Crockpot Meatballs are an effortless way to prepare tender and delicious meatballs!
No need to brown or pre-cook these meatballs, they cook perfectly tender and juicy right in the slow cooker and are sauced up with a rich and chunky tomato sauce.
Simple prep you’ll come home to a classic Italian style meal, easy as pie!
Crockpot Meatballs
Crockpot Meatballs are really easy to make, simply mix the meatballs and let the slow cooker do all of the work. While I often make homemade meatballs or All Purpose Turkey Meatballs, I love putting them into the slow cooker and coming home to a meal ready to serve!
Ingredients
Use lean beef in this recipe, you’ll want a little bit of fat for moisture and texture. These are not cooked first so you want to make sure you don’t have too much fat but a little bit of fat adds a rich flavor to the sauce.
Just like our oven meatball recipe these use simple ingredients like Italian breadcrumbs and seasonings, onion and parmesan cheese, they’re meatballs are packed with flavor.
These cook right in a simple tomato sauce which has great flavor! It’s a simple sauce with pasta sauce, diced and crushed tomatoes (or tomato sauce), garlic, and Italian seasoning.
Once sauced up, crock pot meatballs cook low and slow in the crockpot keeping all the juices and flavors tucked inside every savory little meatball.
How to Make Meatballs in a Crockpot?
Once you try this crockpot meatballs recipe it will become your go-to! They’re so easy to make and no frying or baking (which means no extra dishes to wash).
- Combine the ground beef, seasonings, breadcrumbs, and egg together per the recipe below.
- Roll into meatballs and place raw meatballs in the bottom of the crockpot.
- Top with sauce. Cover and let the slow cooker do the work!
Do You Have to Cook Meatballs Before Putting Them in a Crockpot?
No, you do not have to cook meatballs before they go into the Crockpot!
If I am using ground beef in the slow cooker (when I’m making Crock Pot Chili or Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese) I often brown the ground beef. This recipe is specifically designed to skip the pre-cooking. Just mix, form into balls, and place in the bottom of the crockpot.
I use lean beef in this slow cooker Italian meatball recipe, the juices from the meatballs add amazing flavor to the sauce!
No browning required! If you’d like you can brown the outside of the meatballs in a frying pan but we don’t. The real beauty of this recipe is how quick and easy it is.
What to Serve with Crockpot Meatballs
Crockpot meatballs can be served as an appetizer or made into a whole meal!
- Serve it over your favorite pasta like spaghetti or penne.
- Turn it into a meatball sub by serving it over a toasted hoagie roll, top it with mozzarella cheese and broil!
- Mashed potatoes go with anything, why not meatballs!
- Create a meatball casserole by adding fusilli, cover with mozzarella and parmesan cheese and bake at 375˚F for 20 min!
While this homemade crockpot meatball recipe calls for a tomato-based sauce, you can always change it up! Try it with BBQ sauce, sweet and sour sauce, mushroom sauce or a honey garlic sauce! The meatball recipe itself is just so versatile and is delicious with any sauce!
The meatballs can be prepared the night before and refrigerated. In the morning, simply add to the slow cooker, pour the sauce on and let the crockpot do the work! I’m pretty sure that once you prepare meatballs using this crockpot method, you will never go back!
Other Ground Beef Recipes You’ll Love
- The Best Meatloaf Recipe
- Easy Meat Sauce
- Stuffed Peppers
- Beef Taco Pasta Skillet
- Taco Soup
- Porcupine Meatballs – Kids will love these!
- Swedish Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
- ⅓ cup Italian bread crumbs
- ¼ cup finely diced onion
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
For the Sauce
- 24 ounces pasta sauce or marinara sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- 14 ounces crushed tomatoes canned
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices, 1 can
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.
- Combine all meatball ingredients in a bowl. Using a tablespoon, form 24 meatballs. Place uncooked meatballs in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Combine all sauce ingredients in a large bowl. Pour over meatballs and cook on high for 3-4 hours.
- Serve over pasta.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course, Slow Cooker
Cuisine American, Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Recipe adapted from The ShortCut Kitchen.
Can I prepare the whole meal the day before and put the crockpot container in the refrigerator to make the next morning?
You definitely can, I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
I want to make larger meatballs 2oz instead of 1oz. In doing so do I need to double the sauce also? Thanks!
If you are doubling the recipe to achieve this then you will want to double the sauce. If you are using 1½ pounds of lean ground beef then it should be enough sauce. I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
This is my go to meatball recipe! So simple and easy yet full of flavor and delicious. The meatballs are so tender and juicy. I prefer to cook them on low for seven hours and they turn out perfectly.
How long can I cook them on low instead of high?
I would suggest about 6-7 hours, you’ll want to ensure they reach 165°F. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out Chelsea!
Meat absolutely needs salt and pepper or seasoning salt. I’m actually kicking myself because I cook all the time and I’m making these and I’m 3 hours in and I just tasted and they are so bland and it hit me that you didn’t add any seasoning to the meat. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano at hour two because the sauce was bland. I’m a little mortified because I’m serving this to my date in 90 minutes and those meatballs are not well seasoned.
Oh no, I am sorry to hear that Nicole! Did you use Italian bread crumbs? Those add a lot of flavor over regular breadcrumbs. The parmesan cheese adds a salty flavor to the recipe as well.
Hi Holly! I’m wanting to make these meatballs but without the red pasta sauce. What liquid would you recommend using in the crockpot instead? (Ie beef broth, a soup can of some sort, etc) and may I ask how much liquid to use? Thanks so much!!!
Hi MK, you can follow this crockpot meatball recipe and in the end turn the broth into a delicious gravy if you’d like.
Thank you for getting back to me!! So kind! I was hoping to still make these in the crock pot which is why I’d love to stick with this recipe instead of the one you shared. Do you think there’s a liquid substitute to the sauce or not really?
Unless I’m misunderstanding you and you just meant to use 10.5 ounces beef broth, 10.5 ounces condensed French onion soup, and 1/2 cup whipping cream as the sauce. Is that right? (Basically I’m just hoping not to have to brown them in the skillet beforehand like the other recipe suggests!)
The other recipe is a slow cooker recipe as well. You can brown the meatballs for more flavor but you can skip that step if you prefer. I hope that helps!
I’d like to try this recipe today. Can the meatballs be layered in the crockpot? I need to do a double or even possibly a triple recipe for a large group.
Hi Roxi, this recipe can definitely be doubled in the crockpot. They don’t need to be on the bottom to cook thru but it may take slightly longer to come up to temperature and to cook so you want to ensure your meatballs reach 165°F before serving. Enjoy!
I have made these before and they are good and easy to make. Do you think adding garlic would be good? I gave 4 stars because it is expensive to make with a jar of Rao’s plus 2 cans of tomatoes.
I think garlic is always a good addition!
The grease from the meatballs were really gross. I really like a lot of her recipes, sorry for the two star. But I would def maybe try to fry them first in the skillet? Or just oven bake.
Oh no, I am sorry to hear that! We didn’t have that problem with this recipe. Did you make sure to use lean ground beef?
This a good simple recipe, very easy. I usually grate carrots or zucchini to add to the meatballs. Get veggies in where I can. My kids love all veggies so it’s definitely a win, win.