These quick-and-easy slow cooker meatballs with honey, chile-garlic sauce, and five-spice powder flavoring are a little different from other cocktail meatball appetizer recipes since they are sweet and spicy. Chili sauce can be made hotter or milder by adding more or less of it.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 5 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 25 meatballs |
Ingredients
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons chile-garlic sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
- 1 (2 pound) bag frozen cooked meatballs
Instructions
- Combine ketchup, brown sugar, honey, garlic, chile-garlic sauce, soy sauce, and five-spice powder together in a bowl. Let sauce stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Add frozen meatballs to a slow cooker. Pour sauce over meatballs and toss gently to coat.
- Cook on Low for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 516 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 44 g |
| Cholesterol | 151 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 32 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 1110 mg |
| Sugars | 30 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My guests loved this different take on meatball sauce. I will make it again!
Very good!! Different flavor. Make again.
This has become a regular dish for me and every time I make it, it gets lots of compliments. 5-star recipe!!!!
I followed the recipe exactly except I made my own meatballs from scratch! They were delicious and my family loved them!
These were very easy and very tasty. I agree with doubling the sauce for my personal taste. Definitely making these again!
I really enjoyed these- simple to make and very flavorful. The only thing I changed on my second go-round was to make fresh ground beef meatballs, which can be as simple as balling up some ground beef and putting it in a frying pan for a minute or two, and adds far more texture and meat flavor than the frozen type. Served with warm white rice and chopped green onions, it makes a wonderful dinner too!
This recipe was AWESOME! I didn’t have garlic chili sauce so I substituted Thai Sweet Red Chili sauce, I made my own homemade healthy ketchup and instead of letting the sauce sit and slow cook as per the recipe, I put everything into a sauce pan and cooked/simmered for about a half an hour. It was SOOOO GOOD!!!! I will DEFINITELY be making this again. Husband ate so much he was over full! 🙂
It’s ok I didn’t put as much spicy garlic-hot sauce because my family wouldn’t have eaten it if it’s spicy or too spicy hot
We loved them! I made a few adjustments, like cutting the chili garlic sauce in half and replace the other half with hoisin sauce, because the chili was a little too hot for us. Also, I added a half a can of crushed pineapple. When I saw there wasn’t enough liquid I added some grapefruit juice cocktail that I had in the fridge. We enjoyed them with white rice.
This is an easy recipe since the ingredients are already in your pantry. I made this w/ fresh pork meatballs and served w/ brown rice and Chinese broccoli. We’re a saucy house so yes, I doubled the sauce. I did have to adjust the sauce (by adding more soy sauce) as it was too sweet as written.
I don’t need a reason to make these!!!!! Thank w!
Used my homemade meatballs, only searing then pouring sauce over in cooker for ONLY 1 hr. With fresh made meatballs, flavor infusion is quicker. Great sauce recipe for many uses. In any event, i believe 4 hrs for meatballs is extremely too long to cook .
Added a little more heat and garlic. Served with Riche Noodles and also, Jasmine Rice!
Made a triple batch of this and WOW its good. didn’t change anything with recipe… don’t know if i would change anything. its excellent. Only thing different was i made homemade meatballs rather than frozen. used 6 lbs ground beef, 26 ounces evaporated milk, 4 cups oatmeal, and 4 eggs. mix all together, form your meatballs, bake at 350 for 1 hour. super easy and you get better meatballs than the frozen junk that uses terrible quality meat
This was good, but too sweet for our liking. I took other reviewers’s suggestion to double the sauce, but next time, I will not double the sweeteners.
doubling up on the sauce is a must! overall great flavor
Very good!! The only thing I added was some lemon juice to cut down on the spice some. The meatballs were very juicy and yummy!! My 3yr old loves them even with some spice too.
Family loved it. Didn’t have time for the slow cooker, made right on the stove in under 30 minutes. Made the sauce as per recipe and simmered on the stove for a few minutes prior to adding meatballs (microwaved from frozen per directions). Simmered in the sauce for another 20 minutes and served over rice with some broccoli. Simple and delicious weeknight dinner.
Very good! About a couple hours in I added extra ketchup and honey because the meatballs soaked up a lot of the sauce. I put my meatballs on quinoa rice and very good!!
Delicious! Easy to make and oh so decadent. I didn’t have enough ketchup, so I used some Jack Daniel’s bbq sauce and it came out to rave reviews at my potluck!
I’m making this right now & I just had to have a taste before serving & it’s delicious! Easy to make, & if my picky 5 year old likes it I can see it becoming a regular meal we make! Thanks for sharing!