Crock Pot Meatballs – Meatballs simmered in a slow cooker in pasta sauce for hours, infusing the sauce with rich meaty flavor. Perfect for spaghetti, meatball subs, sliders, or a meatball appetizer.
This crock pot meatball recipe is about as easy as homemade meatballs can get. With most meatballs, you need to fry or bake them first. In this recipe, you simply put raw meatballs in a crock pot with pasta sauce and let them simmer. The key is using lean ground beef so that the sauce doesn’t become greasy. Or, you could even substitute the lean beef for ground turkey or chicken breast.
Since the pasta sauce and meatballs are simmered together for 8 hours, the sauce gets infused with rich meaty flavor. This makes for some fantastic spaghetti and meatballs! Or, use this meatball recipe for meatball sliders, meatball subs, or meatball appetizers.
Start by mixing up an egg with minced onion, chopped parsley, garlic powder, salt, pepper, Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, and grated parmesan cheese.
Use your fingers to lightly break apart the ground beef and add it to the bowl with the bread crumb mixture.
Using your fingers, lightly toss the crumbled ground beef and bread crumb mixture until just combined. Over-mixed meatballs are tough. Using this gentle mixing method will produce tender meatballs.
Use your fingers and the palms of your hands to pack and roll out 16 meatballs. They should be around the size of a golf ball, or slightly smaller.
Add some traditional pasta sauce to a crock pot. Nestle the meatballs down into the sauce, leaving some space between each meatball.
Spoon some sauce over the tops of each meatball so that they are completely submerged in sauce. Let the meatballs and sauce simmer for 6 to 8 hours. If there is grease on top of the sauce after cooking, use a spoon to skim it off. Then, stir gently.
Boil up some pasta for easy and delicious spaghetti and meatballs. Or, serve as appetizers, meatball subs, or meatball sliders.
If you use these meatballs for anything other than pairing with pasta, there will probably be quite a bit of sauce left over. Freeze the leftover sauce for a later use.
Crock Pot Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup yellow onion -finely diced
- 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef -the leaner the better
- 1 (45 oz.) jar traditional pasta sauce
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat the egg with a fork. Add the onion, bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Add the ground beef to the bowl with the bread crumb mixture. Mix with your hands until combined.
- Pack and roll out 24 meatballs, using the palms of your hands. Meatballs should be slightly larger than a tablespoon.
- Spray a large slow cooker with cooking spray. Place the meatballs in an even layer in the slow cooker. Pour the pasta sauce over the meatballs.
- Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. If there is grease on top of the sauce after cooking, use a spoon to skim it off. Then, gently stir the sauce and meatballs. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Check out all of my great ground beef recipes.
Jessica says
What a fabulous way to make meatballs! They stayed moist and flavorful. Loved them!
Taryn says
I love this option of making meatballs in the crock pot! I can do this for parties and then serve right from the crock pot.
Sona says
You mentioned fresh chopped garlic in your notes but use garlic powder in the recipe. Which one do you use?
Amanda Finks says
Garlic powder. Thanks!
Grace says
Hi, can I cook the meatballs without the sauce in the crock pot? Will they still come out soft?
Mary Pat Chiswick says
I doubled the recipe, used 2lbs ground turkey, 1lb of pork. Had to layer them in the crockpot. Cooked on high for 6 hours, then simmered on low. Best recipe, tender meatballs
Katherine Romano Brown says
Is the cooking time 6 or 8 hours?