These Grape Jelly BBQ Meatballs are easy to make in the crock pot. This recipe only takes 3 ingredients and 5 minutes to prep! Doesn’t get better than that.
These meatballs are a tried and true appetizer recipe of mine. They literally couldn’t be easier to make and everyone always loves them. Other easy go-to’s are little smokies, meatball sliders and pigs in a blanket.
Table of Contents
The Perfect Appetizer
These crockpot BBQ grape jelly meatballs are one of my family’s favorite meatball recipes. They are seriously so good and the perfect appetizer for game day! They almost remind me of sweet and sour meatballs but taste better.
My Grandpa has been making these crockpot meatballs for years and we always loved them growing up. My sister even talked him into making them as an appetizer at her wedding. Everyone loved them! Now of course my family has their actual “homemade meatballs recipe,” which are just as amazing.
The best part about BBQ meatballs is that no one would ever know how simple they are to make. Turn them into a main dish and serve them over sticky rice like I do with honey garlic meatballs. YUM!
3 simple ingredients!
These slow cooker grape jelly meatballs are so easy to make. You just need the 3 ingredients below to get started:
- Meatballs: I love getting the frozen meatballs from Costco or Kroger. They taste the best in my opinion. Homemade meatballs taste great as well if you have the time.
- Grape jelly: I keep it simple and use Smucker’s grape jelly.
- BBQ Sauce: Sweet baby ray’s BBQ sauce is my personal favorite. :) You can also make a homemade BBQ sauce if preferred.
How to Make Crockpot BBQ Meatballs
- Add ingredients to crockpot. Pour grape jelly and BBQ sauce in the bottom of your crockpot. Add in the meatballs and stir until fully coated.
- Cook meatballs in crockpot. Cook frozen meatballs in crockpot for 2 to 3 hours on high, or until warm. Make sure to stir a few times throughout.
- Serve and enjoy! Garnish with sliced green onions if desired and serve as an appetizer or main dish.
Variations
There are plenty of ways to easily mix up the flavors in this recipe. Check out some other yummy variations below:
- Sub Heinz chili sauce for BBQ sauce for an extra kick, like I did with these chili sauce meatballs.
- Replace grape jelly with 16 ounces sliced or diced pineapple for Hawaiian meatballs.
- Use 1/4 cup honey instead of jelly for a a little healthier alternative (add more or less to to taste).
- Make cranberry meatballs with leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving. Sub an equal amount of cranberry sauce for grape jelly.
- Use 2 packages of little smokies instead of meatballs.
FAQ
We love to serve them with coconut rice, green beans and fresh cut pineapple.
If you’d like to thicken your sauce, you can mix together a cornstarch slurry (about 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon of water) and stir it into the sauce and allow it to simmer.
This is the base of the sauce (which helps thicken it) and brings the best flavor. I promise you won’t taste the grape flavor.
More Easy Appetizers:
- Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Ham and Cheese Sliders
- 4-Ingredient Cheese Ball
- Easy 7-Layer Dip
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
HUNGRY FOR MORE? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all the newest recipes!
Crockpot Bbq Meatballs
Video
Ingredients
- 1 (18-ounce) jar jar grape jelly
- 1 (18-ounce) jar BBQ sauce
- 1 (32-ounce) bag frozen fully cooked meatballs (about 50)
Optional: Cooked rice, Sliced green onions
Instructions
- In a medium bowl or the base of a slow cooker, combine the grape jelly and BBQ sauce. Add meatballs and stir until coated in sauce.
- Cook on high 2 to 3 hours or low 3 to 4 hours. Turn the slow cooker to warm until ready to serve.
- Enjoy as an appetizer or serve over rice and top with green onions for a main dish.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: American, Appetizers, Crockpot, Crockpot, Dairy-Free, Mini appetizers, Reader Favorites, Super Bowl
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
Can I make this in a pressure cooker?
Yes you can. I’d add about 3/4-1 cup water with the frozen meatballs and other ingredients. Then cook on high for 5 minutes.
Can you use jam instead or does it have to be jelly
Yes you can, I just prefer jelly as it doesn’t have the seeds like most jams.
This is a FANTASTIC recipe. I’ve been making it and bringing it to parties for years and it always goes quick.
If y’all are on a diet like me, switching the meatballs to chicken meatballs, grape jelly to sugar-free grape jelly, and bbq sauce to sugar-free, lessens it to about 220 calories (depending on the brands you use).
Does this change the flavor much? My daughter is type 1 diabetic and we like sugar free bbq but the sugar free jelly is not our fav lol. Wondering how it is mixed all together.
Made this Sunday for our Family Gathering at church. So easy and very delicious. I will be using the recipe again!
This is a great one to take to a potluck! Thanks for sharing, Debbie.
Thanks very much for your review Debbie!! I’ll be trying this too!!!
substituted sugar free grape jam & no sugar added bbq sauce to make this lower carb! my recipe tweaks make it:
-serving size 6 meatballs (roughly 85g)
-275 calories
-21g fat
-14g total carbs
-2g fiber
-3g sugar
-12g protein
-12g net carbs
only negative about this recipe is that it’s so dang good that i’m debating losing self control
Thanks for sharing these alternative ideas, Olivia. Moderation in all things, right? Good luck!
What size crockpot do you need for the 50 meatballs?
A 7 quart crock pot.
Can you use a 6 quart, that’s what I have.
Yes you can :)
This is the easiest meatball recipe I tried so far. The instructions are so easy and quick to follow, it turned out to be insanely delicious. Highly recommended! Thank you Jamielyn for this great recipe!
Me and my family love eating this for dinner
So happy to hear that!
This recipe came out super delicious. Highly recommend.
So glad it was a success! Thanks for your comment and review, Greta :)
Thank you so much for sharing this great bbq meatballs recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s super flavorful and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
Oh these meatballs came out SO good! I’ve been looking for something new to mak in my crock pot and this worked perfectly!
Making these right now, 1 hour to go abd seems pretty liquidity. Anyway to thicken them up ?
Some BBQ sauces are thinner than others. You could remove some of the liquid and simmer it on the stove with a cornstarch slurry to thicken it if you’d like.
Delicious and so easy!
Not sure if I did something wrong but my meatballs were tough.. could it have been the brand of meatballs, cooked them too long ect please help
It definitely could have been the brand or maybe they were cooked too long. We prefer the Costco meatballs and once they’re done, we turn to the warm setting.
If I want to do a double batch, would I just double the recipe or would that be too much?
You may need to increase the cook time by 30-60 minutes. I would probably recommend doing them in 2 separate crockpots.
Easy great recipe crowd pleaser
I can’t believe how easy these were! Everyone loved them and asked for the recipe!
The flavor is amazing but all of the frozen meatballs I’ve tried have a terrible texture so I prefer to use real meatballs.
Homemade is always delicious :)
I have not made this recipe yet, but I ONLY enjoy armor original meatballs. My family loves them. I love homemade, but have no recipe for them.
Check out my easy homemade meatball recipe :) https://www.iheartnaptime.net/meatball-recipe/