightening if you are interested.
Sucrose, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and Fructose, Their Metabolism and Potential Health Effects: What Do We Really Know?
Is High-Fructose Corn Syrup Worse Than Regular Sugar?
Thanks for sharing how you made this! I haven’t had these in years and I’m so excited to bring them to SuperBowl Sunday!
Does this work with vegetables balls from Ikea??
Hi Mayra, I imagine they should work fine! I’ve never tried those–sounds delicious!
I have used this recipe many times…especially for a company pot luck…they are scarfed down so fast. Such a good recipe!! I like the tangy-ness of the Cranberry Sauce. I also use the Grape Jelly and Barbeque Sauce Meat Balls recipe, but I really like this one!! Thanks Lauren!!
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m really happy you like this recipe!
Sounds perfect for my Christmas dinner, I always like to try something new. Instead=ad of the onions do you think some chopped cilantro would be okay?
Hi Cindy, I think that would be great! Let me know how they turn out!
Hi, there,
Can I use the Trader Joe’s frozen party meatballs? They are fully cooked. Thank you!
Yes! Should work great!