These juicy Grape Jelly Meatballs are the best appetizer recipe. Tender and juicy meatballs smothered in a sweet and spicy sauce and slow-cooked to perfection. The sauce has just three ingredients and you’ll love how easy it is.
Grape Jelly Meatballs are perfect for New Year’s parties or any gathering. If you are looking for a crowd-pleasing appetizer, these are always a hit, along with our Jalapeno Poppers or the Easy Cheese Ball.

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Grape Jelly Meatballs
These delicious grape jelly meatballs are loved by everyone. Meatballs tossed together with grape jelly, bbq sauce, and garlic chili sauce then slow cooked until tender, saucy and flavorful.
We love serving these during the holidays, game nights, or even for a simple dinner over fluffy white rice.

Ingredients for Grape Jelly Meatballs
With just 4 basic ingredients you can have this amazing appetizer thrown together and allow the crockpot to do the rest of the work.
- Meatballs – For this recipe we use frozen meatballs made of pork, beef, and chicken from the local grocery store. You can use any of your favorite frozen meatballs for this recipe.
- Grape Jelly – Any grape jelly will work, we prefer using Smucker’s grape jelly.
- Chili Sauce – You can also adjust the amount for the level of heat you prefer. Any chili sauce will work for this recipe, we love Huey Fong Chili Sauce (the same sauce we use in Shrimp Cocktail Sauce and Springroll Dipping Sauce).
- Barbecue Sauce – We love Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce for this recipe.

How to Make Grape Jelly Meatballs
This recipe is so easy to make. With just 5 minutes of prep time, you can have this appetizer ready to go in your crockpot.
- Into the slow cooker, add: frozen meatballs, jelly, bbq, and chili sauce to the slow cooker. Toss until combined. TIP: You can also mix the bbq, jelly and chili sauce in a separate bowl then pour over the meatballs.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring halfway through cooking. Once the meatballs are cooked, turn the slow cooker to warm and keep warm until ready to serve.
- Garnish with parsley or chives if desired.
Other Cooking Methods
If you do not have a slow cooker, don’t worry, here are two other methods that you can use to make these meatballs.
- Stovetop Grape Jelly Meatballs – Add the meatballs, barbecue, grape jelly, and chili sauce in a Dutch oven or large pot and combine. Simmer over medium/low heat for 25-30 minutes or until the meatballs are warmed through, stirring occasionally to keep the sauce from burning.
- Oven-Baked Grape Jelly Meatballs – Add all the ingredients into a casserole dish or Dutch oven and mix to combine. Cover with lid or foil and bake at 325°F for 20-25 minutes or until the meatballs have cooked through. Note: Adjust the cooking time based on the size of your meatballs.

To Serve
There are several different ways to enjoy these meatballs! Here are some of our favorite ways:
- Appetizer – They make for the ultimate appetizer, serve with toothpicks at your next gathering, or game day tailgating party!
- Side Dish– Serve these as a side dish for the holidays. The flavors in these meatballs really stand out and this recipe always gets compliments.
- Entree – Serve over cooked rice or with Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes or pasta as a main entree.

Common Questions
You can store the grape jelly meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Yes, you can use Homemade Meatballs or even our Turkey Meatballs. You’ll want to be sure to cook the meatballs first.
You can use any type of frozen meatballs that you like, Italian, Angus, and turkey meatballs work great for this recipe. The frozen Italian-style meatballs from Costco work great.
Yes, if you do not like spicy foods then you can leave out the chili sauce completely.
While the grape jelly is classic to this recipe, you can switch up the flavor of jelly you use for different flavors! You can also use strawberry, apple, apricot, mixed berry jam, or preserves.
Make-Ahead
Here’s a great food storage guide from the FDA – print this and tape it inside one of your kitchen cabinets to reference.
- To Freeze – Once cooled, add to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2 to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
- To Reheat – Grape Jelly Meatballs reheat well. Just add them back to the slow cooker to reheat or you can also reheat in the oven, stovetop, or microwave until steamy hot and fully heated through.

More Party Appetizers
- Cowboy Caviar (Bean Salsa)
- Spinach Artichoke Dip
- Best Guacamole Recipe
- Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
- Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Grape Jelly Meatballs are a real treat. Everyone is always surprised when they find out what is in the sauce. It’s a keeper of a recipe.
Easy Grape Jelly Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients
- 32 oz frozen fully cooked meatballs
- 1 cup grape jelly, we like Smuckers brand
- 1 1/2 cup barbecue sauce, we like Sweet Baby Ray's brand
- 2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce
Instructions
- Add the frozen meatballs, grape jelly, barbecue sauce, and chili sauce into the base of the slow cooker. Mix until well combined.
- Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours (larger meatballs may take 4-5 hours on low), stirring halfway through cooking. Keep covered and on the warm setting until ready to serve. Garnish with parsley or chives if desired.
Can I use a franks hotsauce instead of the chilli sauce and still get the same flavour?
It will give you a different flavor profile as chilli sauce is typically milder and sweeter. If you decide to give that a try, you can adjust the flavor balance by adding a little bit of sugar or honey and adjust the consistency.
The chili sauce brings this recipe head and shoulders above others!
This is a very good recipe to use, I do omit the barbecue sauce but I add diced green, red and yellow bell peppers and a can of diced pineapples (without the juice). Not only does it give it some color but also a little different flavor.
I make this recipe,but don’t use any bbq sauce. I use aj jar of grape jelly and a bottle of Heinz Chile sauce .. pour it over the frozen meat balls in my crockpot and turn it on .4 he on high and stir. If I happpen to have any of my “canned” chili sauce I use that. It’s so good. Instead of meatballs, Little Weinies” work just as well and are just as good!
Thanks for sharing, Linda!
do you know what the oven temp and time would be if i cook them in a dutch oven ? i don’t have a crock pot.
Hi, you can check this part of the recipe “Other Cooking Methods” for more tips.
Running short on time for party….Can I cook them on high for two hours and then switch to low?
Hi Kim, its best on low, but that may work to quicken the process. Be sure the sauce doesn’t burn.
Just made them from my home made meat bowls / which I breezed before/, my guests were so impressed that I could not even imagine!
Thanks my friend Natasha!!!!!
Cold meatballs. 4 hours on low is NOT long enough.
Hi Dita! Did you have it on the warm setting? Or were your meatballs larger? I’ve made this several times and they’ve never been cold after 4hrs. I use fully cooked frozen meatballs.
The type of crockpot varies as well. Mines was slowly dying and I had no idea until I made meatballs. I purchased a new one and 4 hours later they were done. I can only cook some things in my other one which is a cheaper brand and takes longer.
I had these once at a potluck dinner. It was delicious. Didn’t know it was so easy to do. My question is do you know what a serving size is?
Unfortunately, I did not measure it per serving but the whole recipe has 12 servings so I would divide the whole recipe to 12.
My son needed something to take to Friendsgiving and all the usual stuff was taken. We threw this together and doubled the recipe like another reviewer suggested. It was much more popular than the traditional dishes. He said it was gone so fast he barely had time to plug the crockpot in. I guess some of the other kids (actually, they’re almost 40) were putting them on buns like meatball sliders. What a success! THANKS!!
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for the feedback!
I made 4 lbs of meatballs (double the recipe) for a big event. I didn’t even get to try them the crowd gobbled them up so fast 🙂 Making more for my hubby tonite. Only thing I did different was to combined all the wet ingredients on the stove first and then poured over the meatballs in the crockpot.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, M! I’m so glad you enjoyed these!
Can you share the brand/kind of frozen meatballs did you use?
You can use any type of frozen meatballs that you like, Italian, Angus, and turkey meatballs work great for this recipe. The frozen Italian-style meatballs from Costco work great.