If you love to entertain but hate to spend all your time cooking for the party, you’re going to love these Easy Sweet & Sour Meatballs.
These are always one of the most popular finger foods at my parties among both kids and adults. Another popular food at parties are these Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Legs.
One of my favorite parts of the busy holiday season are all the parties that accompany this time of year. I love to throw parties as much as I love to attend them because: 1) it’s the best incentive to make my house sparkle and shine and 2) I love getting to see so many of my favorite people all at once.
And since my favorite part of ATTENDING parties is getting to sample lots of great food, I like to make sure that I have a generous buffet of goodies when I’m the hostess. And those leftover finger foods make delicious snacks the next couple of days after the party.
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In my younger days, I thought it was cheating if I didn’t make everything from scratch. Since then, I’ve learned that most people don’t care if you cut a few corners and it is far easier to enjoy the party when you’re well rested so it’s best to have a few shortcuts intermingled with your gourmet fare. My very favorite “cheater” recipe is for Sweet & Sour Meatballs.
About These Sweet & Sour Meatballs
If you have the time, you can make the meatballs from scratch. However, this sauce is so flavorful, it effortlessly dresses up frozen meatballs so you can get away with making that time-saving switch here. The very best part of this recipe though is how unbelievably easy it is!
Chances are, you have seen recipes similar to this one before. The unlikely pairing of chili sauce and grape jelly is a secret that’s been out of the bag for a while now.
Although I am a fan of the original, insanely easy variation, I prefer the sauce with just a few added ingredients to enhance the flavor.
Don’t be frightened by the ginger and ground mustard. The amounts I use are too small to create a kick but are just enough to balance the sweet jelly and tangy chili sauce. I have two kids who detest spicy food and they still LOVE these sweet & sour meatballs.
How to Make Sweet & Sour Meatballs
You won’t break a sweat making these meatballs since you basically just dump all of the ingredients into your slow cooker and let it do all the work!
You’ll need meatballs, chili sauce, grape jelly, Worcestershire sauce and just a little ground ginger and ground mustard.
Place the meatballs in the slow cooker. If you want, you can mix the sauce ingredients together (but I almost always skip this step).
Then, pour all of the sauce ingredients (mixed or not), over the meatballs.
Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours. That’s it!
Serve right from the slow cooker or transfer to a plate if you want to be fancy. Just remember to have toothpicks nearby so guests can pick them up easily.
Enjoy!
Ready to make some sweet & sour meatballs? Here are the exact measurements.
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๐ Recipe
Easy Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 lbs frozen meatballs
- 12 oz jar chili sauce
- 16 oz jar grape jelly
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 T Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Place meatballs in crockpot.
- Combine all other ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Pour mixture over meatballs.
- Heat on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.
Notes
Nutrition
More Easy Appetizers and Finger Foods
If you love meatballs, check out Instant Pot Asian Meatballs, or these Crockpot Grape Jelly BBQ Meatballs are one of the easiest and best appetizers to take to a party or social gathering. If you liked the simplicity of these Sweet & Sour Meatballs, you might enjoy another of my favorite party finger foods – Zucchini Pizza Bites.
I’ve also put together a collection of over 100 of the best finger foods and easy appetizers. This is the list I use to choose my party menu.
We love meatballs in our household and this one’s a great tasty meatball recipe to try!
What “chili sauce” do you use? I’m not sure how much or type?
I use one jar of the Heinz chili sauce (it looks like ketchup and can usually be found in the same aisle).
What if I wanted to make my own meat balls from scratch not frozen? Iโd like to make this for tomorrow nights dinner. Let me know please what route Iโd take. Thanks
Hi! Since frozen meatballs are pre-cooked, you’d just make your meatballs like normal and bake them, then add them to this recipe instead of frozen meatballs.
The recipe says 1/2 ground ginger and I wanted to know if that is 1/2 teaspoon or 1/2 tablespoon, or are you using freshly ground ginger root. I am planning on making these for a party on Monday so I’d love to hear from you. These look delicious and super easy!
Hi Becky, thanks for catching that. Looks like I accidentally dropped the tsp during my last update. It should be 1/2 teaspoon. And I use ground ginger from my spice cabinet, I don’t grind it fresh.
I love Sweet and Sour Meatballs and your recipe looks awesome! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and don’t forget to bring your Cookie Recipes to the Holiday Cookie Exchange Link Party!
Miz Helen
These look and sound amazing! Pinning! ๐
Thanks for sharing.
These Sweet and Sour Meatballs sound delicious. Found you at To Grandma’s House We Go. Happy Thanksgiving.
Finger foods at parties are the best. These look so good! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday
I love finger foods and this looks absolutely delish! I make meatballs for all of my work potlucks, so I am definitely trying these for the next event. Yum!
My family loves having finger foods when we watch sports and movies together. I just know that they’re going to love these meatballs – they’re one of the perfect sports watching finger foods!
I just love little meatball appetizers! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Looks good! I may try this recipe this week!
These look so tasty! How do you come up with these recipes? Does it take you a lot of time or is this something passed down to you or what? I ask because I am HORRIBLE in the kitchen, but ocassionally I get an urge to cook.
Looks delicious! I’ll be pinning this so I can make it soon!
These look so delicious and easy to make. I don’t have a lot of time to prepare dishes for holiday gatherings and this one looks like an easy one to make.
We have an almost identical recipe we use during the holidays. It is delicious!
Wow this sound nice – my other half is a sweet and sour lover so I might have to try and make these for him ๐ x
I have actually never heard of making these with jelly. Sounds easy and tasty. I am adding this to my recipes. Thanks for sharing.
I love meatballs and I love sweet and sour! I bet these are definitely great!
Mmmmm love these meatballs. They would be perfect for a dish to take over to the family Thanksgiving party!
Those meatballs looks very tasty. I haven’t had sweet and sour meatballs in years.
These look amazing! I love easy food like these meatballs for parties. Hugs, Holly
These sound delicious! We’ll have to try them out.
My husband loves his meatballs! These look like something he would really love me to make for him.
These meatballs look simple yet delicious. I will have to hive them a try this holiday season. I think my kids could live on cocktail party finger foods, yum!!!
yum, and thanks for making the easy print option, so I can easily click and stick it in a great book of recipes that my friend made for me!
Those look delish. What a great idea for holiday parties!
Sounds yammie! Another version of Swedish mestballs:)
Yes, they are very YUMMY!
I’m always looking for a good cheater mom recipe. I’m pinning this one now. Holiday parties here I come… with Sweet and Sour Meatballs!
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to try this for the holidays!!
These look fantastic! I love the addition of ginger and mustard. I remember making these for parties and now I am wondering why I don’t make them more often, I just love them!
Creative recipe! I never thought of combining these tastes with meatballs but it makes perfect sense and looks delicious.
I’ve also seen versions where people substitute cocktail sausages for the meatballs. I haven’t tried them, but this sauce would definitely work with them so I’m sure they’re just as good.