These Slow Cooker Honey Bourbon Meatballs are the perfect party appetizer, and also an easy weeknight dinner! Serve with pasta, rice, or a salad to make it a complete meal.
Two magic words: honey bourbon.
The sweetness of honey with the smokiness of bourbon creates such a delicious, tantalizing flavor combination. That was the inspiration for this Slow Cooker Honey Bourbon Meatballs recipe.
We've been making this dish for parties and family dinners for long before this recipe was first published in January 2015. We recently made it again and have updated the photos and added more helpful content to help you make this delicious recipe!
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🌟 What makes these meatballs amazing
Apart from the sweet, smoky deliciousness, here are a few more reasons this recipe rocks:
- Easy to make: I use frozen store-bought meatballs for this recipe so it couldn't be easier. It saves time without sacrificing flavor.
- Fast prep & little hands-on cook time: There's only about 5 minutes of prep work in making the sauce, then the slow cooker does the rest of the work!
- Great for large gatherings: These meatballs are perfect to serve at holidays, family gatherings, and to bring to potlucks! This recipe makes about 40 meatballs.
- Make-ahead dish: You can make these bourbon meatballs up to a day before your party, then simply warm up on the Low setting of your slow cooker before guests arrive. Keep it on the Buffet setting to keep warm during the party.
- Great to freeze and store: If you have leftovers, store them in the freezer for up to 2 months and use them in other dishes later. They go great with mashed potatoes, rice, couscous, polenta, salad greens, and pasta!
🛒 Ingredient notes
For this recipe, you'll need:
- Two 20-ounce packages of frozen meatballs (about 40 meatballs total)
- Ketchup
- Honey
- Bourbon
- Brown sugar
- Worcestershire sauce
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
✅ Step-by-step instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together ketchup, honey, bourbon, brown sugar, and lemon juice.
2. Place frozen meatballs in your slow cooker.
3. Pour sauce mixture evenly over the meatballs and stir.
3. Cook on high for one hour. Stir occasionally to evenly coat the meatballs with the sauce.
4. After one hour, turn down the temperature to low and cook on low for 2 hours.
Full measurements and detailed instructions are below, in the printable recipe card.
🍯 Recipe FAQs
They will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer in an airtight container.
If you have a smaller slow cooker, try increasing the cooking time and be sure to stir the meatballs regularly to ensure they all get an equal chance to soak up some of the lovely honey bourbon sauce.
⏲ Kitchen equipment
Slow cooker - You''ll need a fairly large slow cooker in order for the meatballs to cook well using the cooking times in my recipe. I love my 6-quart slow cooker.
🍽 Serving ideas
These meatballs make a fantastic dinner dish or party appetizer.
For dinner, serve them over Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes or with Instant Pot Garlic Rice. Then add a side of vegetables to round out the meal, such as Grilled Asparagus in Foil, Roasted Garlic Rosemary Carrots, Air Fryer Broccoli, or Mushrooms Marsala.
To serve as appetizers, simply place a toothpick in the center of each one to make it easy for guests to pick up and eat.
Got leftovers? These make delicious meatball subs!
🧆 More meatball recipes
Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Slow Cooker Honey Bourbon Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 40 frozen meatballs (about 2 20-ounce packages)
- ½ cup ketchup
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup bourbon use less if you prefer!
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together ketchup, honey, bourbon, brown sugar, and lemon juice.
- Place frozen meatballs in your slow cooker.
- Pour sauce mixture evenly over the meatballs. Stir to coat the meatballs as evenly as possible.
- Cook on high for one hour.
- Check on the meatballs and stir them occasionally, to evenly coat the meatballs with the sauce.
- After one hour, turn down the temperature to low and cook on low for 2 hours.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a general estimate. Actual nutrition details may vary depending on the exact foods & brands you use to make this recipe. It does not take into account any substitutions, toppings, or optional ingredients.
This post was originally published January 9, 2015. It has since been updated with new photos and helpful new content, and republished on August 29, 2022
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Hi Kathy! Sorry about that - it looks like the recipe for this one wasn't loading properly, so I appreciate you letting me know! Try refreshing the page now and the recipe should come up for you. Thank you!
Kathy kozlowski says
help! I cannot get the recipe for the slow cooker honey bourbon meatballs to load. I have the ingredient. List but what next?
Susan@LunaCafe says
Honey and bourbon. Together with savory meatballs. Wow, I can taste that from here. I have a slow cooker somewhere and really must locate it. What a lovely and easy dinner dish.
Kimberly Ann says
These are perfect for lazy Sundays watching football!
Kristi says
omg. This is great! I love meatballs and I love your suggestion to serve with yakisoba noodles.
Tracy says
Looks delicious! Nice photos too.
Kayla Whittington says
So simple! Perfect for so many things!
pam says
I love my 6 quart slow cooker too! I love serving these over noodles with a cucumber salad - yum!
Renée says
I am totally with you on Team Honey-Bourbon! These look great - I'm pinning them to my Party Food board. And honestly, thank you for being real and using premade meatballs: prepping for a big gathering is the last place I want to have to spend an hour and a half forming perfect little OCDballs. (Thought you'd appreciate that, Marlynn.)
Jocelyn says
What an absolutely awesome honey sauce for covering meatballs in!!! It disappears so fast here!
Rachel says
OMGOSH! These look AMAZING! I need to try these asap. Thanks for sharing. I am so pumped.
Sarah says
Great idea! Perfect for Super Bowl parties!
Emily says
Just visiting from Portland Bloggers. Thanks for sharing!
Pech says
Also on Team honey Bourbon!
Toni | BoulderLocavore says
I feel quite convinced there is NO better flavoring for meatballs! These sound fantastic.
Melinda says
These look so good! I've pinned it so I can pull this recipe out the next time I need to bring an appetizer somewhere!