Who doesn’t love meatballs? There are different ways and ingredients you can use to prepare meatballs. And you have to make sure you get it right for a perfect meal.
Meatballs take you back to the times when you would patiently wait as a kid, mouth drooling, and anticipating a well-prepared meal. But now, you have the chance to actually make it on your own.
Do you ever find yourself wondering if you can cook meatballs in a crockpot? Of course you can! All you need is to throw everything into the pot with the meatballs and turn it on low. Allow the meatballs to cook for 4-5 hours.
Another question you may have is can you cook frozen meatballs in a crockpot? Yes, you can. If you’re using frozen meatballs, insert them directly into the crockpot straight from the freezer. You don’t have to defrost!
How to Properly Cook Meatballs in a Crockpot (Using Proven Recipes)
How can you cook meatballs in a crockpot? Don’t you just love sweet-tasting meatballs? So, we thought of taking a look at making some with a slow cooker. First you want to make sure you have meat. If you don’t have ground beef, you can use pork or any other preferable meat.
Recipe #1: Meat Variety
There are plenty of super-easy recipes to follow when preparing meatballs. You can use ground beef, pork, chicken, or seafood. Just add any spice of your choice and stir in. Add some tomato paste to the mixture and put it in the slow cooker.
Also, add some onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Stir in the meatballs and any other ingredients that were to be mixed. Leave it alone for about 5 hours. When it’s done, you can cook some pasta with tomato sauce on top and serve it.
Covering for about an hour and then uncovering to cook another half hour more helps the meatballs to cook properly. When done, your meatballs will be so tender that you may not even notice they were in the slow cooker at all!
Even though the ingredients for meatball recipes can be found anywhere you purchase them, we highly recommend going to your local grocery store to find them. You can also buy them in bulk at the grocery store but make sure you only buy the ingredients that you know you can use.
Recipe #2: Onions, Celery and Potatoes Mixture
Some crockpot meatball recipes call for onions, celery and potatoes. The good news with these ingredients is that you can always substitute them for another ingredient if you want.
For instance, if using onions, you can add chopped canned or fresh tomatoes instead of the raw ones. A can of tomato paste and some butter is all you need to turn your crockpot meatballs into a tasty meal.
Recipe #3: Using Shredded Cheese, Onions, Green Peppers and Salt
Another great recipe for meatballs is one that calls for shredded Cheddar cheese along with onions, green peppers, salt and red pepper to taste. Just blend all this together in a zip lock bag and throw into the crockpot. Cover for about an hour, then uncover and stir. This will cook the mixture completely.
Recipe #4: Italian Meatballs
The fourth most popular Italian meatball recipe calls for bread crumbs. Combine chopped mushrooms, onion, pepper, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Put into a crockpot and cover for about two hours, until the mixture is fully cooked.
Recipe #5: Using Leftover Pizza Dough
Another most popular meatballs recipe uses leftover pizza dough from making tortillas. You’ll need the following ingredients: shredded cheese, chopped vegetables (sweet potato, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and onion), chicken broth, Italian herbs, chopped parsley, dried Italian seasonings, and reduced-fat sour cream or yogurt. Place all this into a food processor or blender, blending until the ingredients blend well. Uncover and stir to combine.
The Advantage of Using Crockpots when Cooking Meatballs
Slow cookers or crockpots make preparing meatballs easy because you can let them marinate for up to two hours, turning the crockpot into an effective tool. After the meatballs have been marinated, add other ingredients and cook on low for about four hours. Then enjoy! How convenient and effective is this?
What to Note While Choosing and Using a Crockpot
First of all, you want to be sure that when you are buying your slow cooker, you choose one that has a large capacity. A lot of people buy a slow cooker that does not hold enough food for what they plan to use it for.
If you buy a crock pot that is only capable of holding two cups of food at a time, then you’ll be wasting a lot of your valuable time cooking. Check the product description or model number to ensure that the capacity is appropriate.
Take advantage of the built-in rubber sealing lids that are sold with most models. The rubber lid helps to keep everything in place so that it cooks at the appropriate temperature every time. When the lid is unzipped, it also prevents steam from escaping, which allows you to cook your foods faster and with better results every time.
Some models even have an automatic shut off feature that automatically shuts off the heating element as the lid is removed from the cooker.
Final Thoughts
Use a little bit of oil to prevent the meatballs from getting too greasy. We strongly recommend these crockpot meatball recipes, and would advise you to try them out! We do hope you have as much fun preparing these meals as we do.
If you try these crockpot meatballs recipes, you may want to make a different sauce to add to the meal. The spices you include in this dish will kick it up a notch. But if you do not like spicy food, do not worry, there are other sauces you can use as well. Just try something different. You will find that the sauce you create does not have to be spicy to be delicious.
