slow cooker italian meatballs
These Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs are one of my favorite go-to recipes for basically anything. They taste great on their own as an appetizer, but also work well with pasta or on sub sandwiches with melty cheese. They’re freezer-friendly, too — meaning you can make a double-batch now and save some for later.
I realllllly wanted to title this post “slow cooker Italian meat-a-balls” because that’s how I always say it in my head. But we’re trying to keep it profesh around here, so the traditional spelling wins out (though you’ll totally say “meat-a-balls” in your head now, too. You’re welcome).
This is one of the recipes I made pre-baby for our freezer stash, and I made a royal mistake with them — I froze all eleventy billion (or, like, 40) of them in one container. Do you know where I’m going with this? It means I had to thaw all 40 meatballs for me, my husband and my mom (who was staying with us at the time) at once. I was shaking in my boots that some of these delicious meat-a-balls would end up going to waste.
How to Make Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Well it turns out I completely underestimated my husband’s love for the meatball, because they were all gone — GONE — in two days. Down the hatch in meatball sub form, on top of pasta, cold and sliced and placed atop whole-grain toast (YUM, really), etc. OK, OK — my mom and I helped, too.
Needless to say, this recipe is one of those low-effort, high-result recipes that you’re going to want to make again and again (just maybe freeze them in batches if you do, unless you love eating meatballs for two days straight like my husband).
The slow cooker is my friend in so many ways, and if you have one, you probably agree. It’s so helpful for those hustle-bustle days when dinner is the last thing you want to/have time to make. It also comes in handy when it’s 100 degrees outside and you want to avoid that oven at all costs (except maybe to bake chocolate chip cookies. No amount of heat will keep me from my cookies). And I love using it to make big ol’ batches of easy-peasy foods like these here meatballs, which I intended to use for at least three to four separate meals over the course of, like, a month (see above how that did not go as planned, but all is well).
Making meatballs in the slow cooker is especially delicious because I feel like slow-cooked meat and tomatoes are some of the best things to exist in life. But with a slow cooker, you have to do very little prep work. So the end result is something that tastes like you slaved over it for hours and hours when in reality, you spent about 15 minutes making it happen. WINNER.
How to Serve Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Like I mentioned before, we enjoyed these meatballs as cheesy subs, on top of spaghetti, cold for lunch on toasted, crusty, whole-grain bread and just by themselves with a salad on the side, but I see sooooo many other uses for them, too. Mayhaps on a pizza? Or in a cheesy baked casserole? If you’ve got more ideas, please share them. And by share, I mean make them and invite me over for dinner. I’ll bring cookies.
Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours 15 mins
- Total Time: 4 hours 30 mins
- Yield: About 40 meatballs 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Deliciously easy slow cooker Italian meatballs — perfect as an appetizer, with pasta or on a sub sandwich with melty cheese. Freezer-friendly, too!
Ingredients
- ½ cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 12 ounces bulk mild Italian sausage
- 1 ¼ cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 (24 oz) jars marinara pasta sauce (or make your own & use 6 cups)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs until combined. Add ground beef, Italian sausage, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and garlic powder; stir with a wooden spoon or mix with your fingers until well combined.
- Heat broiler to high; place an oven rack about 4 to 5 inches from the broiler. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or oil. Using your hands, shape (about 40) 1 to 2-inch meatballs from the mixture; place on prepared baking sheets.
- Broil meatballs 6 to 8 minutes, flipping halfway through, until browned. Transfer to a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Top meatballs evenly with sauce. Cover and cook on low 4 to 5 hours in the slow cooker until meatballs are cooked through to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees F.
- Serve on top of pasta, on split hoagie rolls with melty cheese for meatball sub sandwiches, alongside buttery mashed potatoes or on their own as an appetizer.
- TO FREEZE: Let meatballs and sauce cool completely. Place in a resealable plastic bag and freeze in a single layer; or, freeze in a Tupperware container. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then heat the thawed mixture (meatballs and sauce) together until heated through.
Notes
- This recipe makes a lot of meatballs, so if you don’t plan to freeze any I’d suggest halving the recipe.
Keywords: crockpot beef meatballs, freezer friendly meatballs, slow cooker beef meatballs
Meat-a-balls for the win girrrrrrrrrl! And oh wow – do these look bomb! That tomato sauce is calling my name. These must taste gorgeous paired with some crusty sourdough *-*
Have a great week xxxx
Well, you already know how we feel about balls – I mean, Alex’s balls – I mean, MEATBALLS over here.
That is to say – YUM.
I’m done. I promise.
That’s a spicy meat-a-ball! Can we play Mario Brothers on an original Nintendo and eat ball after ball? I so agree with your assessment of slow-cooked meats….that is the way all the meats should be cooked!
Oh my gosh. That has so happened to me before. But lucky for me I also have a carnivorous husband who wastes no time getting rid of extra food! I love the quick broil that skips the greasy/oil splashing pan frying!
My husband has Italian roots and his aunts make the best meatballs. I think these might live up to his high standards!
So.many.meatballs. Love.
Saw these on Facebook and just HAD to come get the recipe!! They look absolutely delicious, I’m always on the look out for new slow cooker recipes and these are sure to be winners in our house!
Looks like a great comfort food.. 🙂
Meat-a-ball! Totally on repeat during this entire post! And like having 40 meat-a-balls would be such a bad thing! We would devour them all if they looked this good! Pinned!
I could see myself just sitting in front of this pot with a fork — and that’s all
Annie — Thanks so much for stopping by! Isn’t the slow cooker in the summer the best? 🙂
Steph — No judgement if you do. 😉
Julia — Um, YES. I love this plan times a bazillion.
Stephie — This is why I love you.
Yessss. Love that they have both beef and sausage in them as all good meatballs *should*. Meatball subs are a crazy weakness of mine.. paired with a huge glass of red wine.. drooool.
Pinning for later!