Sweet and Sour Meatballs are a favorite from way back when I was young! We have served these easy cocktail meatballs at every party and gathering for as long as I can remember!
Tender juicy meatballs simmered in a quick two ingredient sweet and sour sauce made with grape jelly. These will be the first thing gone and nobody will ever believe what is in them!
Grape Jelly Meatballs
While we make my favorite easy Meatball Recipe with pasta for dinner often, these are a party go-to for us!
Every single time I bring these cocktail meatballs to a party, they are gone immediately and I always get requests for the recipe.
How to Make Cocktail Meatballs
The easy sauce for these Sweet and Sour Meatballs needs just two ingredients: ketchup and grape jelly (of course there are other variations below for more great 2 ingredient sauces). Combining these two ingredients, as strange as it may sound, makes an easy sweet and sour sauce and is perfect for simmering meatballs or even cocktail smokies.
You can use homemade meatballs (which is my preference) or use frozen if you’re in a hurry!
These work perfectly in the Crockpot too! Bake the meatballs as directed (or just add them frozen if you’re not making homemade) and place the sauce ingredients in the slow cooker. Add meatballs to the sauce and let heat through on high for at least 1-2 hours before serving (a bit longer if using frozen). Once heated through meatballs can be left on low for serving.
More Meatball Sauces You’ll Love
While I most often use grape jelly and ketchup for the meatball glaze, you can swap the ingredients based on your favorites or what you have on hand you just need one sweet item and one zesty! Swap out the grape jelly for apricot preserves, cranberry sauce, apple jelly etc. and you can swap out the ketchup for chili sauce or barbecue sauce!
- Meatball Sauce #1 (my favorite) – 3/4 cup grape jelly & 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- Meatball Sauce #2 – 10 oz apricot preserves & 2/3 cup barbecue sauce
- Meatball Sauce #3 – 14 oz jellied cranberry sauce & 12 oz chili sauce
These are amazing as an appetizer or even served over rice for a weeknight meal that your kids will love!
More Easy Appetizers You’ll Love
- Sausage Balls – Family favorite!
- Bang Bang Shrimp
- Easy Stuffed Mushrooms – 3 Ingredients!
- Bacon Jalapeño Cheese Ball Recipe
- Jalapeno Popper Crescent Cups – Party favorite!
- Oven Baked Buffalo Cauliflower
Sweet and Sour Meatballs (Cocktail Meatballs)
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 pounds frozen meatballs
OR
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- ½ small onion very finely diced
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Sauce (see notes)
- 10 ounces apricot preserves
- ⅔ cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- If making homemade meatballs, combine ground beef, diced onion, bread crumbs, eggs, and pepper in a medium bowl. Divide the mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
- Bake homemade meatballs for 18-20 minutes or bake frozen meatballs according to package directions.
- In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine apricot preserves and barbecue sauce. Stir until the preserves start to melt.
- Add in meatballs and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is slightly thickened.
Notes
- 10 ounces strawberry preserves & ⅔ cup ketchup
- 14 ounces jellied cranberry sauce & 12 ounces chili sauce
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Appetizer
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Grape jelly and chili sauce is good, too! It adds a bit more of a kick.
Made the sauce with blackberry jam and ketchup was so yummy.
I made this with the grape jelly/ketchup sauce and frozen turkey meatballs, to take to a last minute party, and it was wicked good and so freaking easy. Also – I didn’t have a way to keep them hot so they were room temp by the time people ate and you know what? Still totally yummy. xoxo
These are soooooo good with jalapeño pepper jelly!!!!
I remember I tried this at a party once and they were so good! I was wondering if I could use strawberry jelly instead of grape though?
I have not tried this recipe with strawberry but it sounds like an interesting flavor combo! I would love to hear how it turns out for you, Seevahn.
I made the grape jelly meatballs which were excellent by the way…and had left over so I froze them in the grape sauce. Will it still be good if I just add more sauce to the meatballs ?
Absolutely, I freeze them often.
I’m wanting to cook these in a crockpot. How long should I cook them?
Hi Jen, Add meatballs to the sauce and let heat through on high for at least 1-2 hours before serving (a bit longer if using frozen). Once heated through meatballs can be left on low for serving.
The sauce sounds so weird, but can’t wait to try it!!
Thanks
We hope you love it, John! The sauce is so simple to make but so delicious.
These turned out great and were not overly sweet.
Easy and yummy!
These sound wonderful – can you substitute ground beef for one of the meats or just use all 3??
Hi Debi, for this recipe we used either frozen premade meatballs or we make homemade meatballs using ground beef. Whichever you prefer!
Can these be made ahead of time and if so how do I store them?
Hi Loreta, depending on how far in advance you can pre-cook and freeze the meatballs or store them in the fridge and then top with the sauce when ready to serve.
Sweet and sour meatballs were excellent. I added a little Chinese sweet and sour sauce, green onion and sesame seeds!!
Like the recipes
I would bet that this sauce would be great for chicken wings also !!!
Sounds fantastic!! Just wanted to know if I should add salt to the meatball mixture before baking?
You can if you prefer Sindia, but we didn’t and found it delicious!
I’m going to try the recipe made with jellied cranberry sauce with frozen meatballs stuffed with cranberries. Thanke
That sounds so yummy Mary Lou, enjoy!
Another great combination for sauce is 1 jar currant jelly and an equal amount of yellow mustard.
absolutely delicious!
Ooooh! Great idea Kathy, thanks for sharing.