Sweet and Spicy Meatballs ~ A Slow Cooker Recipe

I firmly believe that the homemaker needs a few extremely easy, minimal cleanup dishes in her/his repertoire. Sweet and Spicy Meatballs is a perfect example. Just dump a few ingredients in a slow cooker and let it do its thing while you attend to other tasks. Serve these tasty meatballs over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles and your family will sing your praises. 

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Sweet and Spicy Meatballs 

I threw a few ingredients in the slow cooker recently and the result was a big hit. In fact, David and Chris volunteered to clean the kitchen without my help on the condition that I immediately go write down how I made this.

It’s an all-too-common occurrence that I’ll make something they rave about but I later don’t recall how I made it. I tend to cook a lot by inspiration in the moment, often based on what I happen to have on hand. 

But thanks to their insistence, Sweet and Spicy Meatballs will show up on our menu again. And yours as well if you’d like!

Now, I can’t say that this recipe is totally original. I’ve had appetizer meatballs at parties that are similar. Or sometimes people do something similar with cocktail wieners. 

Most of these recipes use some type of jelly or preserves along with barbecue sauce or sweet chili sauce or ketchup. And any of these combinations are likely to be good. 

I think the addition of a quality Dijon mustard adds another flavor dimension. Also, these other recipes are meant to be appetizers so they don’t have extra sauce after they are done. I wanted a “gravy” of sorts to spoon over mashed potatoes so this recipe has a greater sauce to meatball ratio with the addition of some water. Slow cookers don’t all cook at the same heat so you may need to adjust the amount of water, perhaps adding a little more toward the end of the cooking time. 

 

 

These are the ingredients I used:

Welch’s Grape Jelly

Heinz Chili Sauce

Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce

Maille Mustard
(Dijon)

 

While these would certainly be good over rice or noodles, in my opinion you just can’t beat good ol’ homemade mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes ~ Homemade, Of Course

 

However, if you have a rice cooker and want the very easiest of dinners, that would be a great option. I think if I were planning to serve over rice I would consider adding some canned pineapple to the meatballs and perhaps garnishing with some sliced green onions. 

I used frozen meatballs because I had some in the freezer and I needed a hands-off meal that evening. But you could, of course, make your own. And there are vegan meatballs available if you don’t eat meat. 

I used grape jelly because I had an open jar in the fridge, but you could certainly try something like raspberry, strawberry or apricot. I think apricot preserves and added canned pineapple would be especially tasty over rice. I would add a splash of soy sauce, as well. 

All that to say that this is a very adaptable recipe. Try it as written the first time and then try your own adaptations. Enjoy!

 

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