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Tender, juicy Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Meatballs are simmered in the most tantalizing sweet heat sauce everyone goes crazy for! Perfect appetizer or delicious, easy meal!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe:
- Super Simple: I love using my crockpot to cook. It’s so easy to throw everything in, set it, and forget it! This recipe delivers when it comes to easy.
- Game Day: First and foremost, everyone loves these meatballs. Serve them up for the next big game with my football charcuterie board, clam dip, and some air fryer potato skins!
- Family Friendly: Surprisingly, despite their slight kick, you can easily adjust these meatballs for the kids. You can change up the spice level to make sure everyone is happy.
Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Meatball Ingredients
Frozen meatballs have been my saving grace! Don’t get me wrong, I love homemade meatballs, but when I need something quick, I grab the frozen meatballs! Scroll to the bottom of the post if you need exact measurements.
- Frozen Meatballs: Frozen beef meatballs make this recipe super simple and taste amazing!
- Frank’s Red Hot Original Sauce: The OG buffalo sauce that I can pour in and know will taste amazing. If you want to make your own, follow my homemade buffalo sauce recipe.
- Honey: Perfectly sweet and adds just the right amount of sticky for the sauce to stick to the meatballs.
- Apricot Preserves: My secret ingredient. If you’re like me, then you love the salty and sweet flavor combination. This apricot jam provides that!
- Brown Sugar: Provides a touch of sweetness to balance out the heat.
- Soy Sauce: Adds a nice salty tang that complements the brown sugar and honey.
- Cornstarch: Helps thicken the sauce so everything sticks to the slow cooker meatballs.
How to Make Honey Buffalo Meatballs
If you’re looking for something you can throw in the crockpot in the morning and it’s ready in the evening, then look no further. This crock pot meatballs recipe only takes three steps, and you can set it and forget it.
- Prep: Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray and place the meatballs on the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Whisk: In a bowl, whisk together the honey buffalo sauce ingredients: hot sauce, honey, apricot preserves, brown sugar, soy sauce, and cornstarch.
- Cook: Pour the sauce over the meatballs and stir to coat well. Cook on LOW heat for 3-4 hours, stirring periodically. When the meatballs are heated through serve them fresh or keep warm until ready to serve. Serve with toothpicks or over rice.
Stovetop Instructions and Variations
If you would rather make these honey buffalo meatballs on the stovetop, I’ve got you covered. It’s still simple and delicious.
- Stovetop Instructions: You can make this recipe on the stove. Place all the ingredients in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the meatballs and sauce, and stir occasionally until you heat the meatballs through.
- Meatballs: You can use frozen or freshly made meatballs for this recipe. I recommend cooking the homemade meatballs first in an oven or skillet until mostly cooked through. Then, add them to the crock pot, so they keep their shape.
How to Store Leftover Meatballs
These slow cooker honey buffalo meatballs are great to reheat later in the week for a quick lunch or after school snack. Here is how to properly store them.
- Refrigerator: Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Freezer: I don’t recommend freezing the meatballs. Enjoy them fresh for the best flavor.
More Meatball Recipes to Try
Here are some more spicey, saucy meatball recipes for you to check out! Let me know which ones are your favorites!
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Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 (26-ounce) bag frozen meatballs
- 1/4 cup Frank’s Red Hot Original Sauce more to taste
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup apricot preserves
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray and place the meatballs on the bottom.
- In a bowl, whisk together the hot sauce, honey, apricot preserves, brown sugar, soy sauce, and cornstarch.
- Pour the sauce over the meatballs and stir to coat well. Cook on LOW for 3-4 hours, stirring periodically.
- When the meatballs are heated through serve them fresh or keep warm until ready to serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looks delicious. Can the meatballs and sauce also be cooked in the oven or on a stovetop instead of slow-cooker?
Yes, they can be cooked in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or on the stovetop until golden brown on the outside.
What would be a good side with this?
We always like rice, mashed potatoes or noodles.
So easy to make, I used a veal, pork and beef instead of plan ground beef. They were superb
great recipe
Wanted to try your recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve made the sauce and use frozen meatballs (I buy a mix of turkey and beef meatballs) in the crockpot for two hours. It’s delicious, sweet and pretty spicy (I’ve used less than 1/4 hot sauce for crowds and people love them).
What’s a good substitute for the hot sauce if I don’t want it spicy?
I’m going to try making this in a crock-pot with frozen meatballs to cut out the extra time and labor of making the meatballs. I will report back with an update and the turn out. 🙂
Hi, Anyone can answer this
when does the saltine crackers crushed is going ? is when the while make the meatball and mix it ? or when the I make the meatball use the saltine crackers crushed? Thank You.
I assume that Franks Red Hot Sauce is REALLY hot. Does anyone know?
It’s very mild! Similar to original Tabasco sauce. It’s the base for most hot wings sauces you’d get in restaurants. It comes in a larger container than Tabasco because it’s used so commonly in recipes.
You could definitely add less and see how you feel about it. Mostly it tastes like vinegar and red pepper flakes.
Has anyone made these with ground turkey or ground chicken?
I used ground turkey, and also doubled the sauce. Mine were a bit larger, next time I’m going to make them smaller, but i LOVE this recipe. These also heat up really well, so i doubled the recipe the second time i made it.
Do you think this would be good as a meatloaf?
Want to try this but if I can’t get Franks, can Tabasco be substituted?
You could substitute Tabasco, but it’s an entirely different taste to me. Crystal hot sauce is similar to Frank’s, if you can find that. Frank’s is in every supermarket these days. You can go to ‘contact’ on their website and ask if it’s available anywhere near you. Good luck! I haven’t tried this yet, but will soon! Sounds delicious!
PS…. I also find it milder than Tabasco.
Very yummy! I doubled the sauce though…one portion didn’t seem like enough! I also used unflavored almond milk instead of cows milk.
Wow, this sauce sounds out of this world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mmmmm those look and sound delicious. Pinned 🙂
Looks delicious Alyssa! I can never get enough of sweet and spicy dishes. I hope to try this soon!!