3 Slow Cooker Cocktail Meatballs for Your Holiday Parties
Raise your hand if you break from tradition for Christmas dinner? My family does. We forgo the turkey and the ham, and in place of it, we do a pitch-in appetizer dinner. It. Is. Awesome.
We've been doing this for as long as I can remember, and as the years have gone by, some dishes have become tradition to have in our spread. My parents always make stuffed mushrooms and peel-and-eat shrimp. I always make my mini Christmas quiche (they're vegetarian, which my veggie brother and sister-in-law appreciate). And in the past few years, I've also been making meaaattttballlllllsssss (which my veggie brother and sister-in-law, obviously, don't appreciate as much). Cocktail meatballs feel like an appetizer from another era, but I'm officially calling it-meatballs are totally hip again. So tasty! So easy! So crowd-pleasing!
I love using a slow cooker for holiday cooking. The holidays are stressful enough, so using a slow cooker to help you out is a no-brainer. I always put my Christmas meatballs into my slow cooker to keep them warm and delicious while we celebrate with a cranberry gin fizz cocktail or some jingle juice!
You can make all three of these if you really want to knock the socks off your holiday guests, or you can just make one flavor! These meatball recipes aren't just for cocktail parties either. The Mozzarella-Stuffed Italian Meatballs are perfecto on top of spaghetti. The Sticky Thai Meatballs are wonderful served on a big pile of fluffy rice. And we eat the Sweet and Sour Meatballs as a main dinner dish sometimes. Yum! Let's dig into each one.
These meatballs are packed with Italian flavor and stuffed with ooey, gooey mozzarella cheese. Serve them with your favorite marinara sauce.
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📖 Recipe
Mozzarella Stuffed Italian Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound mild Italian sausage
- ½ pound ground beef
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- ⅔ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 4 sticks mozzarella string cheese cut into ¼" slices
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- Parmesan and minced parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- In a large bowl, combine the Italian sausage, ground beef, salt, cheese, eggs, Italian seasoning, and breadcrumbs. Mix well (your best bet is to use clean hands).
- Grab a couple of tablespoons of the mixture and form into a ball around one of the slices of string cheese. Roll into a ball.
- Place on a large baking sheet. Repeat with remaining meat and cheese.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the meatballs are brown and cooked through.
- Serve immediately with marinara sauce, or pour marinara sauce into the slow cooker with the cooked meatballs, and keep on warm until ready to serve. Top with more Parm and parsley before serving.
Video
Nutrition
And you can find the other two flavors here:
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Spicy Sticky Thai Meatballs
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Crock-Pot® brand. All opinions are entirely my own. Don't forget to visit the Crock-Pot® brand website to see all of their delicious slow cooker recipes!
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These meatballs are packed full of so much flavor! The key to getting mozzarella stuffed in your meatball is easy—string cheese! Cut small chunks, wrap your meatball around it, and voila, gooey, cheesy goodness.
In the sweet and sour one you forgot the egg I thr written recipe. I thought it was odd. The video shows an egg 🙂
Thank you! We'll get it fixed. 🙂
I made the sweet and sour meatballs this week for dinner. They turned out great - you're totally right about the grape jelly - and keeping them warm in the slow cooker worked perfectly as I waited for my husband to get home later than planned. We served them over egg noodles with broccoli on the side to make the meal more complete.
That crockpot is amazing! Those seasonings sound good!
These look amazing! I think the Thai ones are going to need to be made in my house in the next week or so!
because our family is so large, we do a potluck for dinner. meatballs are always present, and these look simply perfect
Oh my goodness! What a gorgeous slew of meatballs. We don't celebrate Christmas, but I have plenty of times when appetizers are welcome at my holiday table. My hubby is a huge fan of meatball sandwiches, so I have a few other ideas for how to use these meatballs too 🙂
I neeeed that Crock Pot! It's amazing and those meatballs look perfect! I got the stuff to make the Thai one tonight and I'm going to serve them with rice and roasted veggies!
I love all these ideas! They sound so delicious!
Rockin' video! I vaguely remember that making more videos was a goal for 2016? Maybe? Well, you've gotten so good at it!
These look delicious. I could never give up Christmas dinner (Canadian so or Thanksgiving is not as close to xmas as it is for you) but we totally do this type of food for New Years. My husband admittedly loves meatballs with just Diana Sauce poured over them and while simple and tasty, these are next level and I will be testing them on NYE for sure!